Point by Numbers: Tales For the Midnight Hour

I've been in the mood of doing a best-to-worst blog lately. Initially I wanted to do something with Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, but I feel that gets most of the love. One that feels less loved is the Tales For the Midnight Hour series. Released from 1977-1991, these were a series of four books written by author Judith Bauer Stamper, or simply J.B. Stamper. Each held a set of short stories centered around horror. Usually thirteen to a book, though the first has seventeen. Each story lasts a mere few pages, meaning most don't have as much to mine as say a Tales to Give You Goosebumps book. So don't expect the deepest dives in this, unless there's good reason.

So instead I'll try to provide a paragraph on each super short story and more context for the longer ones. Your standard quick affair. With 56 stories to talk about, there'll at least be enough content to consider this at least a semi-worthwhile project. Also, despite the books wanting you to read them at midnight, you can just read them any old time. Also I'm not plowing through four books in one blog. I'll cover all four books in their own blogs and give a full ranking at the very end. So with the preamble out of the way, let's get started with the first book, Tales For the Midnight Hour.

Each cover for the series uses a similar motif. A clock set to midnight and a scary looking scenario around it. This one is effective enough. Creepy skeleton hand, lightning and blustery curtains. Gives that much needed feel of a horror setting. Memorable and striking, which works really well. 

- THE FURRY COLLAR : The first official story in the series, this really should be the one to set things in the right direction. And it almost does, albeit being the victim of a mere four pages to tell its horror story. The story revolves around an unnamed protagonist and their friend Susan who wears a velvet night robe with a furry red collar. The two hear a noise and the sound of someone sharpening a knife. Susan goes to check and the protagonist waits, hoping for Susan to return. They soon find someone, and the red collar suggests it's Susan, only Susan's been decapitated. Not a particularly bad start with a dark enough twist, but is so rushed that most of the tension just fast forwards. Still a decent start.
 

-THE BLACK VELVET RIBBON: So, the second story ever feels like the exact same story as the first, only structured a bit better despite being stuck with only four pages to its name. An old man marries a woman who always wears a black ribbon around her neck. He wants her to remove it, but she only says he'll be sorry if she does. When he finally manages to do so, her head falls off as the ribbon was the only thing connecting her head to her body. Similar to The Furry Collar, this one lands on the same twist which, when the first two stories suffer from redundancy, that's not a good sign. But it's paced better as is its mystery, thereby making it better than The Furry Collar. 

- THE BOARDER: A young boy is angered that a boarder is living in his house taking what used to be his room. He hates it, but the boarder pays rent so he can stay. Though the boy doesn't know how the boarder pays for rent. One night, the boy follows the boarder who escapes through the window and hops across rooftops. The boarder makes it to a chimney and starts to descend on a rope connected t o the grappling, but the boy unties the knot keeping the rope in place and the man falls to his death. Five years later the boy, now older, soon learns that the boarder's body was found inside a jewelry store. Meaning that he was a cat burglar. 

The third story in the first book, it's given much more time than the previous two. It's not bad but its ending feels like something's missing. Like a crucial twist was lost in development. I was almost hoping that the twist was the boarder was Santa Claus and the boy in the end accidentally kills Santa. This also predates Gremlins and the infamous story of Kate's dad's fate was also on my mind at the time as the possible twist too. Good tension and build for a lacking twist. Ah well. 

-THE TEN CLAWS: A mysterious creature haunts a village. At first killing animals, then killing people. Each victim having ten claw punctures in their neck. This led to the men of the village, notably two brothers named Robert and John Harmon, forming a vigilante group to fight the evil, downside is they don't know what that evil is. But Robert and John set out to kill it, not before talking with their father and hearing their grandmother rambling. In the forest, John gets attacked with the claw marks and Robert manages to save him, cutting off one of the hands of the monster. They return home, as does their grandmother, hissing and missing a hand. 

This one was fine, but again it feels like there's just something missing with that twist. I guess just the feeling that there's really no explanation as to exactly why grandma was the monster other than she just was, I guess. I was thinking given how the story was starting to spin towards a "paranoia creates the real monsters" story, that would be the twist, but ultimately it felt like the twist was again rushed. 

-THE JIGSAW PUZZLE: A girl named Lisa discovers a strange old jigsaw puzzle box in an antique shop. However, the front of the box is so scratched and broken that it's hard to make out other than the ominous words "The Strangest Jigsaw Puzzle in the World". But she buys it anyway and starts to work on it in her apartment. As she pieces the puzzle together, she begins to notice that the image on the puzzle is beginning to match her apartment. As she starts to finish the puzzle, she then notices that it's a picture of her and her apartment, and some sort of monster in the shadows by the window. And once the puzzle finishes, that monster arrives causing Lisa to scream just like in the picture of the puzzle.

