S3E04 - The Scream of the Haunted Mask (Goosebumps HorrorLand #4)

[00:00:03] I dropped to my knees. Am I doomed to be like this forever? To act and look like this? I asked myself, is there no cure for me?

[00:00:12] I remembered that first Halloween. I remembered what the store owner told me about the mask. It can only be removed by a symbol of love.

[00:00:20] I gazed around. There is no love here, I muttered. There was only fear and anger. Besides, the store owner said the mask could be removed only once by a symbol of love.

[00:00:31] But I defeated the mask then. I'd survived. The store owner said I was the only one. He said he didn't know what would happen.

[00:00:39] On my knees on the frozen ground, I screamed at the moon once more. I screamed long and hard. When I lowered my head, I saw the horses returning, stampeding over the tall grass.

[00:00:50] Once again their ghostly white manes flew and their eyes glowed in icy blue. Galloping straight at me, coming for me now!

[00:00:57] I shut my eyes, gritted my teeth, and prepared for pain.

[00:01:08] And welcome to Say Podcast and Die.

[00:01:10] It's the podcast where two queers sit in a closet and talk to you about Goosebumps.

[00:01:14] I'm Alyssa.

[00:01:15] I'm Andy.

[00:01:16] And this week we are talking about Goosebumps Horrorland number four.

[00:01:20] Scream of the Haunted Mask!

[00:01:21] Scream of the Haunted Mask.

[00:01:22] It was so good!

[00:01:23] It's such a relief at last! There's a good story!

[00:01:27] Did you like it?

[00:01:28] Yeah, I enjoyed it.

[00:01:29] I think you maybe are very enthusiastic about this one though.

[00:01:33] I just had my Rise Up Caffeine Gummy.

[00:01:37] So yes.

[00:01:38] I mean, I'm enthusiastic about it, but the Lion's Maiden restroom and green bean caffeine really gets you going.

[00:01:47] All right then.

[00:01:48] Amplify.

[00:01:50] What's going on with this cover?

[00:01:51] Well, you'd think what's going on is that fangy mask in the middle, the green one, that looks like a demon.

[00:01:59] But all of the masks on this cover look like they come from The Purge.

[00:02:03] You're right.

[00:02:04] Yeah.

[00:02:05] What do you think is going on with this cover?

[00:02:07] Yeah, everything is very...

[00:02:10] This mask is pointier than it used to be, I think.

[00:02:12] It's gotten a glow up.

[00:02:13] A lot of stuff is pointier in the Brandon Dorfman?

[00:02:19] Brad Dorif covers?

[00:02:20] Not the Brad Dorif covers.

[00:02:21] Brandon Dorman.

[00:02:23] This...

[00:02:23] I'm also a little distracted by the girl with the, like, rosy cheeks and dunce cap.

[00:02:29] Oh, it's a princess hat or something.

[00:02:29] I know.

[00:02:29] It's a princess hat, but I was confused by that at first too.

[00:02:33] Yeah, it's cool because there's this orange light.

[00:02:36] It's...

[00:02:36] You're looking at a shop window and the light coming from behind the masks really highlights their soulless eyes.

[00:02:43] Yeah.

[00:02:44] I also thought there's a black and white one and it looks very Tim Burton-y until you realize it's a zebra.

[00:02:51] Well, do you want to give a bird's eye view of this plot?

[00:02:55] Bird's eye view.

[00:02:56] We return to Carly Beth Caldwell and Sabrina, her friend.

[00:03:00] Carly Beth keeps the haunted mask locked in her basement and it haunts her.

[00:03:04] She has a...

[00:03:06] An after-school job at Tumble Down Farms where she looks after kids and she discovers that there's a legend about how some horses and a stable boy got scared by a scary mask there.

[00:03:18] She goes to investigate and...

[00:03:20] Spooky ghost!

[00:03:22] Ghost!

[00:03:23] Ghost!

[00:03:24] Yeah, we get a lot of returns of prior Goosebumps universe ghost takes and fake outs.

[00:03:32] One thing I really liked about this book actually is that there weren't a ton of fake outs though.

[00:03:37] Mm-hmm.

[00:03:37] Aside from the one thing of, oh, is this person the ghost?

[00:03:39] No, it's this other person that actually seemed like the ghost at first.

[00:03:43] Yeah.

[00:03:45] There's just a lot of...

[00:03:46] Like you think, oh, this is going to be...

[00:03:48] It was all a dream and then it isn't.

[00:03:50] Yeah.

[00:03:52] Well, we start with one of those instances.

[00:03:56] So Carly Beth is still living through her trauma.

[00:03:59] The haunted mask that in her take tried to turn her evil is in her basement in a box.

[00:04:04] We open with this scene where she can hear it calling to her and she goes down to the basement past her superbly decorated house with red vinyl chairs, a white shag rug, and a ping pong table.

[00:04:16] I love this for her family.

[00:04:17] I can just see Mrs. Caldwell down there making some highballs for the gals.

[00:04:22] Yeah.

[00:04:23] Yeah.

[00:04:23] I don't know if the gals played ping pong, but maybe.

[00:04:26] Beer pong?

[00:04:27] High ball pong?

[00:04:28] Honestly, it's probably they just use it as the bar, right?

[00:04:31] Yeah.

[00:04:33] So she put it in a metal box and put it in her basement and it just seems like she's going to wake up and be like, obviously the mask, I don't know, it was some other place, but no, it really is in her basement haunting her all the time, reminding her.

[00:04:48] Yeah.

[00:04:49] And it's interesting because in Haunted Mask 2, we got the outsider's view of Carly Beth where she's much more confident.

[00:04:57] She.

[00:04:57] Yeah, that's true.

[00:04:58] Yeah.

[00:04:59] She seems totally unfazed.

[00:05:00] And while in this, she's not a scaredy cat anymore, the way she was at the beginning of the first book, she's deeply haunted by what happened to her.

[00:05:09] Yeah, I think this is a really good study in trauma. And she keeps repeating throughout this book, you know, I'm not scared of things anymore. I'm not scared of things anymore. And she definitely is. She just handles it differently. She's better at suppressing her emotions in the moment.

[00:05:28] Yeah. And I think.

[00:05:29] Which is a trauma response.

[00:05:30] That's true. I think she's also better at discerning what's worth being scared of.

[00:05:35] Mm hmm. And is kind of obsessed with wanting to put the mask back on, which is the ultimate escape from being afraid. Right.

[00:05:42] Mm hmm.

[00:05:42] Well, she tries to tell Sabrina about what happened on the bus. But Sabrina is like, oh, you were up all night thinking about Gary Stedman, weren't you?

[00:05:53] Yeah.

[00:05:54] And Sabrina's very boy crazy. Carly Beth is still like, I have not crossed this bridge yet.

[00:06:01] So yeah, there's a lot of emphasis on how Sabrina looks 16. Carly Beth said that Gary tried to kiss her once and his braces cut her lip.

[00:06:09] Yeah. Yeah. You know, I read that line. I was like, oh, what a weird thing to say. And now you read it. I'm like, oh, that is a weird thing to say.

[00:06:17] You know, it's the 2000s because Sabrina is wearing two T-shirts.

[00:06:21] Yeah.

[00:06:23] Classic. And Carly Beth wants her to get rid of the mask, etc. Well, Carly or sorry. Sabrina wants her to get rid of the mask.

[00:06:31] But Carly Beth feels like she needs to keep an eye on it so that she can protect other people from it. She can't let it out into the universe.

[00:06:37] Yeah. She doesn't want anyone else to find it. And then we're on the bus and Chuck of Chuck and Steve.

[00:06:45] Chick and Steve.

[00:06:46] Chick and Steve, the bullies, tries to scare Carly Beth with a snake.

[00:06:51] Another thing that wasn't a fake out. It was a real snake.

[00:06:53] Yeah.

[00:06:53] It did put a snake on her.

[00:06:54] Yeah.

[00:06:56] But the mask's scream is echoing inside her head.

[00:07:00] Yeah. She's really similar to Billy Deep, actually. Billy Deep keeps having these voices in his head because he's got all this pent up anxiety from having to keep her turned to a place where something so bad happened to him more than once.

[00:07:13] And Carly Beth, too, has this screaming in her head that makes it impossible to interact normally.

[00:07:18] Yeah. Well, Carly Beth and Sabrina are going to their part time job.

[00:07:22] Is this the first time we've seen goose kids with a part time job besides babysitting?

[00:07:26] I think we've had some one off babysitting, but not I don't think regular babysitting.

[00:07:30] And then, you know, side businesses as magicians at nursing homes and children's parties.

[00:07:35] But yeah, I don't really remember other people's jobs.

