The Stinal Countdown: Fear Street: Fear Park #02: The Loudest Scream

Step right back up, for it's time for the second part of Fear Park. We had a really solid first part that did a good job establishing the history of the park, the people involved and the dark incident which led to the inevitable curse the park would undergo when it finally opened. So what else can happen? This is the bridge book of the trilogy so hopefully it does a good job carrying us to the finale. Ride a painted pony, it's time for The Loudest Scream.

I like this cover a bit more than our previous cover. Mainly for Dierdre's shocked face, which actually does elicit terror for once. We don't get really decent "Oh shit" faces on these covers and this is definitely one of the better attempts. It even works better than the roller coaster cover of the first because it gives more of a feeling of Dierdre being in a situation beyond her control more than the last book did. It's tricky to make a Merry-Go-Round feel like a traumatic experience, but props to Fear Street.

In 1935, Jack Bradley and his associates, having been inspired by Coney Island, intended to build an amusement park in the Fear Woods. Their problem however was Nicholas Fear, spellcaster and member of the infamous Fear family. Meanwhile, Nicholas' son Robin is dealing with his love for a girl named Meghan and his issues with Jack's son Richard. Despite Nicholas being against the plans, and Jack dying mysteriously by evil magic bone stripping bugs, construction on the park goes on as planned with the teens of Shadyside hired to help remove the trees and stumps. Suddenly, all of the teens involved, including Richard, start to chop each other up with their hatchets. Robin reveals to his father that his plan worked to keep the park from being open... for sixty years at least as Jason Bradley, descendent of the same Bradley family, finally opens the park, and even holds a play of the massacre. His daughter Dierdre is in a love triangle with a boy named Paul and a boy named Rob that doesn't last long as Paul is decapitated at the Ferris wheel. Despite the worries of curses, Jason hires Rob, who reveals his full name to be Robin Fear.

We start the second book at Paul's funeral as Dierdre is still in shock, which is fair seeing as she saw her boyfriend sans head being smacked around a Ferris wheel. She is still with Robin, who has been there to comfort her. They bring up all the accidents, to which Robin notes that it's believed that Nicholas Fear was the one who cast a curse on the area. But, teen corpse aside, Jason Bradley still intends to open the park, which angers Robin seeing as this hampers his plans. He also realizes that killing Paul wasn't the way to get the park closed, he'll have to kill Dierdre. They then see Paul who's come back from the dea-no, wait, it's Jared, Paul's younger brother who looks just like Paul. Not as stinky as ruler rifle but close, Bob. Jared is described as more wild than Paul was, and hangs with three other boys named Steve, Kevin and Joey, who Dierdre notes are some bad kids who just as bad an influence on Jared.

Also, more importantly, Jared blames Dierdre's dad for the death of Paul. That since Paul's death happened in the park, then he should be responsible for it and that he only cares about the park's opening, lives be damned. Which, I mean, this is the same guy who made a play about the true story of teens butchering themselves, so I don't exactly blame Jared for having that opinion. Robin tells Dierdre that Jared is all talk and takes her to his car to take her home. However, he notices his reflection in the mirror. His face is starting to change into the real Robin Fear. The seventy plus year old Robin Fear. Which, ewww by the way. But it's enough of a wake up call for Robin to think that he might have to kill Dierdre very soon.  But luckily for Robin, Dierdre doesn't see his face and goes for a walk instead. He rushes back to his house and uses an immortality spell to restore his face. So in case you needed to know just how Robin's been able to look like a teenage boy for 60 years, there you go.

But it's not just Robin taking this spell. Meghan Fairwood is still with him. She's also oblivious to Robin's real plot. She believes that he's been trying to ward away the curse that his father placed on the park, but in reality he's been the one cursing the park in hopes of finally closing it down. She laments on having no life despite having an eternal life and is still in love with Robin regardless of how secret he's gotten. Meanwhile, Dierdre heads to her father's office, only to be grabbed by Jared. He's there to ask Mr. Bradley for a job, to take Paul's place, and pleads for Dierdre to help him, despite the fact he actually has some nefarious motives of his own. However, Mr. Bradley already gave the lost job opening to Robin, so tough shit. Angered, Jared grabs a rock and throws it, which enters the monkey preserve, smashing a squirrel monkey in the head. You know, I've gotten so far into this trilogy that I didn't even factor possible animal abuse. The park manager, a man named Gunther, kicks the boys out of the park. Don't fuck with Gunther, he's the ring general after all. And there's my wrestling reference, folks!

