Werebelushi reviews: THM
Werebelushi Reviews:
THM
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(We see a male werebelushi who looks like John Belushi, he is seen wearing a The Shining t-shirt.)
Werebelushi:
Hello everyone, it's me again - That Werebelushi In The Shades. Remember when I did my review on Bride Of The Living Dummy? I brought up a bit of history regarding the Goosebumps tv series and the books they are based on.
Now, although Slappy is considered one of the main villains/Big Bads of the Goosebumps universe, there is one entity however that seems to be more threatening. As in it is more menacing. That is refered to as none other than The Haunted Mask. The so called mask has no actual name, but it still is a prominent villain in the series, including in the recent books.
Let's get started shall we? This is Goosebumps: The Haunted Mask, the very first episode of the tv show to air. Instead of opening with the classic opening theme tune, we get an introduction by R.L Stine the author of the books. This along with Night Of The Living Dummy 3, Werewolf Of Fever Swamp and well...Haunted Mask II, are the ones that have the Stine introduction and outro.
Stine tells us the story of the episode while looking around in a halloween store and we see various masks, pity we don't see any sci fi themed masks or anything akin to those Freddy Krueger or Leatherface masks you see in halloween stores in real life. So basically, Stine is serving as the Talking Bookend to this tale.
The story tells of a girl named Carly Beth who is one of the most easily scared people on the planet. I mean that in the sense that everything scares her! She and Chuckie Finster from Rugrats would probably get along well. There are these two boys named Chuck and Steve who constantly play pranks on her and scaring the hell out of her.
If I were her, I would just tell on them by telling their parents - but I forgot that in children's media the majority of adult characters are either evil or just plain stupid.
Of course this is set around halloween and Carly wants the scariest costume of all. Although if you really wanted to go as something really scary, you could just go as an internet troll! *laughs* I kid, I kid.
When she gets home - she finds her mother has made her a 'duck costume' for halloween, wow - this woman must have the same exact level of art and design skills as Delia from Beetlejuice! But Carly Beth doesn't want to be a duck - good thing too. Because if she did, she would probably be dressed like a certain Marvel duck character that has been mentioned in Phineas And Ferb: Mission Marvel.
Carly comes across a halloween store that sells various masks. Okay...what is with The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday? That trope is ALWAYS in horror or fantasy novels and tv shows and it just always confuses me. Did the shop just open? Are shops like this a common occurrence?
So as she enters the shop, she is greeted by the shopkeeper or as he's called 'The Thin Man' not to be confused with Slender Man, The Thin White Duke or the Tall Man from the Phantasm franchise.
Carly tells the Thin Man she'd like to buy a mask for halloween, but the Thin Man told her the shop is closed. Okay...if the shop is closed, then explain how she was able to get in!
There are various masks on display including what appears to be a yeti with glasses, a werewolf, what appears to be Alfred Hitchcock, and the titular mask of this story - which looks rather a lot like Jerry Dandridge from the original Fright Night that came out in 1985. Well, Jerry's 'Game Face' that is.
Now this is where I bring up the concept. Now believe it or not, the idea of becoming what you are dressed as is not a new one at all. It was done in The Twilight Zone episode The Masks, as well as in one of the Friday the 13th sequels. The idea of the living mask was also done in the Dark Horse comic series The Mask that inspired the Jim Carrey movie, although the comics were a LOT darker and the titular mask was a villain. Still, as dark and graphic as that was - still not as scary as the trucked up imagery in Son Of The Mask! Although I definitely think New Line must have borrowed the design of the mask from this Goosebumps episode as the design of Loki in his mask form.
Carly Beth has her eyes set on this particular mask as she views it to be the scariest, but the Thin Man stops her - offering her a gorilla mask instead. Had she chosen the gorilla mask instead I bet there would have been a chance of her turning into a hulking gorilla monster - a Queen Kong if you will.
She takes the titular haunted mask and leaves the store but not before giving the man some money! Well at least she remembered to give him money. Why can't shoplifters be THAT polite?
Well the mask is a huge success and she even gets back at those two kids Steve and Chuck, bringing along the bust her mother made of her. And she's carrying it around on a stick too, going for the Vlad The Impaler technique I see.
Of course this is where the actual haunted part of the mask comes in, as slowly but surely it melds with her face and turns her into a monster. Complete with Exorcist styled demon voice! She becomes angrier and more sadistic as the nature of the mask consumes her or at least half of it.
