The Stinal Countdown: The Haunting Hour: Chills in the Dead of Night

It's time for another good old fashioned Stine short story anthology. We really haven't gotten to cover any since the Tales to Give You Goosebumps series. And thankfully we have a couple more that came post-Goosebumps. In 1999, Stine released Nightmare Hour: Time for Terror, which we'll talk about in a later blog. In 2001, in the middle of his run with The Nightmare Room, Stine followed that up with The Haunting Hour: Chills in the Dead of Night. A short story compilation which also featured unique art by different artists. Each story is about 18-20 pages in length, so they're not as rushed as they could be, so hopefully that's a good sign of what we get here. So, given the importance of both the art and the story we'll be covering the artwork as well. Let's see what chills await us in the dead of night... or afternoon, morning, evening, whenever you read this.

Also yes, I did mistakenly do this one first thinking it was the first of the two books, so yeah. Wouldn't be this book series if I didn't do these out of order, eh?

This cover is really cool. I love the warped angle, the destroyed shape of the skull inside the hour glass. The nice touch of the spiderwebs. It sells the concept of this being the "Haunting Hour" alright. Interesting that I cover this after covering Grandpa's Monster Movies where I said that there was a lack of much in the background to keep the cover interesting. But here, I think the simple hardwood floor background works better since it takes up less space and doesn't take away from the focus of the really cool artwork. Which is something the entire book has to offer. So this is a great start.

#01. THE HALLOWEEN DANCE

COVER STORY: I really like this one. Artist Joe Rivera gives a very strong image of the titular Halloween Dance, with Mark and Jake caught in the middle of the freakish ritual. The art gives off a Tim Burton/Henry Sellick-like vibe that captures the imagination. I really dig it. A good first art piece to kick things off.

STORY: Mark's dreading Halloween. He can't go to anyone else's party, but he has to have a party at home with his eight year old sister Madison. He invites some of his friends, including Jake, who like Mark dresses as a zombie. Despite their best efforts to have fun, Madison and her friends rule the roost. So Mark and Jake sneak out to go trick or treating up the hill. But before they get too far, they almost wind up being hit by a truck. I'll try not to be too shocked by the inevitable, but we're not there yet, so let's continue. As they gather themselves, they see a ghoulish looking boy named Ray who invites them to a Halloween party. A Halloween party in a graveyard. Mark and Jake are already freaked out, but when actual dead people start crawling out of their graves, now the two really get concerned.

Despite the ghouls all about the graveyard, Jake convinces Mark that they should go to the party at the caretaker's mansion. Given they're dressed like zombies, they'll fit right in. Ray mentions that the party will end with something called the Halloween dance, but doesn't elaborate on what that entails just yet. They head to the party which sees a lot of the ghouls messing around, throwing their heads about and other malarkey. Mark and Jake meet a 112 year old dead girl who asks how they died, which they don't elaborate on since they're not very good poker faces. The girl then heads to the center of the party with a mirror and asks the crowd who will reflect tonight. Meaning that if you have a reflection, then you must be alive. Jake and Mark panic when it comes their time, only to discover they don't have any reflection. 

So yeah, they were hit by the truck earlier, meaning they're dead. They rushed the street just as the truck slammed into them, sending them flying in Ray's direction. As the two are unable to process this, Ray tells them that the Halloween Dance is about to begin. Every year, the dead dance in the graveyard in the full moon. Doing so causes time to stop and the dead and the living to be in the same reality. This gives Mark an idea. If the dance can alter time, maybe if they did the dance backwards, it could reverse time to before Mark and Jake were killed. And sure enough, it works as time moves backwards and Mark and Jake manage to return to before the truck hits them. 

TWIST ENDING: Except the dance keeps going and time continues to rewind on Mark to the point that he's a baby again and it's his first Halloween.

CONCLUSION: A solid story to kick things off, The Halloween Dance kind of feels like a slightly better Headless Halloween in telling the story of a dead kid wanting to return to life. Only in this case, you kind of want the kid to succeed as he's not a rotten bully. There's also a really good atmosphere to everything with the dead returning to life and having this big party. I will say the dance is odd, mainly in it being a time warp thing. And thus it's what doesn't make the twist work as well for me. It's clever, even if it just reminds me of The Cuckoo Clock of Doom, but also feels like Stine hit a wall in how to end this story, so sure, time travel zombie dance turns our protagonist back into a baby. I can accept that as an ending. B. 