Robin spots Jared and his friends leaving the park and catches up to them, saying that Gunther's a real jerk and he knows Jared would love to get back at him. He shows them the cliffside area of the preserve where Gunther feeds the lions. He suggests the boys give Gunther a scare later that night by pretending to shove him into the hungry lions. That night, Jared and the boys do just that. Confront an unsuspecting Gunther and toy with the idea of throwing him into the pit. Suddenly, purple smoke billows and the boys make a run for it, but not before they see Gunther turn to the lion pit and jump down. They look down and see Gunther's corpse torn to shreds by the hungry lions. They run off, but get caught by a pair of guards who just think that the boys are sick from too much junk food and not seeing a man commit suicide. Robin and Dierdre show up and learn about what happened to Gunther from Mr. Bradley. Surely two notable deaths is enough to shut down the park, right? Well, I mean the trilogy would be done like barely halfway if that were the case, so no. Dierdre then hears a gunshot, which are tranquilizer guns to put the lions to sleep since they got a taste for meat now.

Despite Robin stating that this is all because of the curse of Nicholas Fear, Dierdre isn't willing to believe in superstition. Despite, you know, multiple deaths coming off an already foreboding history of the park. Robin then finds a hammer and tries to smash Dierdre in the skull, but misses when she goes to attend to a dog stuck in a fence. Back at the Mansion, Meghan is tired of being cooped up and heads to the park to see if Robin's doing the job of totally removing this curse his dad made. But she ends up seeing Robin kissing Dierdre. So yeah. Maybe taking the son of a spellcaster wasn't the brightest idea. But now Meghan is starting to piece together that Robin was lying to her the entire time, and not just about their relationship, but in trying to save the park. She vows revenge on him.

The next plan for Robin is to convince Dierdre to ride the Ferris wheel with him. He plans to get her to the top, then shove her off. But that's going to have to wait as she still has some nerves over everything involving Paul. Meanwhile, Jared is paranoid about being caught for the death of Gunther, so he tries to find Robin to talk about it, but the old man named Jenkins won't let them into the park without any tickets. So Jared starts shaking him and almost breaks his neck. So yeah, even if he didn't technically kill one man, he almost killed another. Not Jared's week, huh? The foursome return to Jared's place where he gets a metal box, with plans to get into the park the more fun way. His plan is to plant some firecrackers in the house of mirrors, which he does. But when they spot Robin, they make a run for it. So they at least gave Robin a new idea as to how to destroy the park. He casts a spell which lights the fireworks, blowing up the house of mirrors and horrifically killing the people inside. Which includes more beheadings, which is definitely becoming a running thing in this trilogy.

So now with a massive tragedy, and the news reporters there to scope the scene, this should totally be what kills the park, right? Nope. But Robin does rat out Jared and the others. Not by name, because that would make him look like an accomplice, but through sketches. Dierdre heads home where she finds an envelope with newspaper clippings from 1935 of the hatchet massacre, with one of the pictures featuring Robin Fear. Robin returns home, only for Meghan to stab him with a knife. But there's no blood or damage because, duh, IMMORTAL. She mentions seeing him with a girl, to which Robin admits that it's Dierdre Bradley of the Bradley family, and he's just trying to protect her from the evil curse his dad put on the park. Meghan buys it and leaves as Robin realizes that he may have to find a say to shut off her immortality before she's just hacking him up as if she was a teen in the 1930s. 

A week passes and now Jared and the others are wanted men for the bombing of the house of mirrors. Steve shows up, pretending to be a cop, because don't forget that these kids are shitty. Jared realizes that since Robin saw them plant the firecrackers, that maybe if they find him, he can help them. Look, they're just a bunch of really dumb kids. Meanwhile, Dierdre shows Robin the clippings with his picture, to which Robin realizes this is Meghan's doing. Fortunately he has a good enough poker face to say that the boy in the photo is his grandfather and they just happen to look exactly alike at the same age. He confronts Meghan on the phone, but she says that she didn't do it. So now Robin fears that there must be someone else from that time period who is trying to set him up. He then gets caught by Jared and his friends who beg him to help them out, which he agrees, meaning he's going to really screw them over now.

