A Case of the Bumps: Face Off

The Haunted Mask II was a sequel to The Haunted Mask. It takes place one year after the events of the original story and focuses on Steve Boswell, one of the bullies in the previous book, having to deal with trying to remove an old man mask that is sapping his life and gets Carly Beth to help him. 

The Scream of the Haunted Mask was a sequel to The Haunted Mask. It takes place one year after the events of the original story and focuses on Carly Beth as she is still haunted by the events of the previous year, but now also has to deal with a haunted stable as well. 

Two books, both claiming to be the direct Haunted Mask sequel. But which one is truly worthy of that accolade? Well, seeing as it's Halloween time, I figured that this would be a perfect excuse to open yet another Case of the Bumps and offer a case study on both of these books. Which feels like the story that progresses the saga and which book is the overall better read. And no, I'm not counting the television adaptation of Haunted Mask II here either, just the book. So get your best plaster head, it's time to talk about The Haunted Mask yet again. 

THE CASE FOR: THE HAUNTED MASK II

The Haunted Mask II stars Steve Boswell, who along with Chuck Greene, antagonized Carly Beth in the previous book, and in term were catalysts in everything that happened, But this time it's Steve who gets the focus as one year after the events of the previous story, he now seeks a mask as scary as Carly Beth's in order to scare a group of first graders who constantly give him trouble during soccer practice. He finds the party store after bothering Carly Beth about it and steals a strange old man mask. When he wears it however, it makes him feel old and weak, turning him into a dying old man. With Carly Beth and Sabrina's help, they manage to reunite the mask with an old tuxedo, which removes the mask from Steve's face.

As a direct sequel, this book decides to focus on Steve Boswell, which I think is a much needed change. We got Carly Beth's story last time and, as the book demonstrates, she has grown as a character, no longer falling for Chuck and Steve's pranks. And while one could argue that Steve is too easy of a mark for these first graders to constantly dunk on (Seriously, the soccer ball rock thing feels so cartoonish), you get his need for revenge here. To scare a bunch of bratty kids. So while you could look at the plot as being rather rehash, there's at least better reasoning for it to exist than, say, going and getting a deadly camera to prove to a prick teacher that it really works. Stine's sequels are often his worst works, but here it at least sets up the "here we go again" aspect with a stronger reasoning.

I also like that we don't just rehash the same old mask from last time. That Steve's mask is far different and works far differently than what befell Carly Beth. An old man mask that, when worn, saps all of Steve's energy and literally starts to kill him at a rapid pace. Behold the ravages of age! I like that it implies that the unloved masks all have their own uniqueness to them, that they can affect the wearer in different ways. And with Steve's body falling apart, there's more of a sense of urgency to everything. It also leads to one of the funniest moments ever where Steve calls Carly Beth's, but gets her dad who thinks he's just some weird old creep calling his daughter. It deserves the win for that alone. So it becomes a book that, while living in the shadow of a much stronger tale, does still stand on its own with its own great bits and pieces.

THE CASE FOR: THE SCREAM OF THE HAUNTED MASK

The Scream of the Haunted Mask stars Carly Beth. It's been one year since the events of the previous book, and the mask is still in her house, locked in a box in the basement. However, the voice of the mask constantly calls to her, beckoning her to wear the mask once again. She and Sabrina also work at a farm where they take care of a group of kindergartners on Halloween, where the stable is supposedly haunted. A stable boy used a mask to scare the horse groomer, but instead scared the horses who all died and also trampled the boy to death. However, it was revealed to be the ghost of a girl named Laura who intends to use the haunted mask to cause more evil, unless Carly Beth gives her back the mask. After putting the mask on, Carly Beth confronts Laura, who is ultimately killed (or whatever killing a ghost constitutes) by the ghost horses. 

As a direct sequel, this book focuses more on Carly Beth, which I think makes it a stronger sequel overall. Because it's as much about Carly Beth's trauma over the events of the previous book than it is about a book involving ghost horses. The book makes sure to show that Carly Beth has grown as a person, how she's not easily scared by Chuck and Steve's antics, while still giving her the trepidation that comes with her history with the mask. Character growth in any Stine sequel is weird, let me tell you, but if any character was to display it, I'm glad it's Carly Beth. You don't get as much mask action until the end, but it's enough to satisfy. The mystery of the ghost stable does feel like it could have fit into any other book, but adding it here while still tying the history of the mask with it keeps it from being frustrating.

I'm curious as to how much of what this book became was in Stine's mind when he thought of creating The Haunted Mask Lives! for Goosebumps Gold, or was that book meant to involve the mask far more? The farm setting also adds for great dark atmosphere, and the climax is rather exciting as we have the kids having the masks trapped on their face as Laura seeks the mask, Carly Beth wearing the mask, and the final confrontation. And I like how they handle the idea of the symbol of love being the carrots that she gave the ghost horses. It also ends on enough of an open ending, as the mask calls out, saying it'll see Carly Beth next Halloween. That it will always involve itself in her life, that the temptation will always be there. And if not for Stine pivoting wildly different with Wanted: The Haunted Mask, most likely we could have had a third book in this timeline, with one final confrontation of the mask and Carly Beth.