#02. THE BAD BABY SITTER

COVER STORY: Vince Natale gives us a cover that feels very Goosebumps like. The seemingly silly mixed with the freaky. And it don't get much freakier than human cookie boy. Solid freaked out face and a scenario that feels straight out of a nightmare. Probably would have been one that would have screwed me up as a kid, so mission accomplished.

STORY: Matthew and his sister Courtney have a problem. Two problems to be precise. Their neighbors Larry and MaryJo, a pair of bratty neighbor kids that they can't seen to ever get rid of. Matthew refers to them as oinkers and fat, again Stine STAYINYOURGODDAMNLANE. But Larry and MaryJo are sent home and Matthew and Courtney are left with a babysitter. The woman arrives and her name is Lulu, which Matthew says looks like a total babe. Okay calm the fuck down, Bob. But she's described as looking rather gothic with a black sweater and purple lipstick. She asks about Larry and MaryJo, to which both Matthew and Courtney respond about how annoying they are. But Lulu tells them that she has a way to get back at them for them. 

Lulu has the kids go out in the rain to gather mud to make mud cookies. Or, to be more precise, mud gingerbread men that look like Larry and MaryJo. They take a hair from MaryJo and some spilled potato chips from Larry and place them into the cookies before baking them. That night, Matthew accidentally breaks a hand off the Larry cookie. The next day at school, he discovers that the real Larry has a broken hand all of a sudden. When Courtney cuts the hair off the MaryJo cookie, she discovers that the real MaryJo lost her hair all of a sudden. So yeah, they realize that the mud cookies are connected to this. Because nothin' says lovin' like voodoo dolls from the oven. 

Lulu returns to babysit and the kids aren't too happy about this and are going to tell on her. Because someone will certainly believe the story of mud voodoo cookies. But Lulu anticipated this and made mud cookies of Matthew and Courtney. After stabbing Matthew with a feather to prove it's real, Lulu mentions that she does this whole voodoo mud doll thing a lot, and tells the kids that she'll have them make cookies of their parents next. But in the midst of all this, Courtney finds a black hair belonging to Lulu and grabs it, now having what they need to turn the tables. They make the cookie which freaks out Lulu. She fights with Courtney over it, only for the cookie's head to fall off, which in turn makes Lulu's head fall off. The headless body attacks the kids, but their dog Muttley eats the cookie which makes Lulu vanish for good. 

TWIST ENDING: Matthew and Courtney celebrate getting rid of Lulu, only to then see Muttley about to eat the cookies of them.

CONCLUSION: I like this one. Of the stories in the book, it's definitely the most Goosebumps feeling of the bunch. A focus on a strange supernatural villain and the evil she can do. Even giving us a really good ending with how freaky the final fight with Headless Lulu is. I also like that Lulu is just an evil witch that likes to mess with people, with her interest being voodoo. And the mud cookies were a decent way to do a voodoo story without it falling into unfortunate stereotypes. Overall, as solid a short Stine story as you could ask for. A-. 

#03. REVENGE OF THE SNOWMAN

COVER STORY: Art Spiegelman is probably the artist in this I'm most aware of, mainly for Maus. And what he offers isn't exactly a scary cover. It definitely is one going for a sillier scenario. But I will admit there is a freakiness in the bloodshot eyes and the frozen bead of sweat on Rick's face. So while it lacks in nightmare fuel, it works in selling the story concept. 

STORY: Rick Barker and his friends Loren and Fred are super tired of their friend Billy. He talks too much. He never shuts. I said he talks too much. Homeboy, you never shut up. He's also a know-it-all who likes to talk a lot about death. So Rick and the others decide to test one of his theories because they're stupid kids. On a snowy day, Billy claims that you can be frozen in fear, so Rick, Loren and Fred test that theory by throwing Billy into a snowbank and covering him from toe to head with snow, making him out to be like a human snowman. Despite Billy's pleas, the three finish the job and have a good laugh. Only Billy doesn't move or talk back to them. But the three laugh it off some more as Billy being REALLY committed to the bit so they just leave him in the snow and go sledding. Whatever comes next is probably going to sound like an alibi because I think they just wanted to murder him for shits and giggles.

