The first Tales for the Midnight Hour was a decent book that suffered from rushed stories and often nonsensical twists. Ten years later, More Tales for the Midnight Hour was released and was a far stronger book, taking many of the complaints I had about the first book and fixed many of them. Though severely lacked a gorilla on the boat. In 1989, J.B. Stamper returned for a third installment, staying close to the formula of the second book. Are the good times going to keep rolling? Find out with Still More Tales for the Midnight Hour.
-CEMETERY ROAD: Susan lives on, where else, Fear Str-oh, wrong book. She and her family moved to Cemetery Road, where a large cemetery is behind their house. Lots of scary stories come from the cemetery, but three kids tell Susan about the story of a cat that watches over the cemetery. A black cat buried under a statue in the cemetery. The cat stalks the cemetery at night. Which means that the kids dare Susan to go and retrieve the cat's collar as proof that she's not afraid. Susan does just that, entering the cemetery at night and making it to the statue. She sees the collar over the statue and takes it off, only for her to hear a hiss and the statue coming to life. She runs back home, Collar in hand as the hisses follow her. She wakes up the next day, the collar is gone, her room is clawed up, and by the window is the black cat.
Not a bad first story. A decent start. That being said there's not much to say because it does everything it needs to do. I hate when that happens. I guess I can at least say I like the idea of the story. This ghost cat haunting a cemetery and it being some sort of hazing of the new kid to remove the collar. And for what little we get, the tension does work, letting this eight page book feel like just the right amount of length for it to go through.
-THE WAX MUSEUM: Two boys, Andrew and Robbie, are on a tour of a wax museum with their history teacher, Mr. Archer. Robbie is more nervous and cautious, while Andrew is a troublemaker, wanting to mess with the wax figures. First trying to take King Henry VIII's rings, only for the wax figure to seemingly make a scowl at him. He pokes a pin in a figure of Napoleon, same thing. And... and then we get to Wax Adolf Hitler. Yes. You read that. This story hinges on the fact that Andrew rips off the mustache of a wax figure of Adolf Hitler. Look, it's no gorilla on the boat but wowzers.
Eventually, Andrew passes out and wakes back up at the wax museum and sure enough, Wax Hitler is chasing after him. Then Napoleon and King Henry join in. The next day, Mr. Archer's class returns to the wax museum and notice something different about the King Henry exhibit. It's not Ann Boleyn's head at the chopping blocks, it's Andrew's, who is now a wax figure.
So, I mean it's not the ACTUAL Hitler, King Henry, Napoleon and again... Hitler, but I guess we're still supposed to root for the wax figures? I mean, again, portraying bad people and all, they're still just wax figures that Andrew bothers, thereby making what befalls him all his fault and more a case of self defense from the wax figures. Still... Anyways, this one's not bad overall. A bit more lengthy than usual, and uses its horror well in a short story format. Shitty kid gets his comeuppance. By wax Hitler, but I mean... Time for the next story!
-TAILYPO: Deep in the woods up in the mountains, a sixty year old man named Jake lives with his hunting dogs. Or at least struggling to live as he and his dogs are starving, having only beans to survive on. That's until Jake notices a strange creature. Large yellow eyes, a wolf's head with weird pointy ears, red fur and oddest of all, a long tail that wraps around it. It doesn't matter what the creature is to Jake, because he's hungry enough to eat it. He manages to cut part of the creature's tail before it runs off and despite not knowing what this is, or where it's been, he cooks the tail and he and his dogs eat it.
But soon, scratching can be heard outside, and the creature is screaming for its Tailypo, which I guess is what it calls its tail. Jake sends his dogs after it, but each time he does, one less dog returns. Ultimately it's down to Jake who confronts the creature and says he doesn't have the Tailypo, but the creature attacks him instead. And he was never heard from again.
Not bad. A bit rushed, but feels in tune with a lot of urban legends and monster stories. Of the stories I've read for these books, it's the one that feel the most "campfire story" of them all. I also like how fantastical the creature is described and that it ultimately does feel like a threat. So, despite that rushed feeling, the sum of its parts are still strong enough for another winning tale.
-WORDS OF WARNING: A red-haired boy named Peter is staying at an inn in Greenfield. The gardener, an old man named Charlie, warns Peter about the abandoned house down the street. It's haunted by something or other. Whatever it is, the five children who entered the house before have never been seen again. Peter doesn't believe in superstition, but even he's creeped out. He leaves the inn and stops at a fork in the road. Essentially that one meme of the nice place on the left, foreboding place on the right. And sure enough, the mystery house is on the right side. As he approaches the house, he feels a strange sensation almost control him into entering, but he escapes in time.