Now that's what I'm talking about. While a predictable twist perhaps, as you kind of expected the puzzle to just be her in a horrifying predicament. But compared to the first four stories this one works so much better in building the tension and horror to the ultimate climax. Definitely the strongest story so far. 

-THE FACE: In 1849, three prospectors, Jeremiah, Billy and Dusty, all shacked in a cabin near a claim. That night, Jeremiah sees the ghostly face of an old woman. When Billy sees it and starts to scream, the ghost face breathes into him, killing him instantly. Same with Dusty. Jeremiah runs off, but also realizes that he'll be blamed for the murders because who's going to believe a story about a killer old woman ghost? He hops in a stage coach and thinks he sees a young woman being attacked by the old face, but he then panics and jumps out of the stage coach and down a canyon to his death.

Another decent one, but again suffers from a real lack of a deeper meaning to why the ghost exists and why it has a death breath power. I'm guessing the ghost is trying to keep the claim to herself but what does a ghost need gold for? I also wish the story stuck with what could have been a more interesting twist. Someone finding the bodies of Billy and Dusty and blaming Jeremiah for it. Leaving us with the question of "was the face real or was Jeremiah a homicidal maniac?" Though at least the extra beat of Jeremiah dying in a panic still works nonetheless.

-THE MIRROR: Hugo Hoogen is a solitary man. Often keeping to himself and barely social to anyone. One morning, he looks into his mirror, but the reflection on the other end is a different face. Not his. Yet his face feels the same as it ever was. He doesn't recognize his reflection on anything, yet the people at his accounting job all recognize him, making Hugo believe that they see his real face. The next day, Hugo sees his reflection is what it used to be. But when he goes to work, nobody knows who he is because he doesn't look like Hugo Hoogen. Confused and mentally broken, Hugo spirals into madness.

This one is also rushed, but it is probably the best story so far in terms of using its horror to play to a somewhat real concept. Prosopagnosia, or a neurological disorder in recognizing faces. In the case of Hugo, he doesn't recognize his own self, creating an image of what he believes himself to look like, yet the reflection is his true image, at least to the rest of the world. So when his state changes to make the face on the other end look like what he thinks it is, he then breaks down further into madness, thinking that it's everyone else that doesn't recognize him. It can also be taken as the effects of someone who cut themselves from the rest of the world not realizing who or what they really are after so many years. Some decent psychological horror even if it suffers from being a mere handful of pages and an inability to really kick in.

-THE EGYPTIAN COFFIN: A night watchman from the British museum is moved from the Viking section to the Egyptian section. Turns out he has a history of defacing artifacts. Be it carving words, using the exhibits as ash trays and... well, it's not said but implied that he's probably screwed a mannequin or two. Which there's also irony here since he hates museums but it was the only job he could get. At the Egyptian exhibit, the man notices a painting with people with animal heads, followed by a plaque that mentions that when a person dies, they're taken to trial by a jury of animal-headed judges. Their heart is placed on a scale compared to a feather to weigh how truthful they are, or be eaten by a man with an alligator head. Well, that's a metal way to go.

The watchman is interrupted by the museum curator who warns him not to do anything in the exhibit as the ancient Egyptians weren't too kind to those who disturbed their graves. Which, given this is the British museum, maybe they're a bit lax on cursing them as well. He then notices a coffin of a woman named Takheb, an Egyptian princess. The eyes of the sarcophagus almost hypnotize the watchman before he then takes his gum and places it on the mummy of one of the princess' sons. He then gets hypnotized more by the Sarcophagus which lulls him inside where he soon comes face to face with the gator man.

Another really good one that, despite being short, offered a lot to actually recap than the others so far. We have an unlikable lead that you want to see suffer some sort of fate, while giving just enough backstory to everything going on and at least some understanding of why the watchman's fate was how it was. If this book has disappointed me at all it's definitely a case of weak pacing. And while this one is also rushed, it does a better job taking its brief amount of pages to structure itself better. Solid effort.

-THE OLD PLANTATION: Jonas Ellerby arrives at an old plantation once belonging to a Mrs. Whigover. The house overseeing the fields is old and ramshackle, which Jonas plans to demolish. As he enters the musty, mildew-smelling house, he notices one bedroom that's still in perfect condition, almost untouched by age. On the bed is a book with the same title as this story. The book recaps everything that happens to Jonas that night, which ultimately ends with Jonas seeing himself entering the plantation again. 

So, it's a time loop? Gotta admit, I read that title and feared the worst, but thankfully that wasn't the case. But what is the case is a sense of confusion about that twist. Also, this felt like The Jigsaw Puzzle again only somehow more lacking than before. So, best I can tell is that I guess Jonas is trapped in a loop of some sort. Always returning to the plantation and always reading what happens. Then I guess that version eventually dies as the next one shows up? Again, there's a cool idea here, but this feels like the concept needed better thought.