Rick returns later and still sees the snowman of Billy there. He panics and starts to dig Billy out, only there's no sign of him. Suddenly, he hears Billy's voice from behind him, angry that he was frozen. Rick turns around to see Billy covered in ice, looking almost like a corpse, approaching him and grabbing him. The fear being so bad that Rick is unable to move. Unable to react. His body frozen in fear like what Billy claimed. Billy admits that he left the snowman shortly after the three booked it, rebuilt the snowman and just hid until they came back. He asks Rick if he was scared, but Rick is scared stiff... literally.

CONCLUSION: The shortest story of the book at a mere eight pages, but it does the trick in what it sets out to do. Be a story about the power of fear, and how you can literally be scared to near-death as what befalls Rick. Although for serious, the kids were going to just leave Billy to freeze to death. Doesn't matter how much of a loudmouth he is, he kind of earned that revenge. B.

#04. HOW TO BARGAIN WITH A DRAGON

COVER STORY: This one is really neat. Not exactly scary, but still works in selling this story about a boy confronting a dragon. Charles Burns presents a great dragon design in Ulrick as well as a great background setting of this rocky cave above the mountains. Also Ned looks neat too. 

STORY: We're getting something different from Stine here as we have a story from ye olden medieval times. A boy named Ned is going to meet with Sir Darkwind, the greatest dragon master in the kingdom. He's come at the request of Margolin the wizard. He arrives at Darkwind's fortress, a large windowless castle with dragons looming above. He meets with a man named Gregory, servant of Darkwind, who tells Ned to leave. But Darkwind soon shows himself. Ned tells him that he desperately needs the job of assisting the dragon master on account of his five brothers and sisters, as well as his injured father. He was working for Margolin, but he's dueling with another wizard so Ned needs new work. Darkwind tasks Ned with a mission to find Ulrick, the last remaining dragon and capture him. Do so and he'll be Darkwind's apprentice.

With no weapons or really any knowledge in capturing a dragon, Ned is confused as all hell. But he also notes that Darkwind seemed a cruel man. He whips his dragons and seemingly lives a hermit's life in his castle in fear of his enemies. Ned certainly doesn't want that, but work is work. He arrives at a cave and witnesses a swarm of albino rats eat a goat alive. Yep, this is a Stine book alright. The rats go to attack him but he makes a run for it. He arrives at Ulrick's cave and meets with the giant dragon. Ulrick tells Ned that Darkwind captured his fellow dragons who once roamed free. In fact, dragons ate gorshel bushes and berries. But Darkwind destroyed all the bushes except the ones he owned, hence it became easier to capture them by clipping their wings. Darkwind now spends his time torturting the dragons and forcing them to fight one another. I mean yeah, dude's a monster, but there were probably worse people to work for in these times. Before Ned can speak, Ulrick seemingly is about to eat him.

TWIST ENDING: Ulrick arrives at Darkwind's castle, ready to bargain with Darkwind. The dragon master exits his castle, only for Ned to reveal what he had bargained with Ulrick to bring him there. He uses a magic spell to transform the dragon master into a gorshel bush for the dragons to eat. His mission from Margolin the wizard seemingly was always this, so good to see it worked.

CONCLUSION: I like this one for its atmosphere. You don't get a lot of Stine attempting different eras in time, so when he does it's always neat. Granted, this story isn't the most original story, but there's nothing here that makes it feel too dull either so that's a plus. Also, you don't get enough satisfying twists like this, even if, again, it's the only predictable way to wrap this story up. Solid effort. B-.

#05. THE MUMMY'S DREAM

COVER STORY: Dream? More like a nightmare. I adore this artwork from John Jude Palencar. The mummy looks super freaky, as are all his wrappings being torn about. Then there's the screaming face and the hollow eye. The sense that this mummy suffered a lot from he was mummified. Definitely would have been a nightmare fuel cover for me if I read this as a kid. Top marks.

STORY: Connor Franklin really loves mummies. Good thing for him then that he was invited to his friend Joanna Levin's birthday party at the museum. Connor and his friend Josh look at the mummy room which has a few mummy cases, including one with a mummy inside. It gives Connor (and by proxy R.L. Stine) the chance to play Mr. Educator as he tells his friends about how mummies were hollowed out and filled with tar after dying, and how the brains were pulled out through the nose. After grossing the girls out, Josh diverts Connor's attention to the nearby supply closet and some strips of cloth on the ground that look like mummy wrappings. This gives Connor the brilliant idea to have Josh cover him head to toe in the wrapping to make him look like a mummy so he can scare the girls some more. Reader beware, girls are sooooo scareable according to Stine.