[00:07:37] Yeah.

[00:07:38] So they work at Tumble Down Farms, which is run by Mrs. Lang.

[00:07:42] They take care of eight kids in an after school program.

[00:07:44] And they also are helped helped out by someone who reads like, oh, this is a homeschool girl.

[00:07:50] I guess she goes to private school, but her name is Laura and she dresses kind of like long skirted.

[00:07:56] Do you think she really goes to private school?

[00:07:58] That's just what she tells them.

[00:08:00] It'd be weird.

[00:08:01] But, you know, Edward Cullen lived it being like this many like decades old ghost and going to private school.

[00:08:09] And we also learned that Tumble Down, quote, used to be a real working farm back when Carly Beth's dad was a kid.

[00:08:15] But now it's a bougie weekend destination.

[00:08:18] Yeah, it's a sad commentary on, you know, what's happened to America's farms.

[00:08:23] But also I love weekend destination.

[00:08:25] It has actually it sounds very cool.

[00:08:27] It has an art gallery in addition to things like hayrides.

[00:08:31] Yeah.

[00:08:32] And so there are three 12 year olds watching eight like young elementary school kids.

[00:08:37] I mean, Mrs. Lang is running around.

[00:08:39] She's running around.

[00:08:40] She's not doing the primary caregiving.

[00:08:42] I picture her as Jessica Lang, in which case she's absolutely not.

[00:08:46] Also, the description of her is like the opposite of Jessica Lang.

[00:08:48] She's a handsome woman, as you'd call her.

[00:08:52] And then there's a lot of back and forth throughout the book between Sabrina and Carly Beth about which kids they like.

[00:08:57] Yeah.

[00:08:58] Who's an angel.

[00:09:00] Yeah.

[00:09:00] A five year old makes a joke about Carly Beth's face.

[00:09:03] And for a minute, she thinks she's wearing the mask again.

[00:09:05] Um, they take the kids to go pick apples because cheap labor.

[00:09:10] Um, and then they see an abandoned stable on the property and Carly Beth hears a whinny.

[00:09:16] And I guess this is why you don't want just three 12 year olds to be watching all these children because Carly Beth and Sabrina just wander off to see what's up with the horses.

[00:09:25] Yeah.

[00:09:26] And Laura like super dramatically stops them.

[00:09:30] When they get back to the farm, Laura tells them a story about how once upon a time all the horses died of fear because the stable boy wore a scary Halloween mask.

[00:09:40] Yeah.

[00:09:41] And also he was trampled in the process.

[00:09:44] Yeah.

[00:09:45] And then Mrs.

[00:09:45] Lang just waltzes in and is like, you know, it's haunted by the stable boy and the horses, right?

[00:09:52] She looks like Mrs.

[00:09:54] Frizzle.

[00:09:54] Sorry.

[00:09:55] She looks like Ms.

[00:09:56] Frizzle mixed with Annie Wilkes.

[00:09:58] Yeah.

[00:09:59] She's got, uh, orange hair, green eyes, wears a lot of flannel shirts and cowboy boots.

[00:10:05] And yeah, seems to kind of just always be stomping around, not necessarily doing anything specific.

[00:10:11] No.

[00:10:12] It's a great scheme she's got working for her, honestly.

[00:10:14] Yeah.

[00:10:15] And there's no way she's like employing 12 year olds on the books.

[00:10:18] Yeah.

[00:10:18] So she's really just like, oh yeah, after school program?

[00:10:21] Sure.

[00:10:21] Mm-hmm.

[00:10:22] So also part of the legend is that the ghost of the stable boy won't leave until he gets his mask back.

[00:10:29] So that night, Carly Beth is distracted by the thoughts of the mask.

[00:10:34] And as a side note, Carly Beth's mom continues to live her best life.

[00:10:37] We learn that she and Carly Beth's dad have discovered video games.

[00:10:41] And every night they play and are like high-fiving each other, I assume stoned or a little drunk.

[00:10:47] Yeah, playing War Master 2.

[00:10:48] I mean, they might just be high on how fucking fun it is.

[00:10:50] Yeah.

[00:10:50] They're like, you know, we can do this.

[00:10:54] We're adults.

[00:10:54] Yeah.

[00:10:54] We did work already today.

[00:10:56] Now we can just play video games all night and go to bed when we want.

[00:10:59] I spent the week, you know, making plaster casts of my daughter's head.

[00:11:02] And now I'm going to unwind with some video games.

[00:11:04] Like good for her.

[00:11:05] Yeah.

[00:11:06] I'm glad she's got, you know, always new interests.

[00:11:10] Carly Beth has, again, as part of her post-traumatic symptoms, she seems to be developing a little bit of obsessive, compulsive need to check the box over and over again.

[00:11:21] And she can't stop thinking, did I really close it, did I really close it?

[00:11:25] She decides that what she's going to do to distract herself is put blonde highlights in her hair.

[00:11:32] Well, she does go into the basement to check on the box and she gets scared by Noah.

[00:11:37] And then she starts wondering if she's actually brave or just putting up a front.

[00:11:40] But the mask really is trying to escape the box.

[00:11:42] And it's saying, almost Halloween, almost Halloween.

[00:11:46] Like it's me for, you know, 10 months later.

[00:11:49] Starting in August.

[00:11:51] Yeah.

[00:11:52] What did you think of Sarah David?

[00:11:54] Did you remember hearing them talk about her?

[00:11:55] Yeah.

[00:11:56] So.

[00:11:57] Side story.

[00:11:58] They, yeah.

[00:11:59] So Sabrina calls and they gossip about a girl named Sarah David who got her nose pierced to piss off her parents.

[00:12:06] And basically, I think this is an instance of Arlstein kind of looking down on two permissive parents.

[00:12:11] Because I, like.

[00:12:12] I don't feel like he was a strict parent though.

[00:12:14] Probably not.

[00:12:15] But it seems like it's a kid who's doing stuff to piss off their parent.

[00:12:20] Yeah.

[00:12:20] And I remember when we had the, the one with the fortune teller where I remember it was kind of a hippy dippy school.

[00:12:28] And occasionally I think I get the sense that he's a little like, you can't just let children do what they want.

[00:12:32] Yeah.

[00:12:33] Well, because it sounds like he is blaming the parent a little bit, or parents, because he's like, oh, she's been wearing lipstick since she was five years old.

[00:12:42] And it's like, see, that's how it starts.

[00:12:44] You've got to tell your kid, your body's not your own from day one or else they'll pierce their nose next thing you know.

[00:12:49] Yeah.

[00:12:49] They have to wait until they're about, you know, 12 to wear lipstick so then they're attractive to men.

[00:12:54] Right.

[00:12:55] Yeah.

[00:12:55] Yeah.

[00:12:55] Yeah.

[00:12:55] Right.

[00:12:56] And then I guess 19 for the nose piercing because it's college.

[00:13:00] It's okay for them.

[00:13:01] Yeah.

[00:13:01] Yeah.

[00:13:01] I don't know.

[00:13:02] But only if they're a bad kid.

[00:13:03] I just thought it was interesting to throw in this thing on, yeah, like a bad kid, someone who is bad because they're not being supervised and have this kind of more classic version of it alongside Carly Beth's version of it, which is I want to break things and people.

[00:13:22] But I'm outwardly compliant.

[00:13:24] Yeah.

[00:13:24] So we love that.

[00:13:25] No self-expression whatsoever.

[00:13:27] Right.

[00:13:27] Yeah.

[00:13:28] Yeah.

[00:13:28] Well, Sabrina wants to write her school report about local legends about the stable and she really wants to go right now.

[00:13:36] And Carly Beth decides she wants to prove that she's over her fears.

[00:13:40] So they head out and go to the stable.

[00:13:44] Carly Beth brings carrots for the horses.

[00:13:47] And that's an important plot point.

[00:13:49] So notice that.

[00:13:51] Remember it.

[00:13:51] Remember it.

[00:13:52] And on the way to the stable, they find a hole in the ground and Carly Beth thinks it's a small grave.

[00:13:57] Yeah.

[00:13:57] Soft earth.

[00:13:58] Very specific.

[00:13:59] And we don't return to that.

[00:14:02] We do.

[00:14:03] We do?

[00:14:04] Yeah.

[00:14:04] They bury the mask there.

[00:14:05] Oh!

[00:14:06] That's what that was?

[00:14:07] Okay.

[00:14:08] Because later, they're like, oh, yeah, the mask is buried.

[00:14:10] And I'm like, oh, that's so weird because, like, she was staying on that soft earth.

[00:14:15] I'm a fucking idiot.

[00:14:16] All right.

[00:14:17] Well, good.

