For the most part, Stine has nailed it with his Halloween tales. Granted, that may have to do with the fact that his only main line books around the holiday have been Haunted Mask books, so can he keep it up? Let's find out with Attack Of The Jack-O'-Lanterns AKA David S. Pumpkins joke.
COVER STORY
I love this cover so much. It's so atmospheric with the beautiful colors of the sky vanishing into the dark blues of night time, the creepy trees in the background, and these creepy pumpkin kids walking toward you, ready to do who-knows-what. They even have a cute pumpkin dog. Also, not all of the kids are wearing Converse sneakers. Holy crap, Tim showed restraint! It's the perfect blend of being creepy while still being kid-friendly. A top notch effort from Tim's part.
However, while perusing the Goosebumps Wiki, where I get most of my covers and stuff, I came across this sticker for the book, featuring an original version of the cover with some some noticeable differences. Mainly that the pumpkin faces on the cover are far more evil and sinister on this one compared to the more silly takes on the final cover. Also no cute pumpkin dog. Makes me wonder what happened here. Regardless if we got this one or the final one, it's still some beautiful work from Tim.
STORY
Drew Brockman and her best friend Walker love Halloween, along with their friends, a strange pair of twins by the name of Shane and Shana Martin. Well, the four of them would normally love Halloween if not for a pair of bullies by the name of Lee and Tabby, whose pranks constantly ruin their fun. Two years prior they set up a pretty elaborate prank for a pair of ten year olds. They invited the foursome to their Halloween party, then pretended that their parents vanished, only for two people in a ski mask and a gorilla costume to show up and threaten the kids into doing push-ups. But of course, it was all a joke by Lee and Tabby. I guess it's a better joke than strangling someone, but damn.
So to avoid anything of that level of a prank the next year, Drew, Walker, Shane and Shana started planning their revenge. This year, they're going to make Lee and Tabby pay. They set up their own fake party to lure Tabby and Lee. From a bag of green slime on the ceiling, to a cryptic message to lure their victims, the kids think that this will finally be what does their foes in. Walker even suggests cutting a trap door in the floor, but that might be a bit too far. Or not at this point, who knows? But this is all for naught because Lee and Tabby are trick or treating with Lee's cousin instead. At that time, the green slime pours onto the couch... AND BURNS A HOLE THROUGH IT! Was that slime...
Cut to this year where the kids are still trying to plan some sort of revenge on Lee and Tabby. Particularly one less acid-related. The six kids all go trick or treating, and end up at this house with a strange couple that traps them forever in their house.Then we learn that "oh wait, that was just a dream." WILL YOU JUST TELL THE ACTUAL STORY ALREADY, STINE?? Shane and Shana suggest that they may have a plan to have Lee and Tabby scared for the entire year, and all seems in motion. However, Drew's parents at first won't allow her to go out for trick or treating due to reports of people mysteriously vanishing. But after a couple days, they give in and let her go out. Halloween arrives and Drew, Walker, Tabby and Lee head out. However, no sign of Shane or Shana. Instead, the kids run into two strange figures with Jack-O'-Lanterns on their heads. Jack-O'Lanterns that just happen to breathe fire!
Drew and Walker believe the two to be Shane and Shana, but the jack-o'lanterns barely acknowledge them. Lee and Tabby aren't scared and suggest everyone just starts trick or treating. The jack-o'-lanterns suggest they follow them to a better place where they'll get the best candy. They lead them through the forest to a neighborhood filled with houses giving out the best candy. Eventually the four kids get tired and want to leave, but the jack-o'-lanterns tell them that they can't leave. They're here forever! They continue to force the kids to do more houses, to the point that their bags are overstuffed with candy. Eventually, the kids grab the pumpkins off the heads of their assailants, only to see there's no heads underneath.
They put their pumpkins back on their shoulders and threaten the kids some more. All four kids are extremely panicked at this point and just want to go home. Eventually the candy bags become overstuffed, so the jack-o'-lanterns force the kids to start eating their entire bags of candy. After the kids are now sick from too much candy, the jack-o'-lanterns force them to continue. Eventually the kids make it to one house in particular. When they open the door, they're greeted by a woman with a jack-o'-lantern head. The original pumpkins fly in the air, letting out a demonic wail. Suddenly more jack-o'-lantern people emerge and advance on the kids. They have pumpkin heads ready for the four kids. This is enough for Lee and Tabby who run off in a panic.
TWIST ENDING
Drew and Walker start laughing. It turns out that they were in on this all along. The jack-o'-lanterns? It was Shane and Shana this entire time. How? Because Shane and Shana were aliens this entire time. BOOM! SECRET ALIENS, BITCHES! Probably explains where they got the green acid slime a year ago. Why have they never used their powers on Lee and Tabby until now? Because they were that desperate. The kids head home with bags of candy. Shane and Shana say that they don't eat candy, but Drew and Walker will find out soon enough what they do eat when the two kids gain a few more pounds. That explains the disappearances then.
CONCLUSION
Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns takes a while to really start picking up, but does deliver in its second half. Honestly, this almost feels more like Stine had a hard time building up this book to be the normal 100+ pages and lengthened the two flashbacks and the dream sequence for padding. But the second half, like I said, is the strongest part, offering a solid bit of horror with the jack-o'-lanterns continuing to get more sinister as the plot moves along. Protagonists are likable and barely annoying, they do make Lee and Tabby characters that you want to see get dunked on, and the twist ending is both hilarious and dark. The secret aliens stuff does feel like a last second thing, but it's the most logical way to make this whole story work, so I can't fault Jovial Bob for that one. In the end, it's almost as solid a Halloween tale as the two Haunted Mask books, but just suffers a bit in the early execution. Attack Of The Jack-O'-Lanterns gets a B+.
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