NNtG: Deadtime Stories #02: Invasion of the Appleheads

It's time once again for another series to cover in the land of non-GB kids horror. And this time it's an interesting one. Deadtime Stories. Written by sisters Annette and Gina Cascone under the pseudonym A.G. Cascone, Deadtime Stories was a short-lived series of horror books for kids that lasted from 1996 to 1997, with 17 books total. Though similar to several other GB-likes, Bone Chillers and Shadow Zone for example, there was a short-lived series in 2012 for Nickelodeon and TVOntario in Canada. And the books got a second run around that time as well. So, off the bat, enough history to make one interested. But does that scream good book ahead? 

As usual, the fates don't start me at the beginning, but the second book. And it's apple-themed. Last time we had an apple-themed book, it was Shivers with The Awful Apple Orchard, which went from silly but fine apple-themed scares to straight up gore-fest ending. So, I do have my concerns going in. But we'll see how that fares when we talk about Invasion of the Appleheads.

COVER STORY

I'll talk about the original covers like I usually do (though the rerelease is a decent enough cover in its own right). I'll start with the border concept here. I love the title concept. The font is solid and the little touch of the creeped out Skeleton in bed works well enough in conveying that these are scary stories, but still silly and child friendly enough that you don't have to worry about the ensuing therapy bills for letting your kids read them.

As for the art itself, Broeck Steadman is back once again and he provides a genuinely freaky image with the parents of our protagonists having their heads turned into dried up apple heads. I do like the designs and just how creepy they look, with mom over there looking like she's popping out of the picture. I also like the touch of the pictures in the back to show the contrast. Nice touch. Steadman did many of the covers while others were done by, you guessed it, Tim Jacobus. Because part of this look through the other stuff has weirdly been a trip down the Jacobus rabbit hole. For the alien and memorable feel to it, this is great stuff. 

STORY

Robin Carter and her brother Andy aren't in a good mood. It's Halloween and instead of getting their costumes ready and checking out the Halloween parade, they're crammed in a car with their parents who are more interested in sightseeing. See, the Carters used to live in the big city, but the parents decided that maybe it would better to move to the small town of Appleton. A very Nilbog feel to the town naming here. It was founded in the 1600s and weirdly still looks like it hasn't changed since. The parents are super excited to talk about Appleton trivia much to the suffering of their kids. Willful ignorance in the first few pages. Not even most Goosebumps books get the parents that insufferable this quick.

But the main place the Carter parents are interested in is the Appleton Orchard, because of course there's an orchard in a place called Appleton. Mrs. Carter mentions that the orchard was once owned by a woman accused of being a witch that created a brew that turned kids into zombies. So they burned her. I mean, it is the 1600s, they'd have probably burned her even if she didn't own an orchard with supposed zombie brew. Despite burning the orchard, the witch's house still stands, seemingly undamaged by the fire. The family arrive and find the place is packed right now with tons of people and various apple-themed activities. But Robin feels unsettled. The trees still have apples on them and the place seems darker than it should be for this time of day. But, still super early in the book, so she's just ignored for now.

Suddenly, the family spot some strange green creature with an axe in its chest, which the parents think must just be someone really in the Halloween spirit. Then another creature, looking like a giant scarecrow with a basketball sized head leaps at the car and starts to pound at the windshield like Goldberg in 2000. At least this one doesn't cut an artery. Suddenly, an old woman emerges looking like a witch. She reprimands the scarecrow creature, which she calls Owen, and stops the carnage, which gets the parents back into thinking this is all an act. The witch apologizes then offers the family some peanut brittle.

The woman introduces herself as Yaga and tells the Carters that this is coincidentally the grand opening of the orchard, hence why it's so busy. Another witch, Drusila, offers the family some cider and apple-related snacks, while Owen tries to tell them "OOOOO-BAAAACK", but talks as if his tongue was cut off. They take a hayride in which Robin eats a candy apple, only for a worm to be inside. She mentions it to her parents, but they're indifferent. She then sees a friend of hers from school named Mark, but when she tries to get his attention, he walks off as if he's a zombie. Again she tells her parents, but they're indifferent. The ride goes deep into a strange fog and suddenly Robin and Andy's parents seem to disappear. The kids also end up being grabbed by something, but manage to get free. However, their parents are certainly gone this time. Must have vanished into indifferent air.

Robin and Andy try to tell Owen, but the scarecrow attacks them. They make it to the parking lot and notice all of the cars are gone, including theirs. As they process this, ghouls start exiting the nearby barn and try to capture them. They notice that the ghouls have apple tattoos on their hands with a number. So the zombies are definitely real. They watch as the zombies push the Carters' car into a lake. We then shift to Yaga and Drusila who are indeed looking to make the Carter kids zombies, and have put their parents somewhere safe. She also has dogs ready to attack and locks the gates of the orchard shut to keep them from escaping. So this escalated fast.

The kids manage to make it into the gift shop, but end up stuck inside. Inside they find a bunch of strange dolls with shriveled up apple heads. And a pair of them they soon recognize. It's their parents. Now tiny but still indifferent apple figures. They nab their parents and manage to escape the orchard. Which I guess is good at the moment... despite the fact that again their parents are now shrunken apple head figurines. They also notice a bunch of kids they know going into the orchard as if in a zombie trance. But Robin and Andy head home instead. They notice the house is trashed, but chalk it up to a Halloween prank. After almost breaking their parents by putting them on a counter where Mr. Carter falls, they put the parents in a fruit bowl while they call the cops on the orchard. And the cops don't believe them because... well, I think you can figure out why.