[00:14:18] Okay.

[00:14:20] Then it turns out Carly Beth may think she has changed, but her friends have not changed.

[00:14:25] I know.

[00:14:26] Okay.

[00:14:26] So.

[00:14:27] She still has terrible friends.

[00:14:28] Yeah.

[00:14:29] They hear a horse whinny and Carly Beth is freaking out saying the stories are true.

[00:14:32] And then Sabrina starts laughing and calls for Chuck and Steve to come out.

[00:14:37] They set this up to scare her?

[00:14:38] Yeah.

[00:14:40] And I think the one I'm most mad at is Sabrina.

[00:14:42] Oh, I am too.

[00:14:43] She's supposed to be her friend.

[00:14:44] She's supposed to be her friend.

[00:14:45] And it's like, oh, so you actually can't stand having a friend who isn't a scaredy cat.

[00:14:50] Yeah.

[00:14:51] You want her to feel small and you want to, like, control her.

[00:14:54] I mean, burying the mask is one way of doing that, right?

[00:14:57] Be like, you can't be strong and powerful, so I'm going to bury the mask.

[00:15:00] Yeah.

[00:15:00] And then otherwise, like, I'm going to scare you so you're scared of me.

[00:15:03] Yeah.

[00:15:04] Yeah, I hate that.

[00:15:06] Well, the joke is kind of on Sabrina because she calls for Chuck and Steve to come out and

[00:15:09] they don't and the carrots are gone.

[00:15:12] And so Sabrina gets out her cell phone and calls them.

[00:15:17] And they both forgot about the joke and are at home.

[00:15:19] So then they get spooked by a sound.

[00:15:21] A whinny, I think.

[00:15:22] And then when they leave, Carly Beth looks back and thinks she sees the stable boy on the

[00:15:28] roof.

[00:15:28] Yeah.

[00:15:29] Yeah.

[00:15:29] It's just a really creepy image.

[00:15:31] Just this guy, like, up on the top of the stable, crouching, staring.

[00:15:35] I mean, they...

[00:15:35] Like he's fucking Batman or something.

[00:15:37] Yeah.

[00:15:37] Or just like, I don't know, it's like Fiddler on the Roof gone horror.

[00:15:41] Like, what is that allegorical figure up there doing looking at me?

[00:15:47] So they are getting paid extra because they are going to put together a Halloween party

[00:15:52] for the kids.

[00:15:53] And just as an aside, I feel like today is, as we're recording this November 4th, it feels

[00:15:59] like Halloween was a thousand years ago, but we had a really, really fun Halloween. Our first time

[00:16:05] doing kids Halloween since we were kids. Trick or treating with a two-year-old is delightful.

[00:16:11] Yeah. But they're not trick or treating. They're mostly babysitting them in a room full of crafts

[00:16:15] and sugar. This doesn't sound fun at all. This sounds terrible. The nice part about it is

[00:16:19] you're like, okay, go out and talk to a bunch of other people. But yeah, watching a bunch of two

[00:16:23] year olds figure out that they knock on that door and they go, trick or tweet. It's very cute.

[00:16:27] It's so cute. They just like so confidently stride up to people's houses and they're like,

[00:16:31] give us something. People are like, oh, of course. They're like, more. It gives me so much hope for

[00:16:35] society. And then I turn around and it's election day. Yeah. Huh. Huh. Well, by the time you hear this,

[00:16:43] maybe we'll know the outcome. I would hope so because it comes out in like two weeks.

[00:16:47] Yeah. Well, remember the last like half the elections in our lifetime have been drug out

[00:16:54] like this. I mean, specifically the last one when we were recording this podcast. Well,

[00:16:58] ambush vigor. And as a side note, one of my other strong memories of recording this podcast is

[00:17:06] finding out that people were storming the Capitol on January 6th and then you were like,

[00:17:10] we really have to get this recording done. We had to go record Terror Tower.

[00:17:15] That was the whole time just like, well, this is in the back of my mind.

[00:17:18] That's really funny that that was what I decided we should do with this information.

[00:17:24] You run a tight ship when it comes to scheduling things.

[00:17:28] I'm just glad that we, you know, it's nice. We've gone through so much together.

[00:17:33] Us and you, GoosePunks.

[00:17:35] That's right.

[00:17:35] Let's talk about...

[00:17:37] Clark.

[00:17:39] Clark. It's not fun to say.

[00:17:41] Well, it's not Halloween yet. They go to the stable to do work and they meet Clark,

[00:17:48] who says he lives nearby.

[00:17:49] Oh, he sucks so much. He's a classic Arl Stein, like, oh, I want to date this boy.

[00:17:54] Yeah.

[00:17:55] Because first of all, lopsided smile. That's the dead giveaway. Arl Stein's like,

[00:17:59] you know what people like? I'm like, what is a lopsided smile also?

[00:18:05] You guys can't see the face Alyssa's doing, but...

[00:18:08] It's not cute.

[00:18:09] It's not cute.

[00:18:10] I just, yeah, it seems kind of weird. For some reason, it makes me think of Donkey from Shrek.

[00:18:17] But anyway, he starts nagging Carly Beth immediately. He's like, oh, you think I'm twisted? Like,

[00:18:24] I like scary things. Then he's like, what? You care about the horses instead of the stable boy?

[00:18:29] You're fucked up.

[00:18:30] And she, and like any, like, reasonable person, she's like, yeah, I do.

[00:18:34] Yeah.

[00:18:36] He's just like, he's trying to scare her and then tell her she's bad.

[00:18:39] And tell her it's just her imagination.

[00:18:40] Yeah. And that she's stupid for liking ghosts or believing in ghosts.

[00:18:45] And she tells him about the mask and he doesn't believe it.

[00:18:48] And then he salutes.

[00:18:50] Yeah. It's a weird fucking guy.

[00:18:52] Yeah. And she's like, well, I miss the bus now.

[00:18:54] Yeah. And she has to walk. So we also have the horror of not having good public transit.

[00:18:59] On the way home, she runs into the store where she found the haunted mask.

[00:19:03] Yeah. And the store owner is still there, which is weird, right?

[00:19:06] Right.

[00:19:06] Well, it makes sense. Well, I'll get that into.

[00:19:10] Okay. Well, I don't think it makes sense right now, but I'm happy. I'm excited to get it explained

[00:19:16] because it just seems weird to be like, oh, we had this huge thing happen between us.

[00:19:21] Well, anyway, I'm just going to keep running this store.

[00:19:24] He's just got to keep running his spirit Halloween, right? Like he's like, I'll see you next year.

[00:19:28] It's a very short term lease.

[00:19:29] He's reading a book called New Faces. I looked this up. It's maybe a book, but what came up was

[00:19:37] there was an early equivalent of like Britain's Got Talent that was called New Faces. And there

[00:19:44] was also an Australian version of it. So, and then also there was a US musical review by the same name

[00:19:50] that launched many mid-century entertainers careers, including Eartha Kitt and Mel Brooks.

[00:19:56] So what I was picturing is that web comic you sent me where Leatherface's brother asks him,

[00:20:01] do you remember this girl from last summer? Like, can you check Facebook? And then he opens this

[00:20:05] album full of just like faces that have been ripped off of people.

[00:20:08] Oh, that's good too.

[00:20:10] Well, Carly Beth demands that he take the mask back and he says that the mask doesn't accept defeat

[00:20:16] and it won't quit until it controls her. And then he throws her out.

[00:20:21] Mm-hmm. And he says also that someone else is out there who owned the mask and wants it back.

[00:20:27] Mm-hmm. Then when she gets home, she checks on it and it's not in its box. It's the legendary

[00:20:33] duck costume that she never wore. She worries that Noah took it and, but he doesn't have it.

[00:20:40] Yeah, he's wearing a Hulk mask though. There's a few scenes in this where someone's wearing a mask that

[00:20:44] turns out not to be, but looks like it could be for a second, the haunted mask, the titular haunted

[00:20:51] mask. Well, what else is scary is Sabrina and Carly Beth show up to a children's party dressed

[00:20:57] up as clowns. That's pretty dark. Yeah. I think these kids, I'm guessing, haven't seen it.

[00:21:03] Yeah. But yeah, they're also late because of the bus. The children are mostly just going berserk.

