The Haunted Mask II/TV episode

"Haunted Mask II" is the eleventh and twelfth episode of season two of the Goosebumps TV series, and the thirtieth and thirty-first episode overall. Part one and part two premiered on October 29, 1996, on Fox as a one-hour special.

Cast

 * R.L. Stine as Himself / Host
 * John White as Steve Boswell
 * Amos Crawley as Chuck Greene
 * Kathryn Long as Carly Beth Caldwell
 * Kathryn Short as Sabrina Mason
 * Julie Khaner as Marilyn Boswell
 * Colin Fox as The Shopkeeper
 * Scott Wickware as Haunted Mask
 * Brenda Bazinet as Mrs. Caldwell
 * Cody Jones as Noah Caldwell
 * Bucky Hill as Football Player
 * Alex Campbell as Vampire Boy
 * Alli Hicks as Young Mother
 * Hayley Lochner as Scolded Child
 * Dave Harvey as Kindly Old Man
 * Hamille Rustia as Trick-or-Treater #1
 * Shannon Duff as Trick-or-Treater #2
 * Andrea O'Roarke as 11-Year-Old Girl
 * Derek Boyes as Husband
 * Trevor Wilson as First Teen
 * Jeremy Tracz as Second Teen
 * Christian Matheson as Third Teen

Blurb
After last year's terrifying Halloween, Carly Beth buried her old haunted mask. Now this year her friend Steve wants to find a mask just as scary, but Carly Beth refuses to tell him where she bought hers. At the last minute though, Steve encounters a stranger wearing Carly Beth's old mask, a mysterious man who leads him to a boarded-up novelty shop. Steve slips in through the back door and steals a creepy mask he finds in the basement. What he doesn't realize is that Carly Beth's old mask is alive...and using both Steve and the shopkeeper to get her back!

Plot
The night before Halloween, Carly Beth and Sabrina are walking home from an early Halloween party. As they walk, they hear rustling in some nearby bushes. Carly Beth jumps and screams at the bushes, scaring Chuck and Steve. The two boys are annoyed that Carly Beth is no longer able to be scared by their pranks. Chuck and Steve then ask Carly Beth about the mask she wore last Halloween. When she refuses to tell them where she got it, they take the sculpted head of Carly Beth that she used as part of her costume and toss it back and forth. Sabrina finally ends the taunting by catching the head, and the two girls walk away. As they do, Sabrina asks what Carly Beth did with the mask. She reveals that she buried it in the local cemetery.

As Halloween arrives, the Haunted Mask rises from where Carly Beth buried it and floats away. Inside the basement of the closed novelty shop, The Shopkeeper is attempting to destroy what remains of The Unloved by burning them in a fireplace. As he reaches for an old man mask, the Haunted Mask appears behind him. The Shopkeeper realizes that the mystical powers of Halloween have resurrected the mask. The Haunted Mask attacks him and takes over his body.

On Halloween afternoon, Chuck and Steve meet up outside of their school. Steve laments the fact that they're getting older and won't be able to enjoy Halloween for much longer. As they talk, the Haunted Mask rushes past them. Recognizing it as the mask that Carly Beth wore last Halloween, they follow after him. The Haunted Mask leads them to the abandoned novelty shop. Steve is intrigued by the shop, but Chuck is afraid and wants to leave. After finding an unlocked back door, Chuck and Steve enter the shop, but Chuck decides to leave. Steve enters the basement of the shop as the Haunted Mask lurks in the shadows. After briefly looking through boxes, he finds the old man mask that was left behind. Steve takes the mask and runs home.

Once Steve gets home, he rushes into his room and tries on the mask. The mask shrinks against his face for a perfect fit, astonishing Steve. Suddenly, Steve's mom knocks on his door. Steve quickly hides the mask as his mom enters his room. She shows Steve a pirate costume that she made for him. Steve fakes interest in it, but as soon as she leaves, he tosses the costume aside and examines the old man mask again. He tosses the mask onto his bed to go talk to his mom. As he leaves, the old man mask comes to life, stretching and squirming as spiders crawl over it.

Later that night, Carly Beth gets ready to leave to go trick or treating, wearing the duck costume her mother made for her last year. The Haunted Mask appears in a window, spying on her. He sees the sculpted head sitting on the mantle, laughs, and disappears. Carly Beth's brother Noah asks her if he can borrow the Haunted Mask for his costume, confusing Carly Beth's mother, who thought she had gotten rid of it. Carly Beth reassures her that she did, and tells Noah that he's lucky he only put it on once. Carly Beth then leaves to go meet Sabrina. Sabrina tells her that she's glad that they can have fun this Halloween after last year's experience with the Haunted Mask. Chuck then meets up with them and tells them he's going to find Steve soon. He mentions that Steve found the novelty shop, but that it was out of business. Shocked, Carly Beth asks if Steve went inside, but Chuck lies and says that he didn't.

