Hey everyone, PushingUpRoses here and welcome to a very spooky Goosebumps breakdown.
My relationship with this show has been rather tumultuous; I really like the books, but the
show was very hit in miss when it came to the episodes.
In my last Goosebumps video, I actually discussed why Say Cheese and Die wasn’t a good adaptation,
and went more in depth about what it lacked compared to the book.
Children’s horror, along with horror in general, is something very close to my heart
because it’s one of those things that gave me a sense of normalcy as I aged - the strange,
unusual, and horrific was a great comfort and something that distracted from the real
life horrors I was experiencing in adolescence.
I felt that if I could handle fictional horror, maybe I could be stronger against things like
my Dad passing, or struggling with mental illness.
That being said, I find I am a little more critical towards the genre because I feel
like it could be done with meaning and nuance, but it’s often so easily messed up.
I feel if we could write horror with intent, with a goal beyond just frightening the audience,
then a lot of stories would be way more successful.
That being said, even though Say Cheese and Die really lost that sense of desperation
and suspense, that doesn’t mean other episodes failed.
Case in point, today’s choice: The Haunted Mask, which is in my opinion, the best Goosebumps
episode in the entire series.
At least, it fits my parameters for what I enjoy in children’s horror.
This is one of the more classic stories in the book series, and you may remember the
amazing cover art by Tim Jacobus.
Oh boy, rated TV-G for FEAR.
Since this is a special two parter, the episode starts with a greeting from the author, R.L.
Stine himself.
This man is the King of sounding completely uninterested, even when he’s introducing
his own work.
Stine: “There is nothing more powerful than” pizza
Carly Beth and her friend, Sabrina, are standing in front of a novelty store discussing Halloween,
which is going to be in just a couple days.
Right away, the audience can determine that Carly Beth is a bit sensitive towards the
strange and unusual, and constantly gets bullied by her schoolmates because they know they
can spur her.
Sabrina is surprisingly unsupportive, telling her the bullies are just joking and to try
and be less vulnerable.
Sabrina doesn’t even help her when she’s getting harassed by a couple boys who ONLY
target her.
Carly Beth: “Last weekend at your house, they pretended to be prowlers… that’s
not funny!”
Sabrina: “Sorry.”
That really isn’t funny, that’s obsessive, but Sabrina doesn’t give Carly Beth much
credit because she’s also scared of the mundane.
If you’re wondering why they are out and about at this time of night, they are doing
some last minute pumpkin shopping.
Carly Beth: “All these pumpkins are so rotten” I mean, I don’t think the fog machine is
helping with that.
Also I like that this isn’t a pumpkin patch, it’s clearly someone’s backyard.
After the boys attempt to frighten Carly Beth, she tells Sabrina that she hates being afraid
of everything, and hopes she can stop one day.
Then she storms off.
Sabrina: “You didn’t get the pumpkin.”
We came out here for nothing how are we even still friends, GOSH.
I was standing here the whole time...
When Carly Beth gets home, her mom surprises her with a sculpture of her beloved daughter
and… it really is a BUST. (badumtish) Mom: “I finished it today in art class.”
Ooooo, would we call that finished…?
Carly Beth is suddenly startled because she believes the sculpture smiled at her.
This poor girl, she’s really on edge.
On top of that, her mom made her a duck costume for Halloween.
She’s tired of cutesy things and wants a costume that will frighten people.
CB: “I wanna be scary this time.”
Like you.
Her brother tries to scare her by barging out of her room wearing the ensemble, and
in terms of duck costumes, this one ranks pretty low.
Though in this costume’s defense, there’s only one amazing duck costume, and that is
when it’s being worn by Elton John.
The rest are sub par at best.
The next day we get a glimpse at how severe the bullying is; they are beyond mean jokes,
to the point of traumatizing poor Carly Beth; it’s no wonder she lives in fear.
The two bullies put a worm into her sandwich when she isn’t looking, and I had a visceral
reaction to this.
Oversalting food is bad enough, but a slimy, living worm in someone’s sandwich gave me
the squicks.
Especially as someone like me who has texture problems with food.
Fun fact!
The actress playing Carly Beth insisted they keep the worm in the sandwich as she bit into
it, which is admirable but unfortunately, the clip doesn’t really show that.
