It's time to once again drive ourselves into another Series 2000 book. Getting pretty close to every book covered in the series, but before we can shift gears from it, we have to see how Stine gets this one out of park. So let's rev up for The Haunted Car.
COVER STORY
STORY
Mitchell Moinian is a big fan of cars. Massive. Obsessive. He makes model cars, he has racing posters, and he dreams of one day driving his own. Since moving to his new home with his parents and seven year old brother Todd, he's had to deal with his little brother constantly thinking the house is haunted. Case in point when he drags Todd into his room to find a ghost which is just a laundry bag. Also, Todd is a fan of the X-Files, wearing t-shirts and even parroting "The truth is out there". I don't think that was a show really geared towards seven year olds, but this is Goosebumps and parents are usually bad to begin with.
They hear a crash downstairs. Still not Todd's funky phantom, but their dad's poorly built bookshelf falling to the floor. Mr. Moinian takes the kids to the hardware store, but as they drive, suddenly the brakes stop working, causing the car to skid off the road and crash into a tree. The three aren't badly hurt, but the car is totaled. But this make Mitchell happy as it means they can get a new car. The next day, Mitchell and Mr. Moinian head to the house of a man named Mr. Douglas who is offering them his car. A car that's in a garage covered in padlocks, which, of course, sets off zero alarm bells so far.
Mr. Douglas opens the garage and the car looks amazing. Almost like new. Mitchell is ecstatic, but not so concerned when Mr. Douglas nervously says that he just wants to get rid of it with no underlying reasons. Especially when he seems hesitant to even go in the car for a test drive. But Mitchell and Mr. Moinian give it a test drive and it runs great, almost as it it's driving itself. Mr. Douglas offers the car for five grand, then tells them to immediately leave. Despite this making it sound like the car is either haunted or stolen, the Moinians end up purchasing the car to Mitchell's delight.
That night, Mitchell sneaks out to look at the car, and hears a strange voice telling him to enter. He enters the car and plays around until he's suddenly locked inside. He gets saved by a strange looking blonde girl named Marissa Meddin. Whole lotta M names in this book. She saves Mitchell, then tells him that she's new to the neighborhood. Todd shows up and Marissa disappears. The siblings enter the house, just as they see their dad being electrocuted while trying to fix a wire. And if that wasn't shocking enough, Mitchell dreams about being jolted by the car before having another dream where he's driving the car, only to be chased by Marissa who crashes into him.
The next day, Mitchell sees that the car is gone, but it's just because Mr. Moinian had to use it for errands. Mitchell is so fixated that he ends up drawing cars in his history notes without even noticing. That night the family finally get to take a drive in the new car. It's like Say Cheese and Die! only without a pictured of a wrecked Taurus or the riveting chapter stinger where the questions of "is there any more potatoes" is asked. The night gets rainy and they have to park due to not finding the wiper controls. Mitchell looks around, but finds a conveniently placed paper saying "I'M EVIL". They find the wiper controls and head home, with Mitchell's concerns raising a bit, but not high enough yet.
The next day, Mitchell, along with his friends Alan and Steve, along with Todd, check out the car. They go inside and yet again the doors lock, only now the temperature inside is freezing and the sound of a girl's laughter. The kids panic, only to once again be saved by Marissa. Steve and Alan run off, thinking Mitchell pranked them with the AC, while Todd runs inside to get warm. That night, Todd tells Mitchell that he thinks the car is haunted, but Mitchell is still skeptical about their being ghosts. The car's just in need of repairs, nothing more nothing less.
After Todd leaves however, Mitchell sees what he thinks to be a glowing light coming from the car. He snatches the keys and goes to check, but no glow. However, the voice returns and invites him back in. And despite two occasions on being locked in and the whole "I'M EVIL" paper, not to mention the fact he's hearing voices, he still goes inside. He then puts the keys in the car and hears the car saying how evil it is, before it starts driving on its own. The voice laughs, asking Mitchell if he's enjoying the ride, but Mitchell is in a panic. The car continues to drive erratically as it makes its way to the train tracks, telling Mitchell that this will be his last ride. But the car stops as it was just scaring him for now.