Time passes and Connor passes out. He wakes up to a bunch of strange men inside what looks to be an Egyptian pyramid. The high priest and the other men, priests, address him as Prince Akor, who was hiding from them because he apparently cast an evil of some sort, so he's to be killed. Connor is confused and tries to run, but gets caught. He gets dragged to an altar where he's to be boiled alive in tar. See, there are people planning to kill the prince and leave him unmummified, which will screw him out of the afterlife. So, instead of, you know, NOT killing him yet, they're gonna get it over with now so he's not killed later. Gotta admit, they're prompt. Connor is confused, he's from the future and from America, yet can speak Egyptian. The high priest tells Connor he's had these dreams many times, but regardless, he's to be given a potion to numb the heat of the tar, so not total pain. That's a plus? Connor gets sent to a prison to await his death, but he finds a convenient open window to escape. He runs back to the mummy case and hopes it'll hop him back to the present.

TWIST ENDING: He awakens to the sight of unfamiliar kids looking at him in disgust. It's then that he realizes that he really is a mummy now.

CONCLUSION: I liked this one a lot. It builds up well and gives us just enough time to build up Connor's predicament. It's definitely one more heavily focused on educating the reader on mummies, but it flows well to build to the horror of it. And the twist works well too. Was Connor right? Did he somehow time warp to ancient Egypt, then end up mummified or was he always Prince Akor? Gotta love stories with open endings. I'm also glad I covered this now before Night of the Living Mummy is out in September since parts of that story sound kind of like what this was. Time will tell. A-.

#06. ARE WE THERE YET?

COVER STORY: Holy shit this cover is metal. If skeletons having a picnic was enough to mess with my head you'd better believe this would have as well. Greg Call nailed the imagery presented in this story, focusing on the skeleton of the clerk at the hotel. It's the little details that make this one so great. The hair falling off, the dripping flesh that's rotting away, even the silly yet effective "Check Out Time: NEVER" on the wall. Easily my favorite art in the book. 

STORY: Tammi and her brother Artie aren't too happy about going on a car trip with their parents for their Summer vacation. Even though their friends have also gone on summer vacation trips and haven't come back yet. As they drive to seemingly the middle of nowhere, Artie spots a collie outside. No tags or anything. This isn't the first dog they've seen as they once saw a terrier get run over and killed. YEP, THIS IS AN R.L. STINE BOOK ALRIGHT. As the family ponder what to do, a pickup truck pulls up and a young man retrieves the dog, which is named Fletch. Big Chevy Chase fan I take it? They stop at a restaurant where the kids complain about their food as their parents are still not talking about where they're going, only that they have to be brave. Reader beware, potential child abandonment imminent?

The family stop at the Wayside Motel and sleep. Or, to be precise, only Tammi and Artie sleep because when they wake up, their parents are long gone. They find a man at a nearby counter, only to see that he's been dead for a long time, leaving just a skeleton behind. The phone's dead too, since everything else is. The kids make a run for it to a nearby farmhouse that also has a graveyard. With mud that starts to cause them to sink down. But they manage to escape in time. They then hear the sounds of dogs barking. They open a shed to find two dogs chained up. Then suddenly someone tells them they've flunked. They then see their parents begging a judge to give them another chance.

Okay, so get this. This was all a test from the government. All families have to take these car trips to test the bravery of the kids. Because I guess the planet's dying or something so only the smartest and bravest kids can be allowed to survive. Which explains the other kids disappearing. They were doing okay with the hotel and graveyard, but failed by going inside the shed with the dogs. They showed they were brave yet not smart. Before the judge can take them away, Tammi and Artie free the dogs from their chains and the dogs attack the judge, which I guess is smart enough for them to pass the test.

CONCLUSION: Wait, what? Where the hell did THIS come from? Like, Stine writes a brief preamble before each story and he mentions how on car trips his parents would joke about abandoning him and his brother, but how that evolved into this is genuinely fascinating. I figured that we were going somewhere with the car trips and how the other kids didn't return, but I can assure you I didn't expect post-apocalyptic eugenics. And yet, it might be one of my favorite twists I've read from Stine in a long time. Caught me off guard in a way I haven't felt since the time travel closet in Beach House. And there's some decent horror and action, paced just well enough. Yeah fuck it. I loved the hell out of this one. A+.