Earlier, Carly Beth explained that the boys once threw a dead octopus at her, so these
are not just mean jokes, it’s outright disgusting.
As she spits out the food, the rest of her class points and laughs at her, and she runs
home.
She takes a look at the duck costume and starts ripping it apart.
That’s right girl, get it all out.
(Donald Duck Quacking) One might say she’s going quackers.
(badumtish)
Her anger leads her back to the novelty store, which she is suddenly not afraid of.
This is definitely the turning point in the episode; her anger has been channeled into
wanting revenge, and I guess it’s hard to be afraid when you have vengeance on the mind.
“Ooo, postcards!”
The store owner says they aren’t open, but he’s interrupted by a phone call and tells
her she has five minutes to look around.
Not finding anything particularly inspiring, she sneaks into the back room.
Ooo, blue means chemicals!
She comes across the scary section of the store.
These are certainly more terrifying than anything you’d see in a Halloween store, but in general
I do think latex masks have a...vibe, to them.
They’re essentially decapitated heads, and that on its own can be a little perturbing.
These look like Cenobytes.
I have such SIGHTS to show you.
The store owner comes in and scolds Carly Beth for snooping around.
He says these masks are not for sale because they are too frightening.
I mean, some of them are but this one just looks like it needs a good poop session.
She offers him all the money in her wallet for the green goblin mask, but he refuses.
So she snags it and splits.
MAKE IT RAIN!
She reflects on what she did for a second.
Maybe I’M the monster… nah.
She puts the mask on and it seems to clamp to her face, and it also changes her voice
slightly.
To finish the costume she takes the plaster head, puts it on a stick, then uses a red
scarf for blood.
It’s actually a brilliant idea, really effective and genuinely scary for a young kids costume,
and the symbolism here is better than most Goosebumps fare.
Her mom almost catches her before she leaves, which would not be good because she’s supposed
to be wearing the duck costume, but she’s interrupted by the phone.
SO many interrupting phone calls in this one.
“Is Chicago going well?”
Actually no, it’s not.
Carly Beth immediately goes off the rails, under the influence of the mask, and it’s
pretty hard hitting.
She even goes out of her way to scare Sabrina, which I have less sympathy for since Sabrina
never really stood up for her and dismissed the abuse she was getting as mean jokes.
Still, Carly Beth IS behaving stranger than usual, so Sarbrina’s concern is definitely
merited.
Let the trick or treating commence!
(A million doorbell rings)
Oh god, she rings the doorbell like Paul, the guy who delivers my coffee in the morning.
ONE ring is enough, Paul, JUST ONE.
After she randomly scares some little kids for no other reason than to be malicious,
she threatens their mom, grabs a handful of candy, then runs.
Demon CB: “You’ll get what’s coming to you too!”
Hahahaha!
I got your Kit Kats!!
Sabrina asks if they can just go home after that, but Carly Beth refuses, claiming Halloween
is HER night.
CB: “The one night I don’t have to be pitiful, scareable Carly Beth.”
Now I can be a pitiful, terrifying BULLY.”
The bullies, Chuck and Steve, decide to spend their free time at the Cemetery.
Steve: ...Really?
Chuck: “Come on, it’s Halloween.”
Let’s do somethin’ stupid!
Oh my god, I had these decorations when I was young.
I love them so much.
Anyway, Carly finds her targets loafing around the gravestones, trying to frighten each other.
Ask me about Grim Fandango.
At this point, she is fully consumed by the mask, scaring the pancakes out of her now
former bullies.
Chuck: “How are you making that weird voice?”
See I had a bit of phlegm built up…
This part is actually really powerful, as she starts venting her frustrations and anger
at Chuck and Steve, but it goes a little awry as she can’t really control her disturbing
behavior.
She demands they apologize to the plaster head.
Carly Beth: “APOLOGIZE!
Or I promise you you’ll wish you had never met her.”
Bullies: “We’re sorry Carly Beth.”
The plaster head then starts talking, pleading for help, and it’s a MOOD.
Although I must say, this goofy parrot figurine is really dampening the intensity for me.
The scene ends with Carly Beth burying the bust in the graveyard.
With her old self dead, she heads home with Sabrina.