Dierdre destroys the newspaper clippings when the phone rings. And who's on the other line but one of R.L. Stine's favorite tropes, the whispery phone call! The person on the other line warns her to stay away from Robin Fear. Robin tells Jared and the boys that he talked to the cops and they're totally out to kill them. But maybe there's a way to get the cops to listen to their side of the story. And that way is, of course, taking someone hostage. Just take a hostage, force the cops to listen, have Robin corroborate their story and it should be hunky dory. Oh, and the best hostage to take is Dierdre Bradley. I mean they gotta listen to you if you kidnap the park owner's daughter, right? This book predates World's Dumbest Criminals, but these boys would be perfect for that show.

Robin takes Dierdre for a stroll and leads her to the shed where Jared and the others are waiting. They knock out Robin, which was part of the plan, and then knock out Dierdre. She wakes up tied to a chair, but manages to grab some nearby hedge clippers to break free. She rushes out the window and goes to find help. The boys catch her as Robin awakens. Suddenly, the purple smoke returns and envelops Jared and the others. Their flesh tightens and tears apart while their limbs begin to grow and break apart. Jared's neck growing and snapping, Kevin's arms snapping off. The four boys completely mutilated. Suddenly, the smoke begins to creep towards Robin and Dierdre. Nothing happens to the two of them, but they see the damage done as the boys' body parts are everywhere. Robin tells Dierdre that this is the work of his father and that they have to stop him. All while promising to himself that he'll finish her off for good... in the next book. 

Yeah, this is a bridge book alright. Probably the most consistent bridge book I've gotten from these trilogies. Part of me thought going in that we'd be interspliced with more backstory stuff and maybe pieces of the modern timeframe, but surprisingly no. We're always in the present and always focused on Robin's revenge. Maybe Stine learned his lesson from Cataluna after all. Granted, most of it does feel like a similar case to the second book in 99 Fear Street. In that our main villain is mostly setting up one trap after another while twirling their fictional mustache all Snidely Whiplash-like. But, much like the first book, it at least leaves us with a lot of surprisingly shocking moments of gore. The house of mirrors explosion possibly being one of the darkest moments when you consider that it's entirely innocent people, possibly some kids as well, that get mutilated in there. The perfect kind of dark horror you don't get enough of from Stine.

Jared's addition works pretty well as our bridge side-focus who gets offed by the end of the story. So he ultimately just feels like a plot device to put Robin's plans in motion than any major character of his own. His crew are the Superfluous Clays of the book, mainly being here because Jared needs a posse, but lacking any defining character stuff to make them all that memorable. You understand Jared's plight and even sympathize with him, even if he handled things the wrong way by initially attacking Dierdre over the death of his brother. But his naive mentality and never thinking Robin is a reason for so many of his problems makes it hard to ultimately sympathize with him being killed off like he does. So as a character who is only valuable in the second part, he does what's needed.

I like the spin that Meghan is still with Robin after all these years and even the explanation that it's an immortality spell that's keeping them alive. She too is very naive about Robin's intentions, even after she sees him with Dierdre. So it gives her enough of a motive to be the one sending Dierdre the warnings about Robin. I think I can already guess who the one trying to stop Robin is, so if that's the case, I won't be too shocked. So hoping for a swerve if we get there. Dierdre is fine as a lead as well, but also doesn't feel like she's as much of a focus to this story as most of these types of characters. It really does feel like Robin Fear's story up to this point. And as a villain, he's been fine so far. Someone who clearly wants to get vengeance for the creation of the park on Fear Street Woods property, but has become so cartoonishly supervillain-like, that you kind of hope he doesn't make it out of this in one piece. Though how do you kill an immortal? I mean, you could do the Highlander approach. And given the number of beheadings so far, that's one way to go, but we'll see next book.

Overall, this one was fine. Great horror elements, lots of gore, does enough to build into the finale. And at 149 pages it's surprisingly brisk for a Fear Street book. Its only real flaw is feeling an awful lot like a wheel spinning book given it is mainly a book about a bunch of attempts to close the park that fail, but when they lead to some great horror imagery, especially for Fear Street, it's hard to really be upset. It has enough stuff for it not to feel like a filler book, while also feeling like it is mostly filler. A weird little paradox that is. But it's got me hyped for the finale. Will Stine stick the landing? How will Robin be defeated and what truly is the future of Fear Park? We'll get our answer in the next book. The Loudest Scream gets an A-.