The Stinal Countdown: Fear Street: The Overnight

It's time for another trip into Fear Street. Our first foray definitely made me interested in coming back, so here we are once again. Still early into the franchise with the third release. What's in store on this late night excursion? Let's see with The Overnight.

I like this cover. It isn't the most intense cover, feeling more like a romance novel cover than straight up horror, but it is still effective. We have the book's main cast of the "Outdoors Club" bathed in the blues and oranges of a night campfire. Add that to the hazy blue sky and dark, dead looking trees and you have something memorable. Also, really digging the girl on the left's hair. If I needed reminding that this came out in 1989, that definitely exemplifies it.

Our protagonist, Della O'Connor, has had a rough couple weeks. Her relationship wit her boyfriend Gary went south and it seems that Gary's on the rebound with another girl named Suki Thomas, the punk looking girl from the cover. Della, Gary and Suki, along with Maia Franklin and Pete Goodwin are part of the school's outdoors club and will be spending an overnight in the woods on the wonderfully named Fear Island with their club supervisor Mr. Abner. There's also one other member of the group that the rest aren't too fond of, Ricky Schorr. He's more of an obnoxious joker that the others find to be annoying, but still don't mind his company. Case in point when Ricky brings in poison ivy and makes Gary touch it, only for Gary to snap and take him to the ground, rubbing the leaves in Ricky's face. But Mr. Abner arrives and reveals that it's actually just grape ivy, to which Ricky says "April Fools" to the others. Classic Ricky.

Unfortunately, Mr. Abner tells them that due to an emergency, he won't be able to take them to their overnight. He tells them that it'll be postponed, then takes his leave. The kids are disappointed, but mostly agree to this plan. However Suki decides that maybe they can still have the overnight without Mr. Abner. They'll tell their parents that the overnight is going as usual, then sneak to their location for the evening. Maia panics, since she fears her parents will kill her if she gets caught, but Della seems keen for the idea, if at least it gives her a chance to apologize to Gary. Nothing bad will happen. Well, if that's the case, this book would be a lot shorter than it is. 

Della packs as we learn some of the stories surrounding Fear Island. Stories of mutated monsters, poisonous snakes, stories of it being haunted by the ghosts of Native Americans as it was a burial ground. But, of course, Della doesn't believe in any of that bunk. Her mom wants Della to call her, but this being 1989, it's not as easy as it would be now. Della and Pete drive to the meeting point with the others. Della starts to have some feelings for Pete, but is still in Gary mode. Though her attempts to talk to him are interrupted by Suki, so nothing fixed on that end. The six hop in canoes and head out to Fear Island. 

They arrive to the island and banter a bit, particularly dealing with Ricky still being obnoxious. Della later tries to apologize again, but sees Suki and Gary kissing, since, I mean, it's been established they're at least a couple, right? Like, the only one who didn't clue that in was Della? And then Ricky pulls out some guns. Okay, that got dark fast. No, not actual firearms, but paintball guns referred to as ZAP guns. The game becomes girls against boys, despite Della not being fond of Suki and, you know, not taking the hint. Della gets lost in the woods, but runs into another young man with Hollywood good looks as Stine puts it. At first things seem fine until he starts to grab at her hair and drags her to a ravine. Well that escalated. As he continues to drag her, mumbling something about an old man, she sees he has a necklace with three skulls on it. 

Della then grabs her ZAP gun and shoots it at him. She tries to run for it, but he catches her, forcing the gun into her back and dragging her back to the ravine. In one last hope, she shoves him. Suddenly, he loses his footing and falls into the ravine. Della sees his body now lifeless and tries to get him to wake up, but no luck. Dude's dead. On one hand, this guy who tried to hurt her is dead, but on the other hand, if this got out that she may have murdered a man, her life would be ruined because let's be honest, even thirty years from this book, the victim gets punished far easier than the abuser. But her best strategy is to pretend it was an accident, that way she'd have a clean alibi, I guess? She tries to bury the body in leaves, only to get caught by Maia and Ricky. 

The group talk about the situation while Della is clearly still freaked about by the incident. They double check the body, it's still dead. So, they decide that the only thing they can do is to bury the body in leaves, then keep this whole incident to themselves. They plan to leave the island, but given this could ruin their alibi, they decide to stay at camp. I mean, you could leave the island, then camp it out somewhere else, then return the next day, able to at least maintain that all important alibi. But then again, what kind of horror story would that be? That night, before sleeping, Gary suggests they take a ceremonial oath to take this secret to their graves. That night, they hear rustling outside of their tents. The next day, when they head to their canoes, the canoes have disappeared. They're trapped! No, wait. Ricky just moved them. So, this wasn't just a thing he implemented in Goosebumps then? Great.

The six of them return home, still messed up by what transpired on the overnight. Della gets some sleep and starts to feel better, despite, you know, everything. She heads over to Maia's to calm her down as she's still paranoid about being caught. After that incident, Della returns home, only to find an envelope with a strange silver skull like the ones on the young man's necklace, and a note that says "I SAW WHAT YOU DID". I swear, if this ends up with a guy in a raincoat and a hook...