She tries to take off the mask, but it’s too painful, as it’s fused to her skin.
Sabrina then tries, and exclaims that there are no seams in the mask; Carly Beth starts
to freak out, and runs out of the house.
Her panic is actually palpable.
Stranger: “What are you supposed to be?”
Carly Beth: “I’m supposed to be me but I’m NOT!!!”
Yeeeeeah, maybe a random person on the street isn’t the right person to vent to.
She runs to the novelty store and asks the owner why she can’t remove the mask.
Owner: “Because it is NOT A MASK.
It is a REAL FACE.”
...Beg your pardon?
Say what now?
He explains that these masks were all once beautiful people, but they changed over time.
That is a lot of lip curls, were they all Billy Idol in a past life?
He calls them the unloved ones, because no one can love them now.
Oh, I see, they weren’t Billy Idol, they were Vanilla Ice.
He says the symbol of love might help to remove the mask.
Why?
I dun know Then, suddenly, the masks wake up and start chasing her.
WHEEEEEE.
“Please Carly Beth, Join us…”
We’re starting a boy band and we need someone to play the bad boy…”
Something clicks, and she runs to the graveyard to digs up the plaster mask her mom made her.
Yep, that thing is scary all right, look at how it wards off the other masks!
She is now liberated from the mask’s hold, because she realized the importance of love;
love from her mom, and love for herself.
Carly Beth’s brother leaves us with one of those classic ambiguous Goosebumps endings
by putting on the mask.
Wow, what a turd.
Right, let’s discuss.
I think this episode was really, really good.
It’s very close to the book it was based on, I was surprised to see just how much was
included.
The most noticeable thing missing in terms of events is a part where Steve pretends his
tarantula escapes during a science fair, igniting Carly Beth’s fear of spiders, but other
than that it was extremely faithful.
The performances are really good, but Kathryn Long, who played Carly Beth, REALLY shined.
Her desperation to stop being fearful of everything and everyone was believable to me.
Michael G. Brown played The Haunted Mask, and I also thought it was good, even if he
was just doing some of the movements or facial expressions.
The plot is a little more sinister than a lot of children’s horror, and when I say
that I don’t necessarily mean scarier or more gruesome; it’s just a lot more intense.
The bullying is serious, Carly Beth is suffering from trauma and a lack of self love and appreciation
for those who love her back, the symbolism of her head on a pike with this visual of
blood spilling from the neck; it’s kind of messed up, and that sort of pain is very
relatable for both adolescents and adults.
She is completely consumed by anguish, and hits a turning point when she feels brave
enough to go into the shop, but that bravery is channeled into the wrong thing, and she
has to learn a tougher lesson.
I think the only thing that really isn’t clear are the intentions of the masks - evidently
it’s tied into the owner and his self loathing, but it’s vague.
I suppose it can afford to be a little more nebulous for children, but I think I would
have preferred a clearer explanation.
I hesitate to say the special effects were great, but they were better than other episodes
I suppose.
It got a little dodgy right at the end when the masks start flying around.
The way the character’s mood changes over the two parts is really well paced, nothing
felt rushed, nor did it feel slow, and it’s also the perfect thing to watch on Halloween
since the story does take place on that day.
I always thought this episode stood out in the Goosebumps series because there just aren’t
many that feel quality.
It was actually jarring to go from Say Cheese and Die to this, because the storytelling
and acting were way beyond that, so I can say even as an adult in her 30s, This episode
is still scary 25 years after it was released, and it’s also a good introduction for all
things horror for those lil ghouls in your life.
If there is an episode of Goosebumps you are just dying to hear me discuss, please do leave
a suggestion in the comments.
Until then, Stay spooky, AND - “I hope you have a scary day…”
Hey everyone, thanks for watching my video on Goosebumps, I hope you enjoyed it.
If you want to see more content from me, I have some recommendations, but first I just
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Consider donating if you can, but if you can’t, then no worries.
Likes, shares, and comments help me to reach more people.
If you wanna see more videos by me, then try these!
On the right is my first episode breakdown of a Goosebumps episode called an Old Story,
which involves prunes and aging of all things, and on the left we have a video about the
X-Files and it’s portrayal of Freakshows.
My favorite!
As always, I will see you in the next one!