[00:21:10] Mm-hmm. And then Carly Beth is getting them something or other. Markers. Markers for making

[00:21:15] masks. And she finds an old newspaper and it has a picture of the stable boy on it. Yeah,

[00:21:22] in the tumble down times. In the tumble down times. And he looks like Clark. Mm-hmm. Well,

[00:21:27] Clark shows up and she's convinced he's a ghost. She confronts him and then he says, yeah, I'm a

[00:21:31] ghost. Oh, just kidding. Yeah. And he says, my grandfather was the stable boy and we look

[00:21:35] alike. And she's like, he's your grandfather. How come you exist? And he died as a stable

[00:21:41] boy. But you know, maybe stable boys were- Men, stable men. Stable men. Well, that's

[00:21:46] the thing. It's a thing in at least, we're getting off topic here, but a lot of what counted

[00:21:53] as a boy in old timey times was not what we would think of as a boy. You know, like boys

[00:21:59] in the Shakespearean theater could be like in their 20s. Yeah. I think it sounds like something

[00:22:03] you would call someone that's in a job you don't respect. Yeah, exactly. Like I think

[00:22:07] in weaving there was also the draw boy who would work different parts of the loom. Yeah.

[00:22:12] But I don't think it was like what we would think of as a boy. Yeah. Yeah. Same with

[00:22:16] newsboys. A lot of newsboys were like what we would say as adults. Yeah. But it's just

[00:22:20] like they're being demeaned. Yeah. Chef Boyardee. Yeah. You know, an adult man. No one respects

[00:22:32] screaming and their masks are all stuck to them. This is really scary. Yeah. And then

[00:22:36] Laura bursts in and says, it was the only way I could get you to cooperate, Carly Beth.

[00:22:41] But like, honestly, she seems like a very cooperative person. No kidding. That's a very good point.

[00:22:46] Also, what did she do? Is she using ghost magic? I assume so. Because they- It's not like

[00:22:52] they're glued to the kid's face because they slide off later after Laura's defeated. Spoiler.

[00:22:56] She doesn't win this book. Could it be that the kids are just really sticky? That's very possible.

[00:23:02] And just the tears and sweat eventually break through the like apple cider layer. And they're

[00:23:06] all just like fucking around like, oh, I can't get it off. Oh, me neither. Yeah. Like one of them

[00:23:10] says that they all believe it. Well, Laura said, I actually was the one who scared the horses. And I

[00:23:15] had been trying to scare the stable boy. And I guess the stable boy didn't die, but she did.

[00:23:21] And- I think he did die though. But how could he be a grandfather?

[00:23:26] A teen- He could have already fathered someone. Well, he wouldn't be a grandfather at that time. He

[00:23:32] would- He could have just fathered a baby. And that baby became the father of Clarice.

[00:23:36] Wow. I feel like there's such a backstory here that we're not getting then. Like why did she

[00:23:40] want to scare him? And then why did everyone think he wanted to scare the horse groomer?

[00:23:44] Yeah. This is the first one of these books where I think the main story could have been longer

[00:23:51] to deal with all that.

[00:23:52] Yeah. Yeah. Oral Stein, like remember when he wanted to do that two-parter and it was

[00:23:56] like- Invasion of the Body Snatchers or whatever.

[00:23:58] Yeah. It didn't need to be.

[00:24:00] Yeah.

[00:24:00] This one could have been a two-parter. I would have read the-

[00:24:02] Or it could have just been a full-length book.

[00:24:03] Yeah. Well, like in Misery where there's a story within the story, I would have read

[00:24:07] a series of newspaper clippings about these folks.

[00:24:10] Totally. And also, I guess Laura's family was the ones who owned the farm. So when at the

[00:24:18] beginning of the story we got like, oh, the family moved. It's like they moved in grief

[00:24:22] for their daughter who was stampeded to death in their barns. And then all of their horses

[00:24:27] like stampeded each other and had heart attacks.

[00:24:30] Now people come here for a fun weekend.

[00:24:31] Yeah. Crazy. I love it.

[00:24:35] Yeah. And she talks about the mask and she says, I didn't know it's evil would change

[00:24:38] me forever. And she says she doesn't have it, but Sabrina knows where it is. She buried

[00:24:44] it outside the stable in the little grave.

[00:24:46] Apparently there weren't just two little graves that were completely unrelated, as I thought.

[00:24:53] Well, to keep Laura from getting the mask, Carly Beth puts it on her own face like she's

[00:24:58] a Sildur.

[00:25:00] Because she thinks it'll only make Laura more evil.

[00:25:03] I don't know why she thinks that.

[00:25:05] I don't know.

[00:25:05] I guess so. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:25:06] A mask makes you evil.

[00:25:07] I mean, I guess that's what it does. That's its whole shtick.

[00:25:09] Can a ghost even put on a mask?

[00:25:11] That's a good question.

[00:25:12] Yeah.

[00:25:13] Mrs. Lang shows up a little late. And then Laura says.

[00:25:17] She must be really confused about what she walked into.

[00:25:19] Yeah.

[00:25:21] Laura says she actually wanted to destroy the mask, not wear it. But Carly Beth doesn't

[00:25:24] believe her. And then she feels that the mask has won because she's feeling it, you

[00:25:30] know, it's victory. But then she hears rumbling and pale horses appear.

[00:25:35] And they kill Laura. The ghost horses trample ghost Laura. And that's really sad. This is

[00:25:40] like a story about a child who died twice in a horse stampede.

[00:25:44] Mm-hmm.

[00:25:45] Clark and Sabrina want to help Carly Beth, but they can't. But then the horses come back

[00:25:49] for Carly Beth. And she hears Laura's voice saying that Carly Beth was the only one to show

[00:25:54] them kindness and love.

[00:25:55] That's Laura's voice?

[00:25:57] That's what my notes say. It might not have been.

[00:26:02] It is. So, okay, that bothers me even more then because it's like Laura's not a bad guy

[00:26:10] at all and she has to die twice, right?

[00:26:12] I don't know if she died twice. She's just a ghost.

[00:26:14] Oh, so when the horses trampled her, nothing happened to her?

[00:26:18] I mean, I assume she's just finishing up her ghost business.

[00:26:22] Okay. And this is part of it. But she wanted to destroy the mask then maybe.

[00:26:25] Like maybe Carly Beth was totally wrong this whole time as just impeding the ghost in her

[00:26:29] good deed.

[00:26:30] Yeah. Yeah. So Laura says that Carly Beth showed them love by bringing carrots. And so she can

[00:26:38] take the mask off and then the mask says to her, you're my favorite, Carly Beth. See

[00:26:42] you next Halloween.

[00:26:44] Mm-hmm.

[00:26:45] The end.

[00:26:46] Pretty cool stuff.

[00:26:48] Pretty cool.

[00:26:49] Should we talk about some horror taxonomies?

[00:26:52] We should. My first one. Bad Friends.

[00:26:55] Oh, very bad.

[00:26:56] Very bad. I thought about Heathers, The Descent, Lords of Chaos, Midsommar. Just things where

[00:27:02] the people you're supposed to be relying on really fucking let you down.

[00:27:06] What one was Lords of Chaos?

[00:27:07] That's the one about the Norwegian black metal scene.

[00:27:10] Oh, yeah.

[00:27:10] Really good. But yeah, this really...

[00:27:14] It kind of depressed me how much this is about Sabrina and Chuck and Steve and then also Clark

[00:27:22] like disrespecting Carly Beth.

[00:27:24] Yeah.

[00:27:25] Basically, all of Carly Beth's problems can be traced back to having bad friends because

[00:27:30] they were the ones who bullied her all the time and made her think she needed the mask

[00:27:33] in the first place.

[00:27:34] Yeah.

[00:27:35] And now they're doing it again.

[00:27:38] Yeah, totally.

[00:27:40] My first category was scary horse things.

[00:27:44] Cool.

[00:27:45] Thank you.

[00:27:45] Say more.

[00:27:46] Well, horses are scary.

[00:27:48] I agree.

[00:27:48] They're big. They have kind of human-like features, but they're not quite human.

[00:27:55] Their faces are all elongated. Their skulls look really freaky.

[00:27:58] Didn't you tell me they eat meat?

[00:28:00] I forget, but that's really freaky if that's true.

[00:28:03] Like not regularly, but like opportunistically?

[00:28:06] I think that I did tell you that.

[00:28:09] I think another thing that's scary about horses is we just interact with them when we're like

[00:28:15] tiny, puny humans, but then we are like, let's put ourselves right next to these.

[00:28:19] Let's actually make them integral to various parts of our lives for a long time, right?

[00:28:25] Yeah.

[00:28:26] And so some stuff with scary horses, the ring, when all the horses like fall off the cliff

[00:28:32] onto the beach.

[00:28:32] Oh, yeah.

[00:28:33] Yeah. That's a really scary image.

[00:28:35] There's something about like horses' faces that can look both too aware and like accusatory,

[00:28:42] but also like empty. I think it's, yeah, it's just you can make horses look really,

[00:28:48] really scary. And the ring nails that.