#07. TAKE ME WITH YOU

COVER STORY: After the mind trip of the last few, this one feels more simple. So much so that I kind of forget about it. Roz Chast gives us a more sillier illustration that doesn't hit on the scares, but there's still a little to be had with Amber's freaked reaction and the eyes staring from inside the trunk. It's one that will stick with you the least from the book, but still works in what it sets out to do.

STORY: Amber's dad found an old steamer trunk that he thinks will be perfect for their upcoming cruise. Amber's disgusted at the idea, and doesn't like having the trunk in her room so close to her doll collection. She notes that being twelve she doesn't play with them, just collects them, and that her eight year old sister Kat (or Copy Kat) is starting her own. Amber's dad opens the trunk and all that's inside is an old pair of lace up shoes, a gray skirt and some old clothes from seemingly decades ago. After eating dinner, Amber heads back upstairs to see her doll collection in disarray. She blames Kat, but Kat was downstairs the entire time. But who could have messed up her dolls? Definitely not whatever lives in that trunk, certainly.

That night, Amber hears a girl's voice whispering "Take me with you." She tells her parents but they don't believe her because... I mean, it's like the middle of the night and there's CERTAINLY no way any kids could be in Amber's room. Especially not in that strange mystery trunk they brought in. The next day, Amber heads to the bathroom and sees the words "Take me with you" written in lipstick on the bathroom mirror and gets blamed for it, her parents thinking this is some elaborate way of getting out of having to take a cruise. That night, a figure of a girl emerges from the trunk who again asks that Amber takes her with her. See, the ghost wanted to visit her grandparents in Scotland, but fell ill and died inside the trunk. She needs Amber to take her so that she can finish her trip. However, she can't stay out of the trunk for too long or she'll disappear forever. So she's just gonna posses Amber instead. But before the ghost can do so, Amber grabs her dolls, a symbol of who she is, and it's enough to defeat the ghost, who Amber then locks inside the trunk once more.

TWIST ENDING: The family take the cruise and arrive in their cabin. It's there that Dad surprises Kat with the trunk, which she's giving to Kat since Amber didn't want it. Amber begins to panic as her dad opens the case.

CONCLUSION: Another solid one. It's only problem is that it's a short story so it's ultimately rushed by the end. But I've seen far worse rush jobs. I like the build for what's in the trunk and even the plight of the ghost. Twist is pretty predictable, but also nothing that kills the book either. Definitely could have worked as a longer story. B.

#08. MY IMAGINARY FRIEND

COVER STORY: Clay Patrick McBride gives us a cover that, when first viewed, probably doesn't make you think too much about it. It's just a photo of three boys. But you look a bit deeper. The faces being scratched up, the sort of ethereal look to the one in front, the odd foreboding feeling it gives. It's a cover you think more of as time goes by and it sells the haunting vibe of the story. Some horror art hits you with immediate shock and others can hit you as it bores in your mind and this is a prime example of just that.

STORY: David and his friend Shawn are in their room mostly arguing. Shawn is sick with the flu, but David really doesn't care. David's mom comes in to check on Shawn, but ignores David, which okay, I hope the twist isn't what it already appears to be, Bob. As seen in this already, you can catch me off guard. Shawn asks for his mom to check on Travis, his imaginary friend, who also asked for the window to be open and you know cold air is wonderful for the flu. But despite their mom not seeing Travis, Travis seemingly exists and can talk to Shawn. He has Shawn get up and leave the house in the middle of the night to have fun, starting with painting the garage of their neighbor Mr. Harper. They get caught by David's dad who gets mad at David, but doesn't blame Shawn or Travis. This is already starting to sound very familiar, but we have a few pages left.

The next day after school, David tells Shawn and Travis that he has to be home on account of being grounded, but Shawn says that Travis has other ideas. Namely going to the old railroad trestle. David tries to get Shawn not to do it, but Travis pulls the "chicken" card and that settles that. Shawn heads on the old rickety trestle which starts to fall apart. He manages to get off in time, but David gets his foot caught, meaning his dad has to rescue him with the help of firefighters, meaning that David is once again in trouble for something Shawn did. Even Shawn agrees that Travis is becoming a problem, so they head to the frozen fishing pond, only for Travis to shove Shawn onto the ice. Because once Shawn dies, Travis will become real. I don't think that's how this works, but okay. David tries to wrestle Shawn off the pond, only for the ice to break and David to fall in.