Most of the teens regroup at Della's later on. No sign of Pete. Not only did Della get a skull, but so did Gary. They realize that whoever was outside their tents found their wallets and got their addresses, hence why the skulls were sent. Gary suggests going to the cops, but Maia panics, again not wanting to get in trouble. As they try to decide what to do, especially if this guy intends to blackmail them, they hear a knock at the door, only for nobody to be outside. As they argue, Gary grabs a camera and takes a picture the second he hears another knock. This time, it turns out it was Pete, who brought with him a newspaper. The paper mentions that two thieves were at large following a murder and a robbery. They had murdered a gardener, who was also a millionaire. However, when they couldn't find the money, the burglars made a run for it. They then notice the faces in the picture. One of them is the man they killed.

Della then remembers that the attacker had mentioned something about an old man, it must have been the gardener they killed. They believe that the partner saw the other partner's death at the hands of Della and must be trying to blackmail them somehow. After they adjourn, Pete asks Della to go out with him to the old mill which is now, strangely, a teen nightclub. Okay then. The date goes well until they drive home. Another car is behind them, following their trail, and whenever Pete speeds up, the car speeds up in tow. Pete manages to spin the car out of the way, causing the other car to crash. Instead of leaving another crime scene, they decide to check the other car, to see who is after them. But when they look inside, there's nobody there. 

The next day, Mr. Abner returns and apologizes that he had other things to do that screwed up plans, but he's scheduled them for their overnight and they can all go. The teens aren't as enthusiastic, but also realize they can't worm their way out of this one either. After Mr. Abner leaves, Ricky realizes that one of his ZAP guns is missing. Della then realizes "Oh crap, it's still in the ravine with the body". This makes Ricky panic since this whole ZAP thing is what he's into, so it might mean that he'll be blamed for the murder and if he goes down, he's taking them with him. Della decides that they now have no choice in the matter. To ensure they can get the gun back, they have to go back to Fear Island on another overnight.

They all return to Fear Island and begin their overnight. Mr. Abner also brought along a video camera to capture all of the experience, which means if he tapes the crime scene, this will be worse for the teens. While Maia distracts Mr. Abner, the others go for the gun. They hear Maia scream and return to camp where she's holding an unconscious Mr. Abner who's bleeding profusely. Someone snuck up on them and hit him over the head with a blunt object, then disappeared. Gary, Suki and Ricky head back to town to get help, while Della, Pete and Maia stay with Mr. Abner. Della also chooses this as the right time to get the gun on her own. She also packed a whistle with her just in case. 

Della makes it to the ravine, but someone is following her. She runs up to the ravine and trips, falling down below. Thankfully, the leaf pile broke her fall. Less thankfully, she's now missing her flashlight and that pile of leaves is sans corpse. She gets her flashlight, but thinks she sees the corpse still alive. She smashes the flashlight over his head, then realizes it wasn't the same man. It must have been the partner. Panicked and not even caring about the gun, she runs back to camp. She thinks she sees Pete and blows her whistle, but nope, this time it's really the corpse, or not so much of one. Turns out he's got such a faint pulse that he's a bit of a medical anomaly. Well that's frighteningly convenient.

So, yeah. It was both him and his partner that were messing with her. They got nothing from the old man they killed, then they headed to the island. After she nearly killed him, he and his partner decided to screw with Della and her friends. To blackmail their rich parents for everything they could get. Lest, of course, they spin this into a murder story and get the kids arrested. The car chase was also his partner. Then he gets mad that she never even bothered to check if he was still breathing. She manages to get away, but he pulls out the Zap gun and hits her with paint. Della tries to run again, but he tackles her. 

He drags her again, not telling her what he plans to do, when bright lights blind him. This gives Della enough time to grab the ZAP gun and hit him in the eyes with several shots of paint, blinding him. Pete and Della reunite and return to the campsite, but the man follows them. Suddenly, three policemen arrive and capture the man and his partner. They tell Della and Pete that there's a reward in it for them, but they say the best reward is that this is all over. And the story ends with Pete and Della now a couple. He shows up with a tent and jokes about going camping, but it's just for his brother's scout troop. Har har.

The Overnight is okay. Not super incredible, but still works for the story Stine is trying to present. It's also far from an original story as the tale of people trying to cover up a murder only for someone else trying to take revenge isn't the freshest idea. Hell, the most famous take on this would come eight years later with the movie I Know What You Did Last Summer. And it doesn't feel like Stine really does much to cover new ground on the concept. But for what is a basic premise, he still does a decent enough job with it. There's enough suspense in the story to keep it moving along, especially once we run into the criminal. While thankfully his attack on Della doesn't delve into the worst case scenario, it still feels harrowing enough. And it leaves enough of that gray area when it comes to the supposed killing. I mean, even before they knew it was a criminal, Della seemed to be at least in the right in terms of self defense, even if it did lead to a killing.

As for the characters, they feel pretty stock. You have your basic set of horror teens, right down to the joker and the punk girl. While not the most close-knit, they do at least feel like friends in some form or fashion. Maybe not so much Suki and Ricky, but otherwise. And the mystery works fine enough. Even to the point I initially thought that maybe Mr. Abner was the partner, and he was bringing them back to the island to finish them off. The twist that it was the work of two stalkers, one being the not-so-dead dead man, still works for a strong enough climax. I do kind of wish we built on the growing paranoid a bit more, even if we only get slight glimpses on everyone being unable to trust one another. 

In the end, there isn't that much to say about this one. It's pretty tight-knit for a murder mystery and not super creative, but I still feel like it flows well and adds for enough to keep you invested until the finish. It's as inoffensive a teen horror book as you could ask for. The Overnight gets a B.