It turns out the masks from the Thin Man's store were made with dark supernatural magic that slowly corrupted him, they originally were beautiful but the corruption slowly turned them all grotesque and monstrous. Which is actually quite interesting. It's a pity we don't actually get to see the Thin Man as a monster though, actually we do in Haunted Mask II.
Speaking of which....this is a minor nitpick, but in Haunted Mask 2 when Steve turns into an old man his skin goes all wrinkly and we see his hands change like with Queen Grimhilde becoming the hag in Snow White - yet in the original Haunted Mask Carly only gets a demonic face and she doesn't develop claws or monster-like hands? That seems a bit odd if you ask me. I believe that the reviewer known as Orion57 brought that up as part of his Goosebumps retrospective when he talked about Haunted Mask 2.
The mask is now not only stuck on her face but it is now her actual face, horrified she runs back to the store and the Thin Man tells her it is too late - as it is her actual face now, which makes her cry once she catches her reflection in the mirror.
She runs off over to a graveyard to recover the bust that she buried, only to be pursued by the other masks from the store who beg her to save them. Woah, easy with the ghostly flying, guys! I'm not wearing my 3D glasses.
She holds the bust up and this frightens off the other masks, because this is apparently the symbol of love and she discovers who she really is, she takes the mask off and gets rid of it - however, her little brother picks it up and tries it on. Do we ever get to see him become a monster? No. We just get the Haunted Mask 2.
That was the Haunted Mask...now was it really as scary as we remember it? Well kinda, but it's really cheesy, but it's still one of the creepier episodes of Goosebumps and the one episode that kicked off the tv series proper. It is easy to see why this was considered one of the scariest episodes, it is because it deals with a theme we are all familiar with, and while the concept has been done before - it is done very creatively here.
I still view this as one of the best episodes of the Goosebumps tv series in general as it is based on one of the best books in the series. I give it 9 and a half out of 10, I recommend watching it for nostalgia or if you are a fan of horror tv shows or anything to do with the halloween season.
I'm That Werebelushi In The Shades and this has been my review of Goosebumps: The Haunted Mask. Now if you excuse me i'm going to go and read about Universal Studios rides and attractions.
THM
----------------------------------------
(We see a male werebelushi who looks like John Belushi, he is seen wearing a The Shining t-shirt.)
Werebelushi:
Hello everyone, it's me again - That Werebelushi In The Shades. Remember when I did my review on Bride Of The Living Dummy? I brought up a bit of history regarding the Goosebumps tv series and the books they are based on.
Now, although Slappy is considered one of the main villains/Big Bads of the Goosebumps universe, there is one entity however that seems to be more threatening. As in it is more menacing. That is refered to as none other than The Haunted Mask. The so called mask has no actual name, but it still is a prominent villain in the series, including in the recent books.
Let's get started shall we? This is Goosebumps: The Haunted Mask, the very first episode of the tv show to air. Instead of opening with the classic opening theme tune, we get an introduction by R.L Stine the author of the books. This along with Night Of The Living Dummy 3, Werewolf Of Fever Swamp and well...Haunted Mask II, are the ones that have the Stine introduction and outro.
Stine tells us the story of the episode while looking around in a halloween store and we see various masks, pity we don't see any sci fi themed masks or anything akin to those Freddy Krueger or Leatherface masks you see in halloween stores in real life. So basically, Stine is serving as the Talking Bookend to this tale.
The story tells of a girl named Carly Beth who is one of the most easily scared people on the planet. I mean that in the sense that everything scares her! She and Chuckie Finster from Rugrats would probably get along well. There are these two boys named Chuck and Steve who constantly play pranks on her and scaring the hell out of her.
If I were her, I would just tell on them by telling their parents - but I forgot that in children's media the majority of adult characters are either evil or just plain stupid.
Of course this is set around halloween and Carly wants the scariest costume of all. Although if you really wanted to go as something really scary, you could just go as an internet troll! *laughs* I kid, I kid.
When she gets home - she finds her mother has made her a 'duck costume' for halloween, wow - this woman must have the same exact level of art and design skills as Delia from Beetlejuice! But Carly Beth doesn't want to be a duck - good thing too. Because if she did, she would probably be dressed like a certain Marvel duck character that has been mentioned in Phineas And Ferb: Mission Marvel.