TWIST ENDING: David is awakened at the hospital by a doctor and his dad. He mentions Shawn and Travis, but his dad says they don't exist. They were both his imaginary friends. Since his parents divorced, David's mind snapped and he manifested two imaginary friends. As his dad and the doctor talk, David hears the voice of Travis telling him to make a run for it.

CONCLUSION: So yeah, I kind of had this one figured out immediately. This is ultimately another version of Good Friends from Tales to Give You Goosebumps. Both have a good kid who has the evil imaginary friend who is a bad influence on them. This one does feel a lot darker though when you add in the element of the divorce and the idea that David's mom in the beginning is also imaginary. And thus we get one of the more depressing books when you put everything together. That this is ultimately a story about a kid whose mind broke because he couldn't handle his parents' divorce. That is somehow darker than Dylan manifesting a sister in the Tales version. I can even buy the whole "I'll be real when I kill you" concept as again, Travis is the imaginary friend of David's imaginary friend Shawn. And if you think about how that twist went down, that may have happened. Overall, while it's similar, I do think it's superior to Good Friends. A+.

#09. LOSERS

COVER STORY: Fitting that perhaps the most absurd story in the book gives us our most absurd work. Patrick Arrasmith delivers in giving us the major scene of the story as Colin and Pete, now ballooned, are being judged and poked about. It's perfect horror art that makes you want to see what's going on here. There's even the details of their clothes starting to tear apart due to their weight that makes this kind of more messed up when you really think about it. Yeah, I can see this messing some kids up... or giving them an inflation fetish, which is also concerning.

STORY: Colin, Pete and Pete's cousin Franny head to the Washoo County Fair. Mainly to laugh at the carnival freaks. Well, Pete and Colin do, Franny says they're just assholes, which, you know, not wrong. They make asses of themselves mocking other patrons, putting worms in prize cabbages, pissing off hogs and writing "LOSER" on competition squashes. It's enough to have Franny finally get away from the two. But as the boys laugh, they get caught by a man wearing a straw hat named MacColley, or Mac for short, who says the boys are winners. He then takes them into a building and locks them inside. They notice a bunch of hands in jars, then MacColley returns with some cotton candy for the boys to eat because it's always a good idea to eat food from strangers. But then again these kids are morons, so it's not a shock either.

Colin and Pete are then led to a stage where they see a tall skinny boy and a hairy-faced girl. They also see the people they angered at the fair, the hog owner, the guy with the cabbage and women with the squashes. Before they can react, the boys begin to swell up and become so large and fat that they can't even speak because of swollen tongues. They're checked and weighed, and some of Colin's flesh is shredded as a skin sample, but they aren't prize winners, so they're losers. But MacCaolley says that their hands should still be useful. But the boys are lifted onto a conveyor belt where they get stamped by a giant metal machine. They awaken in a dumpster back to normal with a lot of rotten fruits and vegetables. Worried about what's going on, they run to find help, but run into Franny who says that she saw the boys enter the House of a Thousand Screams attraction, not some strange building that makes kids fat.

TWIST ENDING: Colin returns home and gets ready to take a bath, still confused about what happened. But when he takes his shirt off, he sees the word LOSER tattooed on his chest.

CONCLUSION: This was a decent morality tale. Mainly the moral of not being an obnoxious jackass, especially when others are just trying to enjoy themselves at a fair. Colin and Pete suck, so you don't feel too bad about their insane punishment. Although it does offer a pretty scary scenario of these kids being drugged, ballooned and almost losing their hands in the process, which almost felt like that would have been the twist instead of the chest tattoo. Maybe Stine wanted to do cut hands but wasn't allowed to. Either way, it provided a solid dark story.  B+

#10. CAN YOU DRAW ME?

COVER STORY: Bleu Turrell offers this cover and it's decent. I do feel it's a bit messy and doesn't fully convey the horror of the story. Maybe if we saw what the paintbrushes were drawing it would have more of an impact. And given some of the stuff the paintbrushes draw in the story, we could have gotten something really freaky. But for selling the concept of the story, it does fine.