[00:28:50] But there's a dollhouse episode called Haunted with a horse plot. Do you remember that one?

[00:28:57] It's like Adele's friend and.

[00:29:00] Oh, yeah.

[00:29:01] I think so.

[00:29:01] Yeah. And like Eliza Dushku has to like retrace the murder.

[00:29:06] But I think there was a version, like what had been said was that she'd been thrown from her horse.

[00:29:12] And that's how she died. But then it turned out it was this whole plot.

[00:29:16] Headless Horseman, not our scary horse. The final episode.

[00:29:20] I would say it's not specifically the horse that is scary in the Headless Horseman, though.

[00:29:23] It's the headless guy.

[00:29:24] The headless guy is riding a horse, though. He'd be a lot slower if he wasn't.

[00:29:29] Fair enough.

[00:29:35] He'd be like, he can't tell where he's going.

[00:29:38] Fair enough.

[00:29:39] Yeah. And I can ride faster than him. But yes, you're right. But the horse makes him partly scary.

[00:29:44] And there's the galloping sound, you know. And also the final two episodes of Full House were

[00:29:49] about getting thrown from a horse and losing your memory.

[00:29:53] Yeah, it was a two-parter. And I think that they basically did it because Mary-Kate and Ashley

[00:29:56] were so powerful at that point. They could say, we're making an episode about a horse.

[00:30:00] God damn it. I'm going to ride a horse in it.

[00:30:02] But yeah, like a lot of the Goosebumps books are about like scary things kids happen to

[00:30:07] encounter. And one of those things is horses. When you're a child, like a middle-class child

[00:30:13] in the U.S., people just put you on a horse sometimes.

[00:30:16] Yeah. I got kicked by one when I was little because I was walking behind it and didn't

[00:30:18] know like not to do that.

[00:30:20] Well, the horse is the one who shouldn't have done it, man.

[00:30:22] Well, I mean, I think the horse was just being a horse, but...

[00:30:26] Who put you behind a horse, though?

[00:30:28] I was walking behind it. We were at one of those places where you put a child on a horse.

[00:30:31] Yeah. I feel like it was not you that got yourself into this situation.

[00:30:34] It was a little bit me, but you know.

[00:30:36] Does it... Do you have any like lingering symptoms?

[00:30:41] I mean, you tell me, but I mean, I feel horses are a little bit scary. Like I think I went

[00:30:46] through a phase like everyone where I was like, ooh, I want to try riding a horse and stuff.

[00:30:50] But you know, it's not really my thing.

[00:30:52] What's your other categories?

[00:30:54] Well, I also had ghost animals. So this is related.

[00:30:57] 13 Ghosts has a ghost animal.

[00:30:59] Which one?

[00:31:00] Isn't there like a lion or a... There's some... One of the ghosts is an animal.

[00:31:04] Oh.

[00:31:04] I looked this up...

[00:31:05] There's the jackal, but he's not an actual jackal.

[00:31:07] I forget what it was.

[00:31:08] He's a scary guy.

[00:31:09] I looked this up weeks ago and I've only seen the movie one time.

[00:31:11] There's one that's just a torso like wrapped in saran wrap.

[00:31:14] Yeah.

[00:31:14] It's cool as fuck.

[00:31:15] That movie rules.

[00:31:17] Hounds of the Baskervilles is like, it's not really a ghost animal, but there's the sort

[00:31:22] of suggestion of one. In Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, there's the white wolf. And then

[00:31:27] there are, in Japanese folklore, the angry ghosts of softshell turtles that come back to haunt the

[00:31:33] people who killed and or ate them.

[00:31:34] Good. Wow. I love that.

[00:31:36] And then there are ghostly whales that manifest as enormous whale skeletons that just float

[00:31:40] above the surface of the sea.

[00:31:41] That's cool.

[00:31:43] Oh, I want to read some comics about those.

[00:31:45] Yeah.

[00:31:46] And yeah, I think there's this assumption that they can't get their revenge once you've

[00:31:51] done something to them, but they can.

[00:31:52] Mm-hmm.

[00:31:53] Like the barking ghost.

[00:31:55] Exactly.

[00:31:56] Yeah.

[00:31:56] I love the idea of finding a book of animal ghost stories because I think I had at least

[00:32:04] one as a child, but I would love one for adults.

[00:32:08] Yeah, we should find one.

[00:32:09] Yeah.

[00:32:09] If you guys have any recommendations, GoosePunks, let us know.

[00:32:12] Really any anthology of ghost stories I could get behind.

[00:32:15] But yeah.

[00:32:17] I like the idea of this subgenre.

[00:32:19] Yeah.

[00:32:20] Because also like humans do a lot of fucked up things to animals.

[00:32:22] Exactly.

[00:32:23] And so like, yes, the idea that here's your subconscious kind of haunting you with what

[00:32:28] will you do to animals.

[00:32:30] Yeah.

[00:32:31] Okay.

[00:32:33] We're just vibing with each other right now because my next one is I Was Walking with

[00:32:37] a Ghost, which is about stories about you're hanging out with someone and then you're like,

[00:32:43] oh damn, that was a ghost all along.

[00:32:46] Mm-hmm.

[00:32:46] As in, the ghost next door.

[00:32:48] True.

[00:32:49] Although the one you were hanging out with that was a ghost all along was yourself.

[00:32:52] But it's really good that you've befriended yourself.

[00:32:54] Yeah, it's true.

[00:32:56] The Vanishing Hitchhiker.

[00:33:12] Mm-hmm.

[00:33:13] She's probably a friend in the same way, but she is someone they spend a considerable amount

[00:33:17] of time with.

[00:33:17] So to suddenly out of left field be like, oh, you're a ghost.

[00:33:22] Yeah.

[00:33:22] I think that one thing it makes you confront is the fact that children die.

[00:33:27] Mm-hmm.

[00:33:28] True.

[00:33:28] But also there's probably some elements of seeing someone else successfully hide who they

[00:33:33] really are because Carly Beth is trying to do that too.

[00:33:37] That's very true.

[00:33:38] And it seems like she's doing it pretty successfully, actually.

[00:33:41] But while she knows what she's hiding is something really threatening, as a result, she

[00:33:46] kind of assumes that what Laura's hiding is something threatening.

[00:33:49] And now that I'm thinking about it, now that we've been talking about it, I don't think

[00:33:52] Laura actually had any, like, it doesn't look like she did anything wrong.

[00:33:57] Yeah, except for potentially sticking masks to kids' faces.

[00:34:01] She had to get Carly Beth's attention, apparently.

[00:34:03] Yeah.

[00:34:04] Maybe just didn't know a good way to do that.

[00:34:05] It seems like she, Laura has consistently, consistently had a problem with knowing the right way to

[00:34:10] get attention.

[00:34:11] Yeah.

[00:34:12] Yeah.

[00:34:13] She has some bad decision-making skills, but that's somewhat different.

[00:34:17] Doesn't make her evil.

[00:34:17] Yeah.

[00:34:19] Well, my next one was, you didn't expect a girl.

[00:34:24] Yeah.

[00:34:25] Pull off the helmet.

[00:34:26] Yeah.

[00:34:27] Was it in Little Rascals?

[00:34:29] Oh.

[00:34:29] Oh.

[00:34:30] You know, we both have such different childhoods.

[00:34:34] Well, I was also thinking about Scream Season 1, Scream Season 2, Cube 2, Hypercube, where

[00:34:42] they, especially in Scream, they make such a big fucking deal out of it.

[00:34:46] Like, oh, a girl.

[00:34:47] Yeah.

[00:34:47] They were like, what was it?

[00:34:48] It's like, oh, it's 2015 and you didn't expect a girl.

[00:34:54] But yeah.

[00:34:55] Yeah, it's irritating, isn't it?

[00:34:56] Yeah.

[00:34:57] But here, I mean, R.L. Stine does do the thing of successfully playing off his usual

[00:35:03] trope, which is introducing a shitty guy.

[00:35:05] Yeah.

[00:35:05] I mean, that guy's just like a jerk.

[00:35:08] Mm-hmm.

[00:35:09] But it's...

[00:35:09] But not a ghost.

[00:35:10] Well, it's funny because when you're like, oh, the stable boy was playing a prank, it's

[00:35:14] like, oh, this youthful Huck Finn type character, but it just went wrong.

[00:35:17] Mm-hmm.

[00:35:18] But when it's Laura, suddenly it's like, ooh, that's a scary bitch.

[00:35:21] Yeah.

[00:35:21] Exactly.

[00:35:22] Yeah.

[00:35:22] So the gender thing really comes in.

[00:35:24] It does.

[00:35:25] It's funny.

[00:35:26] Yeah.