Mitchell returns home in the car, and his parents are waiting, furious that he took the car for a ride. He tries to plead his case, but they don't believe him because... well Goosebumps parents, but given Mitchell's obsession with the car, I can kind of see why they'd think he just took it for a joy ride despite not even being legal age. Also Marissa shows up for a second and Mitchell hasn't clued in yet on any of this. But he does get in trouble for it. That night, the now grounded Mitchell heads to Todd's room. Todd tells him that he thinks he knows who the ghost is. It's Marissa. Given that she's only ever shown up once the car does something haunted, it seems like the perfect case. But despite EVERYTHING SO FAR, Mitchell doubts it's her.
Mitchell and Todd sneak to where Marissa says she moved to, but see nothing. Not a trace of anything that would make one assume anyone moved in. So Todd suggests that she must really live in the car. The next day, Mitchell heads to Mr. Douglas' house to get any answers, but he shoos him away, still clearly afraid of the car. As Mitchell leaves, he peers into Mr. Douglas' house and sees a framed photo of a girl with the words "in loving memory" written in a sign below. The girl in the picture is Marissa. Todd was right. She is the ghost haunting the car. He tries to tell the parents, but... yeah, previously established. Marissa then calls Mitchell and tells him that now that he knows, what is he going to do about it?
Mitchell sees his parents leaving to visit his Cousin Ella, but not in the car for no reason other than plot convenience and we're in the last twenty pages. That means he can be alone to find out how to stop Marissa. He's pulled into the car and sees a girl inside. A girl with purple, decayed flesh, no teeth, a broken nose and sunken eyes. The body then decays further, turning into a fog that enters the car. She tells Mitchell that she died in this car and now it's his turn. The car once again drives erratically. The ghost tells him that she was fourteen when she took the car for a ride. The car crashed and she died instantly. But her spirit remained in the car, waiting for someone to keep her company. The car continues to speed as police cars follow.
The ghost then takes Mitchell home, since that's where he'd rather die. She speeds up and heads back to the house, ready to crash right through it. However, he sees something else. The house is on fire. Likely from the busted wiring that electrocuted Mr. Moinian before. Mitchell then realizes that Marissa didn't end his life, she accidentally saved it. She screams in agony and because she saved a life, she now has to die for real. The ghost then disappears and Mitchell escapes the car as his family are relieved to see him alive.
TWIST ENDING
Marissa shows up again and Mitchell snaps at her, calling her the ghost who haunts the car, but she assures him, she's alive. She takes him aside and tells him that she wasn't the one who died, it was her twin sister Becka. She took the car out the year before and crashed it, killing herself. Their dad, Mr. Douglas, was so heartbroken, he was trying to sell the car to get rid of the grief. Marissa had known about Becka possessing the car and wanted to warn him, but she feared he wouldn't believe her. Mitchell then decides that after this whole ordeal, he's done with cars as a hobby. The next day, Mr. Moinian tries to start the car, but it won't. No battery inside. The book ends with Mitchell thinking his parents will believe him now.
CONCLUSION
This book is okay. Not the most amazing book, but one that still works just fine for one of Stine's ghost stories. It flows well, has very little filler and for a horror story, does provide a good mystery, even giving us enough of an answer behind why the car was haunted. Granted, the book makes it a bit too obvious that it's not Marissa as the ghost, but she still works for a red herring. Mitchell's okay for a protagonist, but despite his car obsession, feels a bit too bland. I do like that we get a sibling relationship that's actually good for once. No bratty sibling in Todd and even with Mitchell's skepticism, he's not too mean to him either. Feels refreshing when that happens. As for the twist, I think it works, right down to the sillier twist on the end page.
The book nails some solid visuals, particularly Becka's ghoulish form. She makes for a good antagonist, one that will do evil things to ensure she gets someone to haunt the car with her forever. And the victory coming from a good deed is a decent way to end this, almost harkening to Hannah from The Ghost Next Door and how she had to save Danny from a fiery death to ascend with her family. It feels so weird that of all the monsters and ghouls and cursed objects, Stine seems to almost always nail ghost stories better than anything. And while this book isn't his greatest, it still holds up well enough. It's a book that could use a tune-up, but is far from a lemon. The Haunted Car gets a B+.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.