A couple days later, two more boys named Brian and Jeff show up and befriend Peter. When Peter mentions the haunted house, the two are intrigued and follow him there. He's still afraid to enter the house, but the other two do so and nothing happens. They invite him to come inside, but he opts out. The next day though, he's going to enter the house for real. However, when he enters, sure enough there's five ghost kids inside, each with red hair. So, a haunted house filled with ginger kids. Is the realtor R.L. Stine?
I like this one. Your standard haunted house fare, but its build and execution are still strong. I also like the twist of how the house only takes red-haired children for some reason. The book mentions early that Peter has copper colored hair and that both Jeff and Brian have brown and blond, meaning that they wouldn't be affected. Guessing Charlie is in on it as well, as why else would he entice Peter with stories of the house? The ending is a bit rushed, we kind of have no clue what's going to happen to Peter next, but everything else flows fine enough to call this one a winner.
-THE GHOST'S REVENGE: So we go from talking about Hitler to talking about the Confederacy as this story takes place at the end of the civil war. Lucy Potter is sent to live with her aunt and uncle in their plantation, all while the war is reaching its conclusion. Lucy is also determined to find a husband, and finds the interest of a young confederate lieutenant named William Compton. Lucy and William hit it off immediately. But the war is still on and General Lee sends the soldiers back out, including William, who says that he intends to marry Lucy when he returns from war. He also asks her that, you know, on the possibility I'm about to die, don't marry anyone else either. Lucy promises, which in these stories mean jack and shit.
So yeah, the battle was a losing effort for the south with many men killed, including William Compton. Eventually, despite her promise, Lucy moves on and falls for a man named Captain Sanders (Impressive restraint in not making him a colonel). In fact, she's so ready to move on that when she is taken to the grave of William Compton, she takes the ring he gave her and throws it into the nearby weeds. The wedding happens and when comes time to ask if anyone has objections, the corpse of William Compton arrives in the church. Chest bloody from the gunshot wound, face gaunt and ghoulish. He grabs Lucy and drags her off while the rest of the church runs in panic. Captain Sanders soon finds Lucy's corpse over the grave of William Compton, ring back on her finger.
Okay, this might be our frontrunner for best story of all of the ones I've read so far. It builds up well, has a legitimately dark climax and a scary twist. The idea of a promise is a promise, even if it has to be held beyond the grave. It's also really sad when you think of it. Lucy really didn't do anything wrong here. Yes, she lied to William, but it was him who put her on that spot and made her keep that promise. It's also shitty because it would have denied her any rights, beholden to keeping a promise she never wanted. So when she marries Sanders, it doesn't feel out of spite for William either, even if she threw the ring or not. So, the ending comes off as dark and unfair. Lucy being punished by forces beyond her control. A super strong story that I feel fits the moniker of the book series. Great effort.
-A SPECIAL TREAT: Lisa and Harry are celebrating their first wedding anniversary. It's a happy marriage despite one caveat. No red meat. Harry can't eat red meat. His mother (who vanished from his life twenty years ago), put that idea into his head since he was five. Though he's not a total vegetarian, his mother would make tuna casserole. This is a problem for Lisa who really wants a burger. And despite there possibly being a reason not to feed him red meat, she decides to make "noodle surprise", which involves adding beef to the recipe.
One week after the discussion, she makes the noodle surprise and feeds it to Harry who loves it and wants more and more servings. He starts to grow fur and his mother shows up and they were both werewolves because of course they were. Harry and his mom run off into the night while that I guess scares Lisa away from red meat.
Not bad, even if I get the vibes of a Stine-like "they were werewolves all along" ending that he loves to throw out. It's pretty obvious that Harry is a monster of some sort and that eating red meat is the trigger. I was leaning towards it making him a cannibal, but werewolf was also there. Aside from that, this is a well paced story, even the ending doesn't feel as rushed as it seems.
-THE MAGIC VANISHING BOX: Ben has an interest in magic, so he winds up heading to a magic shop called " Curiosities of the Past". He spends an hour perusing before he spots a strange black box, two square feet wide called [[TITLE OF THE STORY]]. It also comes with a warning saying not to stick your hand into the box or you'll regret it. He buys the box and tests it by putting a dictionary inside. The dictionary then disappears. Ben then notes a small little brass drawer on the box and inside is a tiny figurine of a boy now holding a tiny dictionary. He sets them on his shelf then tests a pencil. He starts to put his radio in the box before the sound of his parents coming home startles him and causes him to stick his hand in the box and fall. Ben is never heard from again, the magic shop owner takes back the box which now has a miniature Ben figurine inside.