[00:35:26] That trope is such a, like, yay feminism in a way that's very misogynistic.

[00:35:31] Yeah.

[00:35:31] The example I was thinking of was Little Rascals, do you remember, at the very end?

[00:35:35] I never saw it.

[00:35:36] Okay.

[00:35:36] Well, they idealized this race car driver named A.J. Ferguson, and then they find out,

[00:35:44] because this is before the internet, right?

[00:35:45] So then they see A.J. Ferguson, and she takes off her helmet, and it's Reba McIntyre, and

[00:35:52] they're like, A.J. Ferguson's a girl?

[00:35:56] And that's how it goes.

[00:35:57] Mm-hmm.

[00:35:58] And I remember watching that being like, yeah?

[00:36:01] Go, girls.

[00:36:02] Oh, I feel like this means, yeah, you're taking a look.

[00:36:06] I'm saying it's the exception that proves the rule that girls mainly suck.

[00:36:09] Cool.

[00:36:09] And it's like a punchline, right?

[00:36:11] Yeah.

[00:36:12] Yeah.

[00:36:12] But I don't think, I think that they thought it was progressive.

[00:36:16] Yeah.

[00:36:17] Like, now the boys know girls can be cool.

[00:36:19] This one can.

[00:36:20] This one girl.

[00:36:21] Like, girls in general.

[00:36:22] No.

[00:36:24] Anyway, I don't know why I'm talking about Little Rascals.

[00:36:25] That movie sucked.

[00:36:26] I tried to rewatch it, like, three years ago.

[00:36:29] I fucking loved it as a child.

[00:36:30] And I went to rewatch it, and I'm like, this movie's really offensive.

[00:36:35] What the hell?

[00:36:36] I can't believe it.

[00:36:36] Yeah.

[00:36:36] Because isn't it based on, like, a pretty old show?

[00:36:40] Yeah.

[00:36:40] So, yeah, kind of not surprised.

[00:36:42] It's weird that they remade it.

[00:36:44] They're like 1994 or whatever.

[00:36:46] This is the year.

[00:36:47] Parents will take their children to it.

[00:36:50] Yeah, this thing that their parents watched in the 30s.

[00:36:53] Mm-hmm.

[00:36:53] And it was offensive then.

[00:36:55] Yeah.

[00:36:55] Anyway, this is a side story, but maybe we should talk about some more categories.

[00:37:01] What do you have next?

[00:37:03] Trauma.

[00:37:04] Woo!

[00:37:05] Yeah, recovering from trauma.

[00:37:06] What I like about this is I think it really captures something about trauma, which is,

[00:37:11] okay, I dealt with the thing.

[00:37:13] It was scary, but I defeated it.

[00:37:17] Now, several years later.

[00:37:18] I know it's, like, only been one year.

[00:37:20] One year.

[00:37:21] Yeah.

[00:37:21] But, like, really it's been, like, 20 years, right?

[00:37:25] No, 10, 15 years since the first book?

[00:37:28] Something like that.

[00:37:28] Yeah.

[00:37:29] Yeah.

[00:37:30] Anyway, a lot of times the effects of trauma, you're not ready to deal with them and you

[00:37:34] don't really start to confront them until much, much later because you've buried them in

[00:37:37] a little metal box in your basement, right?

[00:37:41] A book that really deals with this well is I listened to an audiobook recently called The

[00:37:47] Only Girl in the World, which is a memoir by this woman named Maude Julian, who her father

[00:37:53] basically raised her in a one-man cult.

[00:37:56] It was him and his wife and her.

[00:37:59] And he was, like, unhinged psychologically and thought that the world was this, like,

[00:38:09] kind of – he had, like, an occultist war mentality and was trying to raise his daughter

[00:38:14] to be prepared for that.

[00:38:15] And it was very abusive all out of this kind of, like, I'm trying to make you tough and

[00:38:22] ready for the world.

[00:38:23] And then when she finally left home, when she was, like, 18, she just, like, had a normal

[00:38:29] relationship with her father for about 10 years and didn't tell anyone about, like,

[00:38:33] what her life had been.

[00:38:35] And then it wasn't until, like, she started therapy, like, a decade later that she's

[00:38:39] like, oh, yeah, so this is what happened.

[00:38:42] I think he was bad, you know?

[00:38:45] Anyway, all of that to say, this is kind of what Carly Beth is.

[00:38:48] Elsa, she's at the point where she can look back and be like, huh, no, I guess I didn't

[00:38:53] defeat that after all, did I?

[00:38:54] That might be with me for life in some form or other.

[00:38:57] She's also still in it in that she's around all the same people.

[00:39:00] Yeah.

[00:39:00] And they're really trying to force her back into that whole dynamic.

[00:39:03] It's true.

[00:39:04] Some other movies that do this well are Scream 3, Curse of Chucky and Cult of Chucky, where

[00:39:11] Andy has been keeping Chucky in his house so that he can constantly watch it.

[00:39:17] Like, that's kind of exactly what Carly Beth is doing here with the mask.

[00:39:20] And the reason I told you I wanted to watch I Still Know What You Did Last Summer is because

[00:39:26] it came to mind.

[00:39:27] Because do you remember in the preview for it, there was like, okay, well, the trailer

[00:39:31] for it was Jennifer Love Hewitt's character talking with her therapist who was making her

[00:39:37] repeats, like, there is no man with a hook.

[00:39:39] There is no man with a hook.

[00:39:41] So anyway, yeah, a lot of horror movie sequels are about how long trauma continues to linger,

[00:39:48] including when you're in scenarios or can't really avoid scenarios that still bring up

[00:39:51] the same dynamics.

[00:39:52] Very true.

[00:39:53] Well, my last one is expository newspaper.

[00:39:57] One of my favorite tropes.

[00:39:58] I love them.

[00:39:59] I love it too.

[00:39:59] Yeah.

[00:40:00] The Changeling, Night in the Woods, the game.

[00:40:03] Misery, Don't Breathe.

[00:40:06] I want to say it's Saw 6, 5 or 6.

[00:40:10] Just the newspaper headline that just gives you the backstory.

[00:40:14] Wreck.

[00:40:15] Wreck.

[00:40:15] Also very good.

[00:40:16] Does it so well.

[00:40:16] Like, the last two minutes of Wreck.

[00:40:18] One thing that's really nice about it is because a lot of horror is about I'm scared because

[00:40:23] of this thing that's going to happen to me.

[00:40:25] I don't know when and I don't know what it is or something like that.

[00:40:28] But then it shifts into mystery mode where you feel more like, I'm solving this.

[00:40:32] I'm figuring out what it is.

[00:40:34] Putting the puzzle together.

[00:40:35] Yeah, exactly.

[00:40:36] Yeah, I agree.

[00:40:37] They're a nice balance for each other.

[00:40:39] My last one was Atlas Obscura because I just felt like what she and Sabrina were doing when

[00:40:45] they go to visit the stable was kind of Atlas Obscura where you go around to weird places

[00:40:50] in your hometown like we used to do in Boston where it's like, oh, this is like the oldest

[00:40:55] pear tree and this used to be a tuberculosis ward.

[00:40:59] And, you know, this is a unmarked grave site.

[00:41:03] Now it's a Panera.

[00:41:04] Yeah, totally.

[00:41:05] This is the burrito shop where Edgar Allan Poe was born.

[00:41:09] True story.

[00:41:11] And there's this part where Sabrina's like, oh, see this little stool here.

[00:41:16] What if the stable boy sat right there?

[00:41:19] And I think, yeah, there's something I really enjoyed our pandemic trips around eastern Massachusetts

[00:41:26] to strange sites.

[00:41:28] And there's something outstanding in a place where someone did something weird and being

[00:41:34] like taking the vibes.

[00:41:36] Yeah.

[00:41:37] It's our Stonehenge.

[00:41:38] You know?

[00:41:40] Yeah, it's our Stonehenge.

[00:41:41] The old Necco Wafer Factory.

[00:41:43] Yeah.

[00:41:43] Which, you know, go see the little statue of the Necco Wafers in Boston.

[00:41:49] We call it Cambridge.

[00:41:50] The Nabisco Factory that's now nice lofts but still has little plaster cookies on its fence.

[00:41:57] Yeah.

[00:41:58] Well, theories and queries.

[00:42:01] So one of my questions was, what was under the ground the first time, you know?

[00:42:06] What's the other thing that's buried out there?

[00:42:08] I'm a stupid, stupid person.

[00:42:11] There were a lot of pieces in this one that didn't fully come together.

[00:42:14] So I kind of...

[00:42:15] That one did.

[00:42:16] Yeah.

[00:42:16] That one did.