STORY: Dylan is in the middle of painting a portrait of his friend (and crush), Julie. Turns out that this interest in painting just came out of the blue when Dylan spotted an ad with a girl's face, asking "can you draw me?" It was for a contest where the winner would earn lessons from a local artist, MacKenzie Douglas, and Dylan won it. Ever since then, Dylan can seemingly draw anyone. He was even sent MacKenzie's own paintbrushes. And then a chimp attacks Julie. Wait, what? Yeah, it turns out that Dylan's dad works at an animal hospital and they're taking care of a chimp, along with other animals. As Dylan is about to finish the portrait, his hand starts to move on its own, turning the beautiful portrait into a gross image, which angers Julie. Yeah, so much for that crush, my dude.

That night, Dylan paints a self portrait, but once again his hands have a mind of their own, and ultimately paints him with a noose around his neck. Which, the sight of a piece of possible suicide art, causes his parents to wonder if there's anything wrong with him. At art class, Dylan draws a farm scene, but his hands cause him to draw a painting of a headless farm family with blood spilling all over and being pecked apart by chickens. Possessed hands or not, Dylan's drawing some metal as hell art. He then is unable to stop his hands as he paints and draws all over everyone else's works. Dylan then finds out that MacKenzie Douglas had died three weeks prior. So now it's more confusing to Dylan why the brushes were sent to him weeks after he died. That night, he sees the paintbrushes moving on his own, and takes them outside and throws them in the trash.

Turns out, that accomplished very little as the next day, Dylan sees the brushes back in his room. He then tries to destroy them with his dad's saw and flamethrower, but there's no damage. He tries to get rid of them again, but the brushes come back to life and paint that Dylan's hands are theirs. Dylan then has an idea.

TWIST ENDING: A month later, Dylan and Julie watch a news report on the chimp that they were taking care of. He's now a world famous artist thanks to the paint brushes that Dylan gave him. Wow that... that was a really quick fix, huh?

CONCLUSION: So, is it safe to call this one "Painting Lessons Can be Murder"? Because it sure feels that way. We have an evil teacher and a focus on hands, and even some ghost stuff with the haunted brushes. Only instead of robots and hand chopping inventors, we have chimps. It's a neat concept though, one I do think could have been expanded into a longer book, especially to explain what MacKenzie Douglas' deal was. Was he always evil, or did he become evil after dying, or was his paintbrushes always possessed? This story feels like a sample platter to a full course meal that we'll never get. But for some really freaky imagery, I can't help but find this one worth a recommend. B-. 

The Haunting Hour is a solid series of short stories. Granted, not all of them feel super original. Right down to the point that I could tell that some of the ideas were cribbed from other Stine works. Be it Piano Lessons Can Be Murder, or Headless Halloween or even short stories like Good Friends. But for every story that does feel similar, you get something fresh and unique from Stine. Best example being Are We There Yet? which takes such a bizarre turn that it kind of makes it one of his better works by proxy. And each story gets enough time to breathe and build, save for Revenge of the Snowman, though given the plot, it being so truncated was probably a godsend. 

Honestly, this feels like a better take on the short story concept than the Tales to Give You Goosebumps line. Whether it had to do with Scholastic restrictions or a rushed feel to things, you rarely got many strong memorable stories from that series. This feels more like Stine putting in that effort, and maybe the fact there's no psycho schedule at this point in Stine's career helped make these more memorable. So yeah, easy recommend. A good series of simple scary stories that kind of prove that Stine can be a decent horror author, even if a lot of his work can say otherwise. I think when you can tell he has a passion for something and it's not the Goosebumps grind, you get him not being half-assed in his execution. I greatly appreciate whole-ass Stine. Hopefully the prior book is just as good, we'll talk about it soon. Only downside: Could have used a gorilla on the boat. We got a chimp on a bed, but that's not the same. The Haunting Hour: Chills in the Dead of Night gets an A.

STORY RANKING

#10: Can You Draw Me?

#9: How to Bargain With a Dragon

#8:  Take Me With You

#7: Revenge of the Snowman

#6: Losers

#5: The Halloween Dance

#4: The Bad Baby Sitter

#3: The Mummy's Dream

#2: My Imaginary Friend

#1: Are We There Yet?