Meanwhile, Steve gets ready to leave his house and hides the old man mask in a bag underneath his pirate costume. Steve lies and tells his mom that he's going to change into his costume at Chuck's house. Sparky, the family dog, barks angrily at Steve's bag. As trick-or-treaters arrive, Steve leaves and hides behind a tree before pulling his mask out of the bag and putting it on.

As Chuck is wandering down a street looking for Steve, he hears the voice of an old man beckoning from behind a bush. Chuck cautiously approaches before Steve leaps from behind the bush wearing the old man mask. Chuck recognizes Steve's clothes, but Steve (as the old man) tells them that he stole them, scaring Chuck. Chuck begins to run away, but Steve calls out to him in his normal voice and pulls off the mask. Chuck then returns as Steve admires the mask. After Chuck repeatedly asks to see the mask, Steve becomes annoyed with him and puts the mask on again. The mask quickly melds to his skin and becomes his face. Steve roars at Chuck, his voice now sounding old and raspy. Chuck touches the cheek of the mask and is stunned to discover that it feels like real skin. He asks Steve how he is doing the old man voice, but Steve replies that it's his own voice. Steve then becomes distracted by a girl holding a large bag of candy. He runs up to her and steals her bag. Horrified, Chuck watches as Steve begins running around and scaring trick-or-treaters, but after a minute, Steve suddenly begins coughing and feeling weak. He decides he needs to eat the candy in the bag that he stole for energy and dumps it on the street. As Steve eats candy in a disgusting manner, Chuck tells him that he doesn't want to be around him. Steve becomes angry and begins mocking and degrading Chuck before telling him to leave. Steve then walks away and begins scaring more trick-or-treaters.

Carly Beth and Sabrina are enjoying trick-or-treating when Chuck runs up to them and tells them about Steve and the old man mask. Carly Beth realizes he's in trouble and the three begin searching for him. Meanwhile, Steve starts becoming weaker and weaker. He begins to have trouble breathing and falls into a group of trees. Using a branch as a cane, he tells two girls walking by that he's thirsty and needs water, but the girls are horrified by his appearance and run away. Steve then walks to a nearby house and knocks on the door. As he looks at his reflection in a window, he sees spiders crawling on his face and in the stringy hair of the mask. He brushes the spiders off, and as he looks at his reflection again, the old man mask begins to stretch and morph on his face. He tries to pull the mask off, but it remains stuck to his face. Steve then calls on two trick-or-treaters to try and find the bottom of his mask, but they are unable to find it. He tells them that he's only wearing a mask, but the trick-or-treaters tell him that the mask is his face and run away.

Carly Beth, Sabrina, and Chuck continue searching for Steve but are unable to find him. The three then head to the abandoned novelty shop after Carly Beth remembers going there last Halloween. Inside the store, the Haunted Mask watches from behind the boarded-up windows. The three enter the basement, but Steve is nowhere to be found. Chuck and Sabrina suggest going to Steve's house, hoping that he was able to remove the mask on his own.

Steve tries getting help from a woman and her young daughter, but she chastises him for scaring the little girl. Becoming weaker, Steve collapses into a yard. The mask begins stretching and morphing again, and Steve looks on in horror as his hands become old and wrinkled. He realizes that the mask is turning him into an old man and decides to go home, but is confronted by the Haunted Mask. The Haunted Mask then demands that Steve retrieve the sculpted head of Carly Beth in order to destroy it. He tells Steve that the old man mask will never come off and that Steve will remain an old man forever unless he completes his task before midnight.

Carly Beth and Sabrina talk to Steve's mom while Chuck hides nearby. Steve's mom says that he's not home yet, but that he should be home by midnight. After she leaves, Chuck suggests calling the police, but Carly Beth tells him that the police won't be able to help Steve. They then continue searching for Steve.

Steve manages to get to Carly Beth's house and knocks on the door. He then tricks Carly Beth's mom into getting him a glass of water. As she leaves to get it, Steve sneaks into the house and steals the sculpted head before heading to the local cemetery. He brings the sculpted head to the Haunted Mask, but the Haunted Mask is unable to destroy it due to it being Carly Beth's symbol of love. The Haunted Mask demands that Steve destroys it, but he refuses. The Haunted Mask then causes spiders to crawl inside of Steve. Steve finally relents and smashes the sculpted head.