So, after failing the first time with the cops, Robin decides to call them again. But not out of redundancy, that maybe if they call again, the cops will come over and have to talk with their parents. Their tiny... inanimate... apple headed parents. Okay maybe not as inspired an idea as it sounds. A cop car arrives, but when Robin looks inside, she finds the cops are now appleheads too. The kids soon find some apple cider in the car and clue in to what's going on. The cops got apple cider from Yaga and Drusila. The same cider from the orchard. So Yaga has seemingly spiked all of the apple stuff in Appleton to contain the shrinking agent. Robin suggests going to the library the next day so they can learn about Yaga and what might be able to stop her and reverse the spell.

The next day is officially Halloween. Robin calls the school to try and excuse their not being there, but nobody answers. Maybe Yaga's gotten to the school already. Sure enough, it seems like everyone's gone applehead. They arrive to the library and try to find a book, only for Owen to show up and attack them again. He smashes a filing cabinet and leaves. Turns out that this was a blessing in disguise as it contains an old book from 1896. It's from a girl named Martha Grant who is the only one not turned into a zombie or an applehead by Yaga. On midnight that Halloween, Yaga and the orchard disappeared in flames, but everyone else disappeared, including Martha's parents and her brother (Oh gee, wonder who that could be?). So now the kids realize they have until midnight Halloween to stop this or else Appleton will be a ghost town again. 

They wonder what Yaga's deal is, then get the confirmation we pretty much got earlier. Yaga was burned alive in the 1600s, but put a curse on the town. Every 100 years she'd return and enact that curse. Turning the kids into zombies and the parents into applehead dolls. The kids have no clue how to stop this, but also wonder what Owen's deal is. He helped them get this info, but still caused their parents to drink the sider. You know, despite him pretty much screaming Go Back and being reprimanded by Yaga. But we still have a bit to go until that realization. The kids head out and see a fireman turned into an applehead being nibbled by a squirrel. They manage to save him in time, but yeah. If he recovers, he's probably going to wonder where the giant hole in his head came from.

They go to the cops, despite, you know, everything so far, but it's empty. Seems like Yaga's curse has taken the whole town at this point except for Andy and Robin. Suddenly the zombies arrive and take the applehead dolls of the officers. When the kids get home, their parents haven't been taken again. They check the diary and see that Martha wrote that Yaga can be defeated by turning her magic against her. Which must mean that they have to hit her with the poison cider. So they get what they can find and fill it up in spray bottles while heading back to the orchard for this final confrontation, parents in tow.

Robin and Andy pretend to be zombies, which means they have to put their parents in a giant basket with the other appleheads. They manage to run off, but now have to get this all done as soon as possible. They manage to sneak over to Yaga's pile of peanut brittle and squirt some cider into it. This almost works until the kids end up caught by Yaga and Drusila. As they try to force the kids into eating apples, Owen grabs Yaga and tells the kids to throw the cider at her. Robin does just as the witch goes up in flames. It seems like time was up, but they then see that the witch is now an applehead herself.

 Owen can now speak perfect sentences and tells them that he was Martha's brother, cursed by the witch years ago. Martha didn't eat apples, so he ate them both. Frustrated, Yaga turned him into a scarecrow monster with no tongue and the memories of his past. To be her slave forever on account of bungling her plans. The parents are also back to normal, but with no memory of what went on, so they're back to being super indifferent about everything.

TWIST ENDING

But the Carter parents aren't done sightseeing as they take the kids to the Appleton Lagoon. As the parents admire an oak tree, a giant sea serpent rises from the lagoon. Robin tries to warn her parents, but the parents aren't paying attention to them again. You know, I liked them more as applehead dolls.

CONCLUSION

Our first Deadtime Stories leaves us with a decent enough book. Nothing super incredible, but for a Goosebumps-like, it flows well enough. A lot of that having to do with keeping the focus on the story at all times, not stalling or spinning its wheels, and not having stuff like fake-out stingers and the like. The focus is always on the story. And it's a decent story. This creepy Halloween tale about an evil witch who has cursed a town and wipes it out every 100 years. Though, if the town keeps being wiped out, how is it still around? Does it just get settled again only for Yaga to come back and do the spell again? I guess with the 100 year gap it doesn't seem as confusing. Though you'd have to wonder what someone by the neighboring town probably thought about Appleton just up and becoming a ghost town. 

Robin and Andy are fine enough protagonists, but nothing too defining about either of them. Basic characters, but still solid enough that following their saga doesn't seem as much of a slog otherwise. The parents are one-note. Indifferent to their kids concerns and just generally ignorant to their surroundings. Not bad on a Goosebumps parents level, but still not amazing either. Yaga's an interesting villain at least as while she got burned alive in the 1600s, at least in her case she deserved it for actually being evil. No shades of gray with her curse, she was just always rotten. Owen is also interesting as a red herring villain, but it becomes obvious he's one of the good guys pretty quick and the brother to Martha reveal becomes super obvious when that's revealed.

So, overall, this book wasn't too bad. Nothing super special, but in terms of being a decent kids horror story, it works really well and shows that Deadtime Stories offered some interesting ideas for horror stories. Although, I must say, we put too much horror and evil on the apple. It keeps the doctor away after all. How about a book about evil mangoes or enchanted coconuts, or killer tomatoes... wait, that's already a thing. Either way, more variety in produce-themed horror, please. Invasion of the Appleheads gets an A-.