[00:42:17] Yeah, it's true.

[00:42:18] Yeah.

[00:42:19] Well, my question is, is this a Saw 4 situation where this book is actually happening simultaneously

[00:42:28] with The Haunted Mask 2?

[00:42:30] That's so cool.

[00:42:31] So the same night is when one of Chick and Steve is going to put on the old person mask.

[00:42:37] So the shop is open because whichever one of them it is has to go get that mask.

[00:42:42] Yeah.

[00:42:43] And they...

[00:42:44] Because in that one, they're still also trying to scare Carly Beth, but she's shrugging it

[00:42:47] off a bit more.

[00:42:48] I love that.

[00:42:49] The thing that troubles me about this, that means...

[00:42:52] Is the entire Gooseverse in play?

[00:42:54] All of the things that we said were shared universe that we now have to remember?

[00:42:57] Oh, that would be so exciting.

[00:42:59] I love that.

[00:43:00] But so now I'm going to be on the lookout for which books are happening at the same time

[00:43:04] as which other books.

[00:43:05] And it actually makes sense because if they're all showing up at Horrorland at the same time,

[00:43:10] it must mean all of their storylines are happening because they're like, oh, I just came off

[00:43:14] of this adventure and now here I am.

[00:43:17] Yeah.

[00:43:17] Except that like Brittany and Molly have Facebook.

[00:43:22] Yeah.

[00:43:22] Well...

[00:43:23] I guess maybe there's some sort of weird like convergence of timelines.

[00:43:27] Maybe Horrorland is some sort of anomaly that can bring these kids from different places.

[00:43:33] Yeah.

[00:43:33] We could have, again, some like reality police...

[00:43:36] Fuck-ups.

[00:43:37] Yeah.

[00:43:37] Fuck-ups happening here.

[00:43:38] But yeah.

[00:43:40] I think it's also possible that all the stories are happening at the same time.

[00:43:43] And that's kind of stressful.

[00:43:45] What a world.

[00:43:46] What a world.

[00:43:47] Yeah.

[00:43:48] Okay.

[00:43:49] My question was, so the store owner is just there?

[00:43:53] But it sounds like you have something to say about that.

[00:43:57] Well, I mean, it seems like he does his dastardly deeds around Halloween and he's open.

[00:44:04] He's open also because it seems like he wants to put these masks in the world.

[00:44:08] Like he wants people to...

[00:44:10] Yeah.

[00:44:10] He wants people to take them, which again is how either Chuck or Steve ends up with one,

[00:44:15] right?

[00:44:15] Because the shop is open.

[00:44:18] But okay.

[00:44:19] The way I remember it, he made these masks, but they all kept turning ugly because none

[00:44:26] of them had love.

[00:44:27] I don't remember what was from the book and what was from the TV episode, if I'm being

[00:44:32] perfectly honest.

[00:44:33] Me neither.

[00:44:34] I just thought I remembered that these were kind of his children in a way and he made these

[00:44:39] masks.

[00:44:40] Recently?

[00:44:40] Really?

[00:44:41] Like why is it that they now have this hundred year old history?

[00:44:48] I think he's maybe ageless in a way.

[00:44:51] I'm guessing it's one of these like magic shop situations where...

[00:44:54] So is he immortal?

[00:44:56] But he has to run a store still?

[00:44:57] It sounds like he's trying to find them homes and is not doing a very good job of it.

[00:45:01] Oh, so are they like his millennial children?

[00:45:05] And he's like, I'm trying to get these guys out of the house.

[00:45:08] They just want to play video games all the time.

[00:45:10] They just keep coming back.

[00:45:11] Because it's 2008.

[00:45:12] This is yours now.

[00:45:13] Yeah.

[00:45:14] Yeah.

[00:45:14] Okay.

[00:45:15] I buy that.

[00:45:17] My other one we've already touched on, but like, what the fuck, Sabrina?

[00:45:21] I know.

[00:45:22] It's just, I'm kind of disgusted by her and like, why is she doing this?

[00:45:26] But I guess it's a pretty simple answer, right?

[00:45:28] She just wants control over Carly Beth.

[00:45:30] I think perspective matters a lot.

[00:45:33] So remember how I didn't like Matt Daniels?

[00:45:35] Mm-hmm.

[00:45:35] I think Matt Daniels is kind of a Sabrina.

[00:45:38] Yeah.

[00:45:38] And from Sabrina's perspective, maybe Carly Beth is her Bradley, where she's like, oh, you'll never be as popular or interesting as me or like as pretty.

[00:45:50] So that's part of why I like being in a friendship with you.

[00:45:54] But I'm going to like make fun of you all the time and take you down a notch over and over.

[00:46:00] Yeah.

[00:46:00] I think Matt, though, would have been perfectly happy if Bradley had just left him alone.

[00:46:04] But Sabrina actively seeks out Carly Beth's friendship.

[00:46:07] But maybe that's also just different ways different genders are socialized to interact with people they don't like.

[00:46:13] That's true.

[00:46:14] I was thinking, so there's a really good movie, guys.

[00:46:19] I wish we had known about it when we recorded the last episode.

[00:46:23] Yes.

[00:46:23] So very good dark web movie.

[00:46:26] 20 out of 10 would recommend Red Rooms.

[00:46:28] It's this Canadian horror film.

[00:46:31] It's really good.

[00:46:31] But one thing I really like about it is the main character or one thing I thought about when we were watching it was the main character kind of just does whatever she wants all the time and like lives a very solitary life.

[00:46:42] And I was like, see, I never was presented as an option that I could just be by myself if I felt like it.

[00:46:48] You know?

[00:46:49] Yeah, I was presented as like this is a bad thing.

[00:46:51] Yeah, you need to get out of your room.

[00:46:53] Yeah.

[00:46:53] But it's actually great to be in your room.

[00:46:55] It is.

[00:46:56] I would like to just be in my room without feeling like, oh, I should probably get out and be around people.

[00:47:01] Yeah.

[00:47:02] But anyway.

[00:47:02] Yeah.

[00:47:03] So that could contribute to the Matt-Sabrina difference.

[00:47:05] I agree.

[00:47:07] My question was, are these voices in Carly Beth's head, both the horses and the mask, or are they real?

[00:47:15] Well, that's a good question.

[00:47:18] I think it's very possible that the mask's voice is in her head.

[00:47:23] Hmm.

[00:47:24] But I don't know.

[00:47:26] With the horses, it seems like there's some sort of objective confirmation that that's what's happening.

[00:47:30] But Sabrina doesn't hear them.

[00:47:32] But that might just be because Sabrina is not attuned to the spirit world.

[00:47:37] Didn't leave a gesture of, you know, kindness for them.

[00:47:42] No, just tried to prank people in there after learning that that's how the last girl died.

[00:47:47] Yeah.

[00:47:48] So, yeah, I'm not sure.

[00:47:50] It's funny, too, because we talk about the horses were scared to death, right?

[00:47:54] And Laura was trying to scare the stable boy or the stable boy was trying to scare the horse groomer, right?

[00:48:01] But then Sabrina's like, okay, what I'm going to do with that information is take Carly Beth there and scare her.

[00:48:05] It's like, are you trying to kill her?

[00:48:07] Yeah, it's really weird.

[00:48:08] Yeah.

[00:48:09] I don't think she really thinks it through, but I think subconsciously she's kind of sadistic.

[00:48:15] Yeah, I think so, too.

[00:48:17] Should we enter the Horrorland first?

[00:48:20] Let's.

[00:48:21] Well, Carly Beth and Sabrina join the group and they go see a magician called Mondo the Magical.

[00:48:27] Yeah, I'm not sure why Carly Beth would go to this.

[00:48:30] Kind of go to something, I guess.

[00:48:31] It was no line.

[00:48:32] Yeah.

[00:48:33] He multiplied.

[00:48:34] Oh, I meant Horrorland.

[00:48:35] Oh, yeah.

[00:48:36] Yeah.

[00:48:36] Maybe she's trying to prove that she's not scared.

[00:48:38] Very true.

[00:48:39] And it's free trip.

[00:48:40] Yeah.

[00:48:41] Like, there's a lot of places I would go with a free trip.

[00:48:42] If they're like, free trip to Verham, Ver Hampshire?

[00:48:45] Yeah.

[00:48:46] You know.

[00:48:47] New Hampshire.

[00:48:47] The state of Ver Hampshire.

[00:48:49] I'd say, all right.

[00:48:51] Yeah.

[00:48:51] They go see Mondo the Magician and then they see two boys who are, it's Billy and Matt.

[00:48:58] And they're talking about the disappearance of Byron.

[00:49:01] They're recapping the previous books.

