Horrific Hindsight: Tales for the Midnight Hour

All month long I've been covering the quartet of horror anthology books Tales for the Midnight Hour by J.B. Stamper. While not as often brought up in conversation like Tales to Give You Goosebumps or Scary Stories to Tall in the Dark, Midnight Hour is among the first notable compilation books of this kind. Often being a mixture of original tales and pieces of folklore and legend. They're also very pivotal in the birth of the Point series for Scholastic, which would feature early works for the likes of R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike. So it's very integral on that end. So, having heard about them, I finally went to read them. What were my thoughts? Well, that's the whole point of yet another Horrific Hindsight blog. 

After reading all four books, my opinion is... that they're fine. Just fine. Though just saying that does a disservice, I guess, so I'd probably say that they are definitely a mixed bag of stories. Some with strong horror, most feeling haphazard and roughshod, trying to pump so much out of their short page counts that very little really sticks. There's a definite mix of supernatural, psychological, and generally bizarre horror stories packed in the pages of each book. So like all compilations it's a grab bag of quality, often coming out with a just decent affair for some and a lack of punch with the others. 

This was especially prevalent in the first book which feels like Stamper trying to get her groove in making these stories work, only for most of them to feel either rushed or given a nonsensical ending. Sometimes a decent ending like a girl's head being ripped off and another where an escaped gorilla gets on a gondola ride. But with each book, the quality improved incrementally. After a ten year break between the first and second, the second book feels like Stamper's quality improved, offering better breath for most of the horror and better outcomes in the end. 

However, after finishing all four, you can definitely see the tropes she likes to stick to. Lots of stories set in dark forests, plenty of vampires, and every book features a final story involving a group of campers, one being a meek kid named Ty, who constantly meet their doom. Curious as to why Stamper stuck to the Ty camping shtick, but it definitely feels like something that was her concept more than anything else. Not that I'm complaining mind you, if it works, keep milking it. And they usually work for a good final story in each book. There are also stories that Stamper adapted, like The Golden Arm, a story which has been told for generations, made famous by Mark Twain's telling. It at least made that weird Quibi thing make sense now. Not Quibi the app mind you, but like that one show with the woman and her gold arm. A case of why some things actually don't work as an adaptation.

56 stories total within four books means a lot of things to consider as what ones are the best and worst. So, like I did with Fear Street a while back, it's time for my rankings from worst to best. Honestly, no story was honestly bad so it's tricky to call any of them the worst. Maybe Wait Till Max Comes, but even that works as while you never see Max, he's built like a threat. So this is less a "worst to best" and more of what ones worked best for me and what ones didn't. And for the sake of brevity, I won't go into detail here as my thoughts are already in the blogs themselves.

#56. WAIT TILL MAX COMES

#55. THE OLD PLANTATION

#54. THE TEN CLAWS

#53. THE HEARSE

#52. THE BOARDER

#51. IN THE LANTERN'S LIGHT

#50. THE BLACK MARE

#49. A FREE PLACE TO SLEEP

#48. FOOTSTEPS

#47. SKIN-AND-BONES

#46. DEAD MAN'S CAVE

#45. A SPECIAL TREAT

#44. THE SNAKE CHARMER

#43. KING OF THE CATS

#42. THE MASKED BALL

#41. THE FURRY RED COLLAR

#40. THE GOLDEN ARM

#39. CEMETERY HILL

#38. THE JIGSAW PUZZLE

#37. THE MIDNIGHT FEEDING

#36. CEMETERY ROAD

#35. THE FACE

#34. THE MAGIC VANISHING BOX

#33. THE HEAD

#32. THE FORTUNE TELLER

#31. A NIGHT IN THE WOODS

#30. THE TUNNEL OF TERROR

#29. THE SNIPE HUNT

#28. WHEN DARKNESS COMES

#27. THE STUFFED DOG

#26. WORDS OF WARNING

#25. TRICK-OR-TREAT

#24. THE MASK

#23. THE OLD BEGGAR WOMAN

#22. TAILYPO

#21. THE WAX MUSEUM

#20. ISLAND OF FEAR

#19. THE BLACK VELVET RIBBON

#18. A GHOST STORY

#17. THE GECKO

#16. THE EGYPTIAN COFFIN

#15. BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

#14. VOICES

#13. THE SHORTCUT

#12. THE TRAIN THROUGH TRANSYLVANIA

#11. THE COLLECTOR

#10. AT MIDNIGHT

#09. CLAUSTROPHOBIA

#08. THE ATTIC DOOR

#07. RIGHT INN

#06. THE WHITE DOVE

#05. THE LOVE CHARM

#04. THE MIRROR

#03. PHOBIA

#02. THE GOONEY BIRDS

#01. THE GHOST'S REVENGE

The stories that worked best for me were definitely the attempts at psychological horror, or the ones about revenge. Phobia and The Mirror worked best for me as I like the concept of Phobia asking if what we saw really happened or was Ellen's fear or rats manifesting into her mind, while The Mirror worked as a solid story about what happens when you can't recognize who you are, yet the rest of the world sees you in a different light than you perceive. The Ghost's Revenge and The White Dove were similar concepts of a promise broken beyond the grave, with both having what feels like the most unfair punishment, thereby making the horror work. And there's The Love Charm which feels the most like a classic fable about why you shouldn't cheat your way into love.

All 56 stories offer something unique enough to feel like their own thing, even if some do similar things like beheadings, or involve vampires. They're all done well enough to feel like their own unique story. Not all of the horror lands perfectly, but the ones that do stick with you for a long time. As such it makes this a perfect starter point for those wanting to get into horror literature but aren't quite ready for the Stephen Kings or the like. You'll no doubt find at least one or two stories that stick with you and become your first step into loving the genre. And if that's what J.B. Stamper had intended, then she did a great job.

So, they are all easy recommends. Definitely worth going from first to last as the first book is the weakest to be honest and you feel that important evolution the further into the books you get. With stories around 4-13 pages, they're the perfect kind of pick up, stop and pick back up later books. Imperfect but still strong enough to not feel like a total waste of time to get into.