I like this one. Rushed, but still good. So it's like a strange portal? Almost a reverse Indian in the Cupboard where the things you put inside turn to figurines instead of being brought to life? That's actually a pretty decent scenario and an idea that I wish had more time to be fleshed out. But what we get still works, giving us a short story with a creepy twist. Emphasis on short.
-WAIT TILL MAX COMES: A man is walking the roads during a storm and makes it to an old house that looks haunted. He finds the bed and sleeps, only to see a kitten on his bed. Then another cat. And the cats start talking about what to do with him, to which they say the title of the book. Another cat as big as a dog shows up, also saying to wait until Max comes. Then a leopard sized cat shows up. That's enough for the man who runs out of the hat because he's not going to wait for whatever the hell Max is.
I guess I'll add some text. Five page story, talking cats and a buildup to a payoff that we never even get. Reeks of "we gotta get this to thirteen stories". Oh this one feels like it would fit in with the first book more.
-THE OLD BEGGAR WOMAN: Agatha Parry is the widow of a captain. He ran a successful whale oil business and was the richest man in town. Five years have passed since his death and Agatha has become cold and callous. Flaunting her wealth while the rest of the town suffer from a bad crop and poverty. And when I mean callous, holy crap. She starved a maid for not polishing the silver and fed leftovers to her dogs instead. So she's a modern billionaire then. Simply put, she's gone past the realm of cartoonish supervillainy. One one day as she's walking her dogs, she goes through a rocky path and sees an old woman begging for help. Agatha tells her to get bent, but the old lady promises that soon Agatha will be in the same position she is, but Agatha says she's too rich to ever end up poor, then throws a ring into the ocean, saying that she'll never be poor just like the ring will never leave the ocean.
The next day, Agatha learns of a dead body in the area where she met with the old beggar. She starts to feel strangely nervous and paranoid, causing her to become more thin and disheveled. She's still a greedy bitch, that's not changed. But she holds a large dinner party for the other rich people of the town. It goes well until Agatha discovers something inside one of the fish dinners. Her ring. That sets off a chain of events which includes her mansion burning down. Her possessions destroyed and all she has left to her name is a black cape. Agatha disappears, but is believed to be in the same area where she met the beggar.
Good parable about karma. How one's hubris has a chance to blow up in their face. Case in point with Agatha. Makes me wonder though if the old woman was also a former wealthy woman who went through the same thing. If this is a loop of some sort. Not so much scary as it is a decent tale about how affluence can remove all shreds of decency in a person. But was this always Agatha, or the version who by the end had become corrupted by greed and power? Who knows? But I know this one is another good story in a book that's been mostly good stories so far. Four stories to go though, let's see if that holds water.
-THE MASKED BALL: A girl named Kate is at a masquerade ball on Halloween. As she ascends the stairway, she spots a man who looks like a vampire ready to strike, causing her to faint. She's awakened by a masked man named Robert who dances with her. She sees the vampire man again and panics, but Robert says they're probably just plastic fangs. But for Kate that isn't the issue so much as she's been getting horrible nightmares about a vampire stalking her, ready to feast. And perhaps it's all coming true. Robert takes her to the patio, but she sees the vampire man again, so the pair end up in a rowboat in the middle of the lake. Robert removes his mask and underneath it's revealed that HE's the vampire.
Vampires seem to be to Midnight Hour what werewolves are to Goosebumps. The go-to when there isn't much more of a plot to work with. This one was kind of mediocre since obvious twist was obvious and whatnot. Not the worst story ever, but you're pretty much waiting for that boom to drop.
-SKIN-AND-BONES: One hundred years ago, a man named Jacob Cooper arrived at an inn called the Red Fox Inn. Is the owner Fred Sanford? He orders a meal to go as he's expected in Platkill, but the men at the nearby table tell him that he shouldn't go out to Platkill in the middle of the night, through the jagged woods. There's a strange creature named Skin-And-Bones in the woods. She tricks oncoming travelers to give her a ride and the next day the driver is found dead. She's not a ghost either, she's like some living skeleton monster. If she grabs you, that's the end of you. Obviously, Jacob doesn't buy it and makes his leave.