-PHOBIA: Ellen has a deathly fear of rodents, which fully manifests itself on one night as she's walking home from a restaurant. She hears footsteps following her so she runs into the nearby park and into the bushes. She sees the man who was following her stop at a bench, but she can't make out his face. Suddenly, she sees a bunch of rats show up and then sees she's near a nest where dozens of rats attack her. She jumps out of the bushes and sees the man has a rat face. She runs home with no one following her but the thoughts in her head. 

I like this one because it works in terms of being a story about paranoia and phobias. How the human mind can warp when it comes to what we fear. It leaves you asking if there was a rat man or if there even were rats. Was this all just her phobia creating an overactive imagination? Add in the general fear of being stalked by someone and you can understand how Ellen could mentally snap like she did. Definitely one of the stronger stories.

-THE TRAIN THROUGH TRANSYLVANIA: Stephanie Archer, her brother Robert and their mother are stuck on a train heading through Transylvania. Two men enter the train and take a seat. One an old doctor named Dr. Maurer and another man who looks a lot like a vampire. Given that Robert was reading Dracula during the ride, Stephanie becomes paranoid about the man. Soon the man leaves and Dr. Maurer vanishes soon after. Mrs. Archer checks her reflection, then notices Stephanie lying deathly still with two bite marks on her neck.

This one is simple but effective. Your basic vampire story with a predictable enough twist but a shocking enough ending to at least make it feel worthwhile. Of course Dr. Maurer was the real vampire. From the jump that was obvious. Again, I wish these stories were much longer, being able to really build on the scare factor. 

-THE ATTIC DOOR: A girl named Rosalyn visits her Aunt Harriet for the first time in sixteen years. Her father forbade it due to Harriet's husband Arthur, but since Arthur committed suicide, it's okay now. Harriet lives alone in an old mansion with a parrot named Polly. She had a son, Rosalyn's cousin Herman, but Herman died. Rosalyn then sees the laboratory where Arthur once worked. He was a biologist. Yet his experiments were so extreme that he was kicked out of the university, so he worked at home, studying human mutations. Harriet gives Rosalyn two warnings. Don't touch anything that belonged to Arthur and don't go into the Attic. Maybe not the basement either, may be a plant dad down there.

But, not being a good listener, Rosalyn goes up to the attic where she finds a half-man, half animal monstrosity. She panics and runs off, but the monster gives chase, eventually cornering her and tagging her. After she faints, Rosalyn wakes up as Aunt Harriet reveals that this is Rosalyn's cousin Herman. Oh, and because she knows the truth, she can never leave the attic now either. Yeah, maybe dear old dad was right.

This one was also very simple but effective. Again, its briefness kills much in terms of building up to the reveal of what's in the attic, but the payoff still works, giving us what we figured was going on. Uncle Arthur wasn't doing much... Except play god! It also adds the dark implications of exactly why Herman is like this. Was he always a chimera or was this Arthur's work? Was Herman the only creature he's created? And was his hubris collapsing in on itself why he supposedly took his own life? And yes, I too thought of Full Metal Alchemist, let's get that one out of the way. When a horror story can leave you asking questions, that's the sign of a strong story. Good stuff.

-THE TUNNEL OF TERROR: Ellen (not Rat paranoia Ellen) and her friends Diane and Jane are at the Ohio State Fair. After burning themselves out rather quick, the three are bored. That is until they find The Tunnel of Terror, a creepy looking canal ride with wax figures displaying what appears to be the French Revolution. Guillotines and all. Ellen goes in alone and rides through the dark tunnel, seeing images of men on racks and a man being guillotined. She also notices something furry behind her on the boat, seemingly grabbing her. As Jane and Diane wait, they hear over the loudspeaker that a gorilla escaped from the zoo. And sure enough, the gorilla is on the boat with Ellen. She's unharmed physically, but definitely broken mentally. 

Again, super simple story that due to its rushed nature doesn't have enough time to build the tension of the ride. The gorilla twist is odd, but also works to at least provide a freaky scenario to end us on. Though this is now two tales ending with a girl named Ellen being mentally scarred, which isn't helping this book not feel redundant. Though, if I'm ever in a fix, I can just end something by saying "there's a gorilla on the boat".

-THE FORTUNE TELLER: A man named Mr. Peebles goes to a fortune teller under the suggestion of his much younger wife Margaret. The fortune teller and her crystal ball predict death is looming for Mr. Peebles. And not from the gorilla in his pet shop either. Peebles takes her word for it and puts out a 100,000 dollar life insurance claim. He almost gets hit by a train driving from the office, then nearly dies again. Panicked, he takes a walk down the old mill road before being hit by a car being driven by the fortune teller.