THE CASE AGAINST: THE HAUNTED MASK II

The Haunted Mask II is not without its glaring flaws, to which there are plenty of them. Mainly in how it kind of makes the symbol of love concept not matter anymore. You could argue that given this mask is different from Carly Beth that a different method makes more sense. That doing the love thing again feels redundant. But really? The ending is just the mask and a tuxedo dancing up a staircase? It's a silly visual, but also kind of feels like such a "Stine has no idea how to solve this" feeling to it. As evident of a last minute idea as you'll ever get from Stine. And by that note, why do I care about what happens to Steve? Both he and Chuck antagonized Carly Beth enough that I really don't care if he's gotten better as a person and they all get along, seeing his saga is less interesting to me. 

And then there's the revenge reasoning. For Carly Beth, she wanted a way to get back at Chuck and Steve for all of the torment, but also it was Carly Beth needing to find a way to shed this idea that she's a fraidy cat who can be easily picked on. In this book, Steve needs to get revenge on first graders because he's too easy to prank. He really kicked a rock because he thought it was a soccer ball. How good of a paint job did those kids do to that rock? And all of that build to get the mask and prank the kids on Halloween leads to nothing. The first graders thinking he's some frail old man that needs help. Kind of proving that maybe it's not the kids that suck, but Steve himself. It also has a stinky twist with Chuck wearing a monster mask in a classic "here we go again" twist. And even Stine didn't give a shit about following up on that idea since The Haunted Mask Lives! was going to go right back to Carly Beth as the focus. Because at the end of the day, Steve Boswell isn't as interesting as Carly Beth and a book on him doesn't make for a great book.

THE CASE AGAINST: THE SCREAM OF THE HAUNTED MASK

Well, at least things happen in The Haunted Mask II. You get more mask action, while here it's just a whole load of nothing until the very end. Sure there's a mystery, but like most Stine mysteries it's kind of dull. The character you think is the culprit turns out to be the culprit. This book also feels redundant in the fact the book focuses on our protagonists dealing with bratty kids, which for as bad as the kids are in HMII, they're at least memorable for some of the pranks they pulled on Steve. Here, you can easily forget these kids exist and feel more like they were added because Stine needed to pad this story in any possible way to get the book to page quota before focusing on HorrorLand. 

There's also a massive continuity problem when you think about it. How did Laura have the mask? It's been around for about a century? So does that mean the shopkeeper is that old? And speaking of, isn't the whole origin of the mask being that they were created by the shopkeeper, but they all corrupted, becoming unloved faces? So, if that's the case, how did Laura get a hold of it, and if it vanished like it did, how? These masks need a symbol of love to be removed and I can't say that anything Laura did in that span of time would warrant the mask being removeable. 

There's so little mask action that you could make the argument that this didn't start as a Haunted Mask book, but rather a ghost story about a haunted stable that Stine shoehorned the mask antic into. I mean, it would be something he'd seemingly do with the next Haunted Mask book, so it stands to reason that there would be precedent. And that's the saddest sin of all when you can ultimately take something that is seemingly so key to the story and remove it, leaving the book mostly unharmed. The Haunted Mask is a Superfluous Clay in its own book and that's damaging. At least The Haunted Mask II feels like if you remove elements like Carly Beth or the mask shop and focused on just Steve Boswell with an old man mask, you'd lose a lot more to it. That's sadly not the case with The Scream of the Haunted Mask.

FINAL VERDICT

After looking at the pros and cons of both books, which do I feel should count as the canonical follow-up? Which is the trick and which is the treat? Both books have very strong elements to one another, while both books have massive flaws as well. Both could work as a convincing sequel, while both have parts to them that feel lackluster in the grand scheme. But only one can count, and the choice for best Haunted Mask direct sequel goes to... The Haunted Mask II.

There are a lot of strong elements in The Scream of the Haunted Mask that I like, especially in building up the PTSD and even the addictive nature of the mask to Carly Beth. I think it has a stronger climax. I even put it in my ranking as the better Haunted Mask, which I stand by given it does feel like a stronger book overall and is better in many ways. But when I think of The Haunted Mask, I tend to think of the folly of Steve Boswell a lot more. It keeps so many of the original book's elements while not feeling like a one-to-one rehash. And the old man mask and everything that happens to Steve does feel scary and memorable. The idea of this kid rapidly dying as the mask saps away his life. There's some humor that works, some horror that does work on a nightmarish scale, it also makes Steve a more likeable character than he was in the first book, so if that was the intent, then this sequel works fine. Both books work fine, but I think the best direct sequel that feels true to the spirit of the original is the original. It's not as strong a book as the first, but for a freaky little Halloween tale, it's easily one of Stine's better outings.