As Jacob rides, he spots an old woman in a black shawl and doesn't pick her up, thinking it could be Skin-And-Bones. But that doesn't stop him from picking up the much younger red-haired woman in the green cape. And sure enough, the woman deteriorates and becomes Skin-And-Bones. She goes to grab Jacob, but he manages to throw her off his horse, sending her collapsing to the ground below. He arrives to Platkill where his friend is confused as to why Jacob is panicking, but then he sees the skeleton hand caught on a hook.
Another not bad story, though it does make Jacob come off as someone who lets his dick do the talking when it comes to picking up hitchhikers. I mean, why would Skin-And-Bones disguise herself as an OLD woman when it's far easier to get horny young men? Twist is alright too, but we got a variant of that one last book so it is a tad redundant.
-THE SNAKE CHARMER: Lucy Morris (another Lucy BTW) is the rich daughter of a researcher dad and as such is stuck in Kampur in the middle of India. While she lives in a mansion with servants to give her whatever she wants, she hates everything there. She then hears a flute being played and sees a man in the yard charming a snake in a basket. Being afraid of snakes and already wanting the man gone, she gets her servants to remove him, but they refuse, saying that would invoke bad luck. But Lucy, being a Karen, tries to get rid of him herself, but to no avail as he plays on through the night. The next day she offers him money, but he doesn't want that. All he wants is a lock of her blonde hair.
Lucy is about to give in and just give him what he wants, but then notices an old doll she had as a kid which also has blonde hair. So she just cuts that instead and gives it to the man thinking it the perfect crime. Her parents return home and when she says she gave the man a lock of her hair, they panic saying that's a bad idea. And sure enough, they soon see the man's cobra next to the doll.
This one was also fine, though it's more interesting that the twist isn't that her cheating was her downfall and more that cheating seemed to have cursed the doll instead. So unintentionally clever I suppose? Not much to say on this one mainly in that it is pretty straightforward. For a penultimate tale, it does the trick.
-THE SNIPE HUNT: So, it's the last story in the book, you know what that means? It's another camping story. With another kid named Ty because at this rate it's clearly by intent. This time with twelve boys though so that's different. Ty, along with Brad, Paul and Jimmy, are the youngest kids there and it's their initiation night. They're going snipe hunting. Oh, and there's also an escaped murderer on the loose who could be in the woods, but that's not stopping their initiation. One of the older boys, Mark, tells them that they have to all split from the campfire, walk 250 paces into the woods, turn off the flashlights and wait until the older boys whistle them back.
Ty enters the woods and soon finds a silvery creature in the dark which he gets into his snipe bag with ease. He returns to the camp with his bag in tow. The boys check and see that it's a strange creature with bizarre features like large pointy ears and a jagged tail. Mark and the older boys tell the others that they don't know what this creature is since they've never caught a snipe before. It was all just to mess with the younger kids. Then they see pairs of giant orange eyes glow from the woods and near the campers who huddle in fear.
Of the three camp stories so far, this is probably second best. I feel Gooney Birds did more with its plot. I do like it more than A Night in the Woods simply for the dark ending and the description of the snipes. Almost thought this would tie into the earlier story and it was going to be another Tailypo creature. Would have been a clever callback. But, for what this was, it still does the trick. And yes, there is one more variant of this story in the next book so don't worry. Another Ty is going to die. Also, why add the murderer part if there's no payoff to that? Huh.
BOOK 3 CONCLUSION
Aside from one real clunker, this might be the best of the books I've read so far. Almost all of the stories worked and flowed much better, offering just enough detail to drive the story forward, and some even having really great twists. A sign that even two years after the sequel, there's still some life in this book series. And it shows that Stamper's quality is improved. Granted, most just feel like variations of classic horror tales, but their spins in these books almost always deliver. Also less redundancy. Less of the stories are in the same settings, and far less reuse of monsters like vampires for example. We get one at least. Granted, we also get Wax Hitler, but it's the least concerning Hitler ever, I guess. Like I said, it's out there, but it's no gorilla on the boat.
Best story is The Ghost's Revenge as I feel it's the one with the most thought put in it and ends with a bitter twist that feels like the protagonist was wronged for being forced to keep a promise she shouldn't have had to keep. I mean she's still a civil war confederate niece to a slave owning plantation family so, you know, don't cry for me Argentina, but it's still a sad ending. Wait Till Max Comes was the weakest, feeling like it was there to get this book to thirteen stories. Might be the weakest story yet, possibly of all four books. But we'll see if that holds true with one more book to go. The series would reach its conclusion in 1991 with thirteen more tales. Does J.B. Stamper stick the landing? We'll have to see. As for this, Still More Tales for the Midnight Hour gets an A-.
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