Carly comes across a halloween store that sells various masks. Okay...what is with The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday? That trope is ALWAYS in horror or fantasy novels and tv shows and it just always confuses me. Did the shop just open? Are shops like this a common occurrence?
So as she enters the shop, she is greeted by the shopkeeper or as he's called 'The Thin Man' not to be confused with Slender Man, The Thin White Duke or the Tall Man from the Phantasm franchise.
Carly tells the Thin Man she'd like to buy a mask for halloween, but the Thin Man told her the shop is closed. Okay...if the shop is closed, then explain how she was able to get in!
There are various masks on display including what appears to be a yeti with glasses, a werewolf, what appears to be Alfred Hitchcock, and the titular mask of this story - which looks rather a lot like Jerry Dandridge from the original Fright Night that came out in 1985. Well, Jerry's 'Game Face' that is.
Now this is where I bring up the concept. Now believe it or not, the idea of becoming what you are dressed as is not a new one at all. It was done in The Twilight Zone episode The Masks, as well as in one of the Friday the 13th sequels. The idea of the living mask was also done in the Dark Horse comic series The Mask that inspired the Jim Carrey movie, although the comics were a LOT darker and the titular mask was a villain. Still, as dark and graphic as that was - still not as scary as the trucked up imagery in Son Of The Mask! Although I definitely think New Line must have borrowed the design of the mask from this Goosebumps episode as the design of Loki in his mask form.
Carly Beth has her eyes set on this particular mask as she views it to be the scariest, but the Thin Man stops her - offering her a gorilla mask instead. Had she chosen the gorilla mask instead I bet there would have been a chance of her turning into a hulking gorilla monster - a Queen Kong if you will.
She takes the titular haunted mask and leaves the store but not before giving the man some money! Well at least she remembered to give him money. Why can't shoplifters be THAT polite?
Well the mask is a huge success and she even gets back at those two kids Steve and Chuck, bringing along the bust her mother made of her. And she's carrying it around on a stick too, going for the Vlad The Impaler technique I see.
Of course this is where the actual haunted part of the mask comes in, as slowly but surely it melds with her face and turns her into a monster. Complete with Exorcist styled demon voice! She becomes angrier and more sadistic as the nature of the mask consumes her or at least half of it.
It turns out the masks from the Thin Man's store were made with dark supernatural magic that slowly corrupted him, they originally were beautiful but the corruption slowly turned them all grotesque and monstrous. Which is actually quite interesting. It's a pity we don't actually get to see the Thin Man as a monster though, actually we do in Haunted Mask II.
Speaking of which....this is a minor nitpick, but in Haunted Mask 2 when Steve turns into an old man his skin goes all wrinkly and we see his hands change like with Queen Grimhilde becoming the hag in Snow White - yet in the original Haunted Mask Carly only gets a demonic face and she doesn't develop claws or monster-like hands? That seems a bit odd if you ask me. I believe that the reviewer known as Orion57 brought that up as part of his Goosebumps retrospective when he talked about Haunted Mask 2.
The mask is now not only stuck on her face but it is now her actual face, horrified she runs back to the store and the Thin Man tells her it is too late - as it is her actual face now, which makes her cry once she catches her reflection in the mirror.
She runs off over to a graveyard to recover the bust that she buried, only to be pursued by the other masks from the store who beg her to save them. Woah, easy with the ghostly flying, guys! I'm not wearing my 3D glasses.
She holds the bust up and this frightens off the other masks, because this is apparently the symbol of love and she discovers who she really is, she takes the mask off and gets rid of it - however, her little brother picks it up and tries it on. Do we ever get to see him become a monster? No. We just get the Haunted Mask 2.
That was the Haunted Mask...now was it really as scary as we remember it? Well kinda, but it's really cheesy, but it's still one of the creepier episodes of Goosebumps and the one episode that kicked off the tv series proper. It is easy to see why this was considered one of the scariest episodes, it is because it deals with a theme we are all familiar with, and while the concept has been done before - it is done very creatively here.
I still view this as one of the best episodes of the Goosebumps tv series in general as it is based on one of the best books in the series. I give it 9 and a half out of 10, I recommend watching it for nostalgia or if you are a fan of horror tv shows or anything to do with the halloween season.
I'm That Werebelushi In The Shades and this has been my review of Goosebumps: The Haunted Mask. Now if you excuse me i'm going to go and read about Universal Studios rides and attractions.
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