Dark Snarks #04: The Tale of the Twisted Claw

Time for our next episode to cover. So let's get it twisted with The Tale of the Twisted Claw.

We open this episode with a ghostly figure exiting from a boy's closet and approaching him. The kid wakes up, thinking it's all a dream, but nope. The ghostly figure is still there, and... that's it. Turns out it was Eric's story this week and he doesn't give us an actual worthwhile ending, saying he'll come up with something next week. Since that's a lame way to end the night, Dave ends up being the one with proper story with a proper ending this week, so he submits for the Midnight Society The Tale of the Twisted Claw.

The story starts on the night before Halloween, which is considered "Mischief Night". Essentially a night where kids play pranks, TP houses, mess up cars, just really suck. But for Dougie Freeman and Kevin, they're messing with an old woman's house. An old woman that's considered to be a witch, so, amazing decisions being made on this night of mischief. 

So, they play everyone's favorite prank of... just spraying her in the face with shaving cream and making a run for it. The woman breaks a vase, then just laughs maniacally. So, yeah, maybe pissing off someone who definitely might be a witch wasn't one of the brighter ideas. Halloween arrives and Dougie and Kevin head out. They then decide why not trick or treat at the house of the woman they just gave a Barbasol bath to the previous night, Miss Clove? Because, you know, she'd no doubt take this all in stride.

But Miss Clove seems happy to see them. In fact, she invites them inside, which should be red flags but these kid are pretty dumb. She says that since they're the only kids who have ever come trick or treating to her house, she's offering them something special. That something special is a vulture claw, which she claims is made of wood. Oh no, I've had enough vulture claws in The Birthday Party of No Return, I fear the worst. But this isn't a good luck charm thankfully. This one is more of a monkey's paw deal where it grants three wishes to whoever has it. Hesitantly, the boys take the claw, to which Miss Clove tells them to Goosebumps Book #12.

The boys leave, Dougie wishing to stop trick or treating, with him noticing the claw moved. So, they keep trick or treating until they run into a group of teens wearing like, fleshy Phantom of the Opera masks, I don't get it? The boys manage to escape the teens in time and head home, which I guess technically means the wish came true. The next day at school, it's Kevin's turn with the claw and he intends to use it against popular kid Bostick, which is a heck of a name. Kevin wants to beat Bostick in the 600-yard race, so he makes that his first wish. The race occurs and it seems Bostick's about to win when...

Freaking THIS happens.

But that helps Kevin cross the finish line first, and despite the, you know, dog materializing out of nowhere, Kevin got his wish to defeat Bostick. A Bostick who now has a serious leg injury, but you know, asterisk. Kevin says that it must have all just been Bostick tripping, but Dougie knows it was the claw, which Kevin still believes isn't magic. All just some weird circumstances, that's all. The two argue, with Dougie worrying about getting in trouble with his parents, to which Kevin wishes they'd just lose Dougie's folks. And sure enough, Dougie gets a call saying his parents were in a car accident and in the hospital. Well, at least they're not going to turn into flies.

Kevin says to just wish them to be okay, but even Dougie knows the score here. Whatever they wish for makes bad things happen. He then wishes his grandfather was here, which is tricky, given he's dead. But sure enough, a car shows up, and before we can get something that no doubt wouldn't have been in the budget, Dougie makes one more wish to undo everything to before the night they messed with Miss Clove. The claw disappears and Dougie's parents arrive, safe and sound. It seems that everything's back to normal. Dougie and Kevin hear a doorbell. They open it to find a vase with a note inside saying "Trick or Treat". 

The Tale of the Twisted Claw is easily one the best episodes so far in the brief few we've covered for the blog. Heck, for an episode to snark on, this had a lot more little fun bits to cover with some great 90's Canadian acting to really make it fun. The plot isn't anything too special, your basic monkey's paw tale. But the story and its pacing still work well to make it a memorable use of the trope. Dougie and Kevin work well as protagonists with Kevin being more the snarky skeptic vs Dougie trying to be more rational. And while I do wish we saw what ghost gramps looked like, I'll give the episode credit for not showing us and giving that sense of frightful tension. A strong use of less is more. Again, not too much to say, but I feel this episode works well as a solid use of reused tropes and is just a fun time, even 30 years since. The Tale of the Twisted Claw gets an A-.