Having nowhere else to look, Carly Beth, Sabrina, and Chuck arrive at the cemetery. Carly Beth walks past a hole in the ground where the Haunted Mask was buried. Realizing that the Haunted Mask has escaped, Carly Beth begins to panic. The Haunted Mask then appears in front of the three and walks towards Carly Beth. From behind, Steve grabs her and holds her in place. The Haunted Mask tells Carly Beth that they must finish what was started last Halloween and that she must wear his face forever. He frees The Shopkeeper and throws him aside, then lunges at Carly Beth. Steve quickly throws himself in front of the Haunted Mask as midnight strikes. The Haunted Mask pushes him to the ground and loses his power, becoming an ordinary mask again. Carly Beth, Sabrina, and Chuck help Steve to his feet. The Shopkeeper, now free of the Haunted Mask, orders Steve to remove his mask. Steve finally takes off the old man mask and returns to normal. The Shopkeeper tells him that saving Carly Beth was his symbol of love and walks into the night.

Back at Steve's house, Carly Beth, Sabrina, and Chuck sort through their trick-or-treat candy while Steve sits quietly near the fireplace. Steve's mom comes in and talks to him. She mentions that Halloween isn't such a big deal to them anymore, and Steve says that he's getting too old for it. After Steve's mom leaves the room, Carly Beth looks at the fireplace and suggests that she and Steve should burn their masks. They throw the masks into the fire and watch as the masks melt down. Steve's mom calls them into the other room for hot cocoa and they leave. As they do, the Haunted Mask begins to reform in the fireplace. Sparky begins barking at it and drags it outside before burying it in the backyard.

Differences from the book

 * In the book, Steve is forced to choose coaching a first-grade soccer team as punishment for releasing a squirrel into the girl's locker room (while another punishment was blowing up basketballs by mouth in the gym every day after school). None of this plot appears in the episode.
 * The Haunted Mask from the original is featured much more prominently In the episode. While it was only briefly mentioned in the book, the mask appears as an antagonist in the episode.
 * In the book, Carly Beth's father and Steve's father make an appearance while they are not seen nor mentioned in the episode.
 * In the episode, the Unloved are burned by the shopkeeper, but in the book, they are simply moved into boxes within the shop's basement.
 * The shopkeeper also has a larger role in the episode, in the book he only appears briefly to warn Steve of the masks. In the episode, he is taken over by the original mask.
 * In the episode, instead of having a mask himself, Chuck was just dressed as a Mafia gangster.
 * In the book, Sabrina is a superhero for Halloween. In the episode, she's a tiger.
 * In the book, Steve steals the mask in hopes of scaring the first graders he's coaching. In the episode, he wants to wear the mask because he wants one last chance to do something scary before he's too old to trick-or-treat.
 * Carly Beth never reveals where she got the mask in the episode. Instead, they discover the shop by following the mask possessed shopkeeper.
 * In the episode, Steve's mother wants him to be a pirate again for Halloween but in the book, his mother is unconcerned with his costume, only commenting on the mask in disgust.
 * In the book, the first time Steve puts on the mask is when it melds to his face. In the episode, it takes multiple times for the mask to stick to Steve's face.
 * In the episode, Steve's mask is removed through a symbol of love. In the book, all the masks must be removed through different means.
 * In the book, Steve thought his dog Sparky was a symbol of love, while in the episode, Steve appears to not like the dog much and being vaguely annoyed when it started barking at his mask.
 * The book ends with Chuck now having a mask stuck to his face, while the episode ends with the old man mask and the original haunted mask being burned in a fireplace, with Steve's dog eventually burying it after it survives the flames.
 * In the book, Noah did not appear, and it was not explained how, if at all, he got the mask off after the end of the first book. In the episode, he appears and Carly Beth explains that he was able to get it off as he only took it off once. This lines up with how the first episode removed the line from the book where The Shopkeeper says if anyone else takes off the mask, it will be stuck forever.

Home media


"Haunted Mask II" was released on VHS in the US on July 29, 1997, and October 1, 1999, in the UK. It was released on DVD on September 7, 2004.

Filming Locations

 * The school seen in this episode is the former Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital, now part of Humber College’s Lakeshore Campus located in Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada.

Trivia

 * "The" is omitted from this episode's title.
 * John White (Steve) didn't portray Steve in "The Haunted Mask", but he played Michael Webster at 12 in season one's "The Cuckoo Clock of Doom".
 * Kathryn Short (Sabrina) played Sue in season one's "A Night in Terror Tower".
 * Scott Wickware (The Haunted Mask) appeared twice more in season two as the Masked Mutant in "Attack of the Mutant", and the hard hat worker in "Welcome to Dead House".
 * Cody Jones (Noah) also played Danny Anderson in season four's "The Ghost Next Door".
 * Chuck uses cotton wool to stuff his cheeks. This is a reference to Marlon Brando in The Godfather.
 * Posters of Courtney Love, Jimi Hendrix, and Cable appear on the walls of Steve's bedroom.
 * Hamille Rustia who played Trick-or-Treater #1 also played Iris Candler in "Calling All Creeps!" and Alison Rogers in "Cry of the Cat".

Gallery

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