Safest theory on this is that Margaret and the fortune teller were in on this whole thing. Work Peebles up to a state of paranoia then finish the job after the insurance claim is made. Margaret gets his money and the fortune teller gets a cut. If she even WAS a fortune teller to begin with. If not then that's just poor timing, huh? This is also one of the stories so far where the shorter nature actually works in its favor, providing just enough time to build and execute the scenario. And I guess execute Mr. Peebles while we're at it.

 -THE STUFFED DOG: Mrs. Heathcote cleans a stuffed dog in the study. The dog belonged to her late husband who died under mysterious circumstances, and somehow, the dog died on the same day. The dog stayed stuffed while Mr. Heathcote was buried. And every year on the anniversary, she moves the dog over to the grave. She has her grandson Theodore take the dog to the cemetery, but the boy hates even touching the dog's corpse. After the visit, they bring the dog back. Mrs. Heathcote has Theodore get a candle to light. He does so, but sees the stuffed dog. He tries to burn it with a candle, but the boy screams. When Mrs. Heathcote and the paramedics arrive, Theodore is dead and there is blood on the fangs of the dog. Theodore was killed exactly like Mr. Heathcote.

I like this one. Feels in tune with The Egyptian Coffin as a story about a rather awful person (Theodore felt snobby and smart mouthed) getting their comeuppance by trying to besmirch the dead. So we get a payoff that really works with just enough build for said payoff to work. Another one that I also feel works by being a shorter story. Aside from a couple stragglers, the book is making a turnaround. Two stories left though...

-A FREE PLACE TO SLEEP:  Tom and Dave wander the streets of England in the middle of the night, looking for a place to lodge. With no hotels available, they find an old building with a "for sale" sign attached. They head up to the highest story of the building and lodge in one of the rooms. That is until they hear noises coming from outside the room. Suddenly, a strange blob-like creature with stab wounds on its face enters the room. The boys run for it, jumping out the nearest window. Tom makes it out, but Dave falls to his death, impaled on the spikes of the house's fence. 

This one was also just fine, but again suffers from a lack of much tension to build to the horror. The ghostly blob is a neat monster at least. It also explains why the house is no doubt still for sale. The gruesome end for Dave also keeps this one from feeling too weak. Overall, not the strongest story, but does everything it needs to in the limited time available. 

-THE GOONEY BIRDS: Eric, Pete, Phil, Ty and Ron are all on a canoeing trip with their guide Jake. Ty in particular is slow and lags behind, making him the target of most of the derision. As they head to another portage, they spot some gigantic gooney birds that dive into the water to catch fish. At lunch, Jake mentions that they're taking a different route back to camp than they normally do. They see another gooney nest complete with two eggs, which bothers Ty, making him mocked even more by Eric. Then Eric, in the ultimate dumbass move, breaks the two eggs with a stick. As the gooney birds arrive and shriek in agony, the boys leave. After nearly being attacked in the water, they stop at an abandoned camp. As in recently abandoned with all the supplies there. They foolishly decide to stay there as the gooney birds circle above, ready to kill them. First a bird kills Ty as the others are soon killed and taken away, the campsite once again being deserted.

Given the longest length of any of the stories in the book, to no surprise, I think this might be the best story in the batch, if only for the fact that it builds its story better than most of the others. We have a reason for the gooney birds to attack them, enough tension that builds quite well and a conclusion that feels brutal and actually scary for a scenario. For the final story in this book, it ends on a decent enough note.

BOOK 1 CONCLUSION

This won't be a long conclusion. Mainly because I feel that a longer, deeper conclusion will only work after I finish all four books. Our first book, Tales for the Midnight Hour, has a lot of really interesting horror story ideas. The downside however is that all of these story ideas are rushed. Some extremely rushed, others given more time but lacking in the ability to build to a dark execution. The book is 124 pages. Which can seem like a lot, but when you account for seventeen short stories, then the claustrophobic feeling of these stories sets in. Thus making for stories that feel less like a series of horror stories and more like a series of interesting horror story drafts. Ones that could improve if there were room to improve on them. And one that has a gorilla on the boat. Stamper's strengths, at least as of this book, are definitely the stories that play to the human psyche. Stories about fear, paranoia, frustration, the inability to recognize one's self, the feeling of the whole world going insane. And if given more time to breathe and build, I feel those would be the stories to really have a chance to work. But cest la vie.

I still will rank these at the end, but for now, I'd say if any story was the strongest so far, I'd say it's The Attic Door for having the most interesting concept, or The Gooney Birds for being the longest with more build. Weakest, maybe The Old Plantation for lacking enough to make it work. But otherwise, aside from some weak stories, this was still an okay read. Hopefully the next ones are stronger though. Speaking of which, ten years after the first book, J.B. Stamper returned for a second installment. But that's for next time. Tales for the Midnight Hour gets a C+.