Carly Beth Caldwell

Carly Beth Caldwell is the main protagonist of The Haunted Mask and The Scream of the Haunted Mask, as well as playing a major role in The Haunted Mask II. She is described as being timid and easy to scare. At first, Carly Beth hated herself for this, as she was constantly teased for this. After the events of The Haunted Mask, however, she learns to accept herself for who she is and to not try to be something else she isn't. Her best friend is Sabrina Mason. Carly Beth is the second leader behind Matt Daniels in HorrorLand and she has the fourth strongest part there. She is shown to lead in Help! We Have Strange Powers!, when she calls the guest names when they find the mirrors.
 * Description: Age 13, Caucasian, short and skinny, pixyish facial, long straight brown hair, brown eyes. She is described as pretty or cute by some characters in Goosebumps Horrorland.

The Haunted Mask
Carly Beth, who is easily frightened by everything, is constantly scared and humiliated by her two prankster friends, Chuck and Steve. On Halloween night, she goes to the local costume shop to try to find the scariest costume to scare Chuck and Steve with it. She takes in interest in The Haunted Mask and the shopkeeper, after repeated warnings, reluctantly sells her the mask. After returning home, she takes a sculpture of her head made by her mother and goes trick-or-treating with Sabrina. Carly-Beth begins to act noticeably more aggressive and nasty, scaring little children and threatening to maul and eat them. She eventually finds and scares Chuck and Steve by pretending to be a creature that took Carly Beth's head. The sculpture head then begins to talk on its own, calling for help. After successfully scaring the boys, Carly Beth haphazardly abandons the fake head. After returning to Sabrina's house, she tries to take off the mask, only to find that there is no space between the mask and her skin. She goes back to the shop and the shopkeeper explains the history of the mask as well as telling her that the mask can only be removed by a symbol of love. The other masks in the shop come to life and attack her, but she hurries out the shop and finds the sculpture of her head, using it as her symbol of love. She is then finally able to take off the mask. The book ends with her little brother putting on the same mask.

In The Haunted Mask II Steve, one of the pranksters from the last book, buys an old troll mask and finds himself in a similar predicament as Carly Beth was, but rather then become a monster, he ages more into an old man the more he tries to pull the mask off.

The Haunted Mask II
The Haunted Mask II is about Steve, Chuck's friend, but Carly Beth plays an important role. She is now harder to scare, due to being scared by the mask not coming off, and learning to appreciate herself. Steve, sick of being a pirate for Halloween, just like Carly Beth was sick of being a duck, wants to scare some first graders who have been being mean to him, so he asks her where she got the mask. She refuses, but after Chuck and Steve begin tossing Carly's plaster head around in a game of catch, she gives in and tells them about the shop. Carly Beth had put the mask in her basement. Steve decides to go to the store's basement and, with out listening to the shop keeper's warnings, takes a mask that resembles a hideous old man. The same thing that happens to Carly happens to Steve, and Steve becomes weak and frail, like an old man. When he relizes that the mask won't come off, Steve decides to call Carly Beth for help getting the mask off. When Carly Beth's father answers the telephone, he doesn't know who's calling, for Steve's voice is now soft and hard to understand. So Steve decides to go to Carly Beth's house. while he is hobbling to his friend,s house he sees the first grders he was so much wanting to scare but the first graders aren't scred of him, they wonder if he needs help so Steve asks them to bring him to Carly Beth's house. When he gets there, Carly Beth tells him to find a symbol of love. they try his favorite cookies that his mother got because she new he loved them and his dog, Sparky, but it doesn't work so they go back to the party store and they find the costume to the mask. the mask comes off and they find that Chuck found a mask too and it won't come off.

The Haunted Mask Lives!
The Haunted Mask Lives! was a planned book in the cancelled Goosebumps Gold series. The book was never written, because R.L. Stine's contract with Scholastic expired, therefore ending the series, which had three books planned. The cover depicted a girl (maybe Carly Beth) being taken over by the haunted mask, which was partially clawed and ripped apart by Steve's dog in The Haunted Mask II. Nobody knows if Carly Beth was to make an appearance in The Haunted Mask Lives!, as the book was never actually written.

The Scream of the Haunted Mask
Carly Beth makes an appearance in Goosebumps HorrorLand, in the book The Scream of the Haunted Mask. She is eventually turned into a shadow by the villains of Panic Park, who are all teaming up to defeat their enemies.

In this book, she has a relationship with one Gary Steadman, possibly one of her classmates. They even kiss at Steve Boswell's party on one Friday night, which she is embarassed when teased by Sabrina. However, she defensively explains that Gary Steadman tries to kiss her and his braces cut her lips.

Television Episodes
Carly Beth also appeared in the first two television episodes of the Goosebumps television series, which were an adaptation of The Haunted Mask.

The Haunted Mask II was also adapted into a two-part television episode. Here, the Haunted Mask from the previous story possesses the shopkeeper and tries to take revenge on Carly Beth, which doesn't happen in the book. She is also noticeably more brave and confident in these episodes, which Chuck and Steve point out.

Kathryn Long played Carly Beth in both television episodes.