[00:49:04] And basically, Sabrina's really into them.

[00:49:07] Yeah.

[00:49:08] Boy crazy.

[00:49:09] Yeah.

[00:49:10] And so when they're at the magic show, the magician makes – oh, well, first of all, he pulls a hat out of a rabbit, which is kind of funny.

[00:49:17] Yeah.

[00:49:17] But he makes Sheena reappear.

[00:49:19] And he seems to not have been expecting it either.

[00:49:22] And Billy goes, my sister!

[00:49:24] Yeah.

[00:49:25] She doesn't really know what happened to her.

[00:49:27] She got sucked into the monster blood and came out by a flaming carousel.

[00:49:31] Yeah.

[00:49:31] She was – she said she was in a different part of the park.

[00:49:34] And Carly Beth is just like, I want to go enjoy the park.

[00:49:37] But Sabrina thinks that the boys are cute and wants to go with them.

[00:49:40] And this really annoyed me.

[00:49:42] It just like inordinately annoyed me that like this is the motivation.

[00:49:46] Yeah.

[00:49:46] These boys are so cute.

[00:49:47] Let's go do this.

[00:49:48] I know.

[00:49:48] And Carly Beth's like, I just want to have a fun time.

[00:49:50] Whereas all the other characters so far, their motivation has been –

[00:49:53] My parents disappeared.

[00:49:55] Yeah.

[00:49:55] These people are disappearing.

[00:49:58] I got this strange key card.

[00:49:59] There's a secret afoot.

[00:50:01] But Let's Follow the Cute Boys has actually been a – there's a reason it's something that a lot of horror stories warn you against.

[00:50:08] Mm-hmm.

[00:50:10] Matt has sort of put together that all the special guests are in danger.

[00:50:14] They go backstage to look for signs of Byron.

[00:50:19] They find his name tag.

[00:50:20] They also find an old drawing of a flaming carousel.

[00:50:24] Yeah.

[00:50:24] I think the one thing that was interesting to me about this section was that the flaming carousel shoots fire but doesn't itself burn.

[00:50:33] Mm-hmm.

[00:50:33] Like it's the burning bush in the desert in Exodus that it's burning but it's not consumed.

[00:50:39] Mm-hmm.

[00:50:40] So is that where God lives?

[00:50:42] In this carousel?

[00:50:43] In this burning carousel?

[00:50:44] Maybe.

[00:50:45] Or is this story going to be our Exodus?

[00:50:48] Like has it all been Genesis up to this point?

[00:50:50] Here I was just assuming it was regular pyrotechnics but, you know, I'm just not thinking big enough.

[00:50:54] I guess.

[00:50:55] They also are making a lot of assumptions that like Byron is leaving all these things to find.

[00:50:59] Yeah.

[00:51:00] I mean when you're paranoid you put together signs and make meaning out of them.

[00:51:04] They also pass a shop that does nose tattoos and eye piercings.

[00:51:07] Yeah.

[00:51:08] Eyeball piercings.

[00:51:10] They try to find the ride, the flaming carousel, and Carly Beth still just does not want to be caught up in the drama.

[00:51:17] But then they find a mask store.

[00:51:20] Just what she needs.

[00:51:21] Yeah.

[00:51:22] They go in.

[00:51:22] The masks all feel very real.

[00:51:25] There's a baby one that feels like baby skin.

[00:51:27] Yeah.

[00:51:28] And then there are masks of kids' faces in the back including Brittany and Molly who seem to be saying you're next.

[00:51:35] Then they go and for some reason Carly Beth gets super freaked out by two monster police eating black ice cream.

[00:51:42] Like she's just disgusted by it.

[00:51:43] But that's just like a normal kind of ice cream.

[00:51:44] Like it's licorice flavored.

[00:51:45] It's delicious.

[00:51:48] And the horrors are talking about how there's a surprise in store for the special guests and everything can get a lot scarier.

[00:51:53] The horrors named Bubba and Marcus.

[00:51:56] It's great.

[00:51:57] They're on break.

[00:51:59] The horrors still seem to get breaks a lot.

[00:52:01] Yeah.

[00:52:01] Yeah.

[00:52:02] They probably have a solid union contract.

[00:52:04] Yeah.

[00:52:05] Well, Carly Beth and Sabrina wander into the werewolf forest and it is as weird as we thought it would be.

[00:52:12] Yeah.

[00:52:12] They find cages full of men wolves.

[00:52:15] Yeah.

[00:52:16] Hairy men.

[00:52:17] I think they stumbled on like a more adult part of the park.

[00:52:20] Yeah.

[00:52:21] But then they get locked in there.

[00:52:22] Yeah.

[00:52:23] And that's.

[00:52:23] There's a cliffhanger of some sort of hungry creature jumping out at them, which I'm sure will end up being another child.

[00:52:29] And we're just going to get like.

[00:52:31] More people.

[00:52:31] Yeah.

[00:52:32] There's too many.

[00:52:33] I think so, too.

[00:52:34] Yeah.

[00:52:35] Too many cooks.

[00:52:36] Superbanks.

[00:52:38] What did you think of this book?

[00:52:40] Aside from that little addendum, coda, whatever you want to call it?

[00:52:45] on a scale of one to five bewares you mean?

[00:52:47] Yes.

[00:52:47] I'd give it four bewares.

[00:52:49] I enjoyed it.

[00:52:49] I liked having Carly Beth back.

[00:52:51] I liked her working through her issues.

[00:52:53] There were a few loose pieces to me that I felt like,

[00:52:58] like the sort of Laura and Clark thing,

[00:53:00] it felt like there's a little too much jumbled up there in the end.

[00:53:03] And I would have liked a little bit more,

[00:53:05] you know,

[00:53:05] give me some atmospheric scary details on what happened at Tumble Down Farms.

[00:53:09] But overall, I, you know, as reboots of old content go,

[00:53:14] I enjoyed this one.

[00:53:15] Yeah.

[00:53:15] I guess that last 30 pages he could have used to fill out the rest of the story.

[00:53:20] And this is the first time I've actually felt like that.

[00:53:22] I mean, for me,

[00:53:22] this is a five just because I thought that the settings were so cool.

[00:53:25] I like Carly Beth as a character and yeah,

[00:53:28] this spooky horse farm was rad.

[00:53:31] Yeah.

[00:53:33] Well, GoosePunks,

[00:53:34] we would love to know what you thought of the Scream of the Haunted Mask.

[00:53:37] You can let us know via email at saypodanddie at gmail.com.

[00:53:42] Or on social media.

[00:53:43] Well, just Instagram at saypodanddie.

[00:53:46] And you could also review us if you wanted.

[00:53:48] You could leave us five bewares.

[00:53:50] Yeah.

[00:53:51] And tell us some stuff you liked about the,

[00:53:53] yeah,

[00:53:54] you can leave us five only and,

[00:53:56] or more if you have the option.

[00:53:59] And then say some stuff to us about what you liked.

[00:54:04] And what you thought about these books.

[00:54:05] Yeah.

[00:54:06] Listener beware.

[00:54:07] Those were the scares.

[00:54:09] Good boo.

[00:54:16] So what's the deal with the abandoned stable?

[00:54:18] I asked.

[00:54:19] Why did you yell like that?

[00:54:22] Don't you know about that old stable?

[00:54:24] Laura asked us in a hushed voice.

[00:54:27] A hard gust of wind rattled the kitchen window.

[00:54:30] Sabrina and I shook our heads.

[00:54:31] We never walked there before,

[00:54:33] I said.

[00:54:35] Laura nodded.

[00:54:36] She took a sip of hot chocolate.

[00:54:37] It's a scary story.

[00:54:38] Mrs. Lang told me the whole thing.

[00:54:41] It's actually very sad.

[00:54:42] It was a riding stable many years ago.

[00:54:44] Very popular with beautiful horses,

[00:54:47] well cared for and well groomed.

[00:54:49] One night,

[00:54:49] people in the farmhouse heard screams.

[00:54:52] High pitched shrieks and screams.

[00:54:54] Not human screams.

[00:54:55] They knew they couldn't be human screams.

[00:54:58] I suddenly had a cold feeling in the pit of my stomach.

[00:55:01] What do you mean?

[00:55:02] Who was screaming?

[00:55:03] The screams were shrill and frightened,

[00:55:06] Laura continued.

[00:55:07] They came from the stable.

[00:55:08] The horses were screaming.

[00:55:11] Everyone went running to the stable.

[00:55:12] They pulled open the doors and found the horses dead.

[00:55:15] All of them lying against the wall in a heap.

[00:55:18] All dead.

[00:55:18] And they tried to run forth,

[00:55:18] they turned into the .

[00:55:18] In