The Haunting Hours: Spooky Scary Plot Points

I love Halloween. I love everything about it: the aesthetic, the costumes, the decorations, and especially the great TV episodes that come out of it. Even if you don't like scary movies you can get on board with the superb Halloween episodes that almost any show can produce. That being said, a huge shoutout needs to go to shows that made spooky episodes all year round. I don't mean shows like Supernatural or Ahh! Real Monsters, I mean shows made by the king of kid's horror R.L. Stine.
I was too young to watch the "Goosebumps" series when they first came out, so I didn't see them until reruns played on Cartoon Network when I was in middle school. They are pretty tame for the most part (except that one about the ventriloquist dummy that comes to life. That gave me nightmares). Even with the suspenseful plots and genuinely scary scenes, I just couldn't get past the cheesy music, ridiculous '90s clothes, and outdated technology to see them as truly terror-filled. As an adult they act more as nostalgic kitsch rather than something you watch when you're in the mood for horror. That is until I saw that 2007 film, The Haunting Hour: Don't Think About It. That scared me when I was 13 and continues to freak me out still. I recently discovered that this kicked off another TV series in the vein of
Goosebumps and Are You Afraid of the Dark? that intends to scare children's pants off, appropriately named The Haunting Hour (even if an episode is just thirty minutes). The difference between the former two and this one is that this show is genuinely terrifying. Created in 2010, the improved production quality and talented child actors combined with the brilliant story-telling tactics of Stine make this scary enough to keep this 21-year old awake at night.
The stories aren't always super original and the plot can be predictable and riddled with jump scares, but there are quite a few episodes that will truly scare you. And sometimes not because of the story but rather the implications of the world. There always has to be some suspension of disbelief in any fantasy story, but some of the episodes call into question what is really scary about this plot.
Here are five episodes that scare me simply because they make me ask questions I just didn't want to ask.
(*Spoiler Alert*)

Really You  (Part 1 & 2) S1E1
 This series starts off with an episode about a doll that comes to life. Yeah, it's going to be that kind of series. Essentially, a family buys their daughter a doll that comes to life and tries to switch places with her. What sets this apart is that the doll is life-size. Yes, a doll that is the same size as their adolescent daughter, looks exactly like her, has matching outfits, and it's own furniture. I'm not certain what scene was scarier: when the doll breaks a mirror with a hammer or when we see her sleeping in her own life-sized bed. You do not get to question why the girl is spoiled and selfish after seeing what the parents buy for her. The family asserts that they are not rich, but I know how much American Girl Dolls cost so I can only imagine how much that thing cost. There is a scene where some girls from her school come over and one of their dolls tells them that the evil one doesn't like her owner.It is seen to be a huge moment of foreshadowing, but if we claim it was just the girl being mean, how come it's true? I can get how the dolls with souls can communicate, but how do they talk to their owners? It's never actually explained how the doll is able to change to a human (it's said the dolls have souls, but that doesn't really clarify). The big climax is how  the "power of love" can change the daughter back from a doll to herself in true deus ex machine fashion. It becomes a lot less scary of an episode when you start questioning why the doll knows how to make a cappuccino.

Mascot S2E8
A group of high school kids think the school mascot is weak sauce and want to change it, but the current mascot does not like that idea. Oh yeah, the guy in the mascot costume is actually the giant yellow monster that was the previous mascot. How did that even happen? Did the monster just show up and someone decided to make that the mascot or did they choose that and he just happened to look like it? Did no one ever question why the mascot never spoke or took the costume off? It's just kind of a strange premise that has too many loose ends to be scary.

Mrs. Worthington S4E4
A young boy is bullied by his older sister and fantasizes about getting revenge on her. That's a normal thing that happens a lot, but what makes this scenario so strange is that he doesn't imagine himself getting revenge but rather an elderly woman he calls "Mrs. Worthington". Of course she comes to life and tries to enact vengeance, but the really scary thing is not her bag full of deadly weapons, but his desk full of drawings of an imaginary woman hurting his sister. This boys needs counseling in a big way. There is seemingly no reason why she came to life other than spooky scary background lightning. There's suspension of disbelief about occult things and then there's things happen just because the plot calls for it.

Scary Mary (Part 1 & 2) S1E21
A retelling of the Bloody Mary game where a girl actually gets dragged into a mirror (it's a complicated story) and chaos ensues. The main focus of this is not about playing this game, but rather vanity. The main character is seen as better than the rest of her friends because she doesn't like having her picture taken and covers her mirror. It's another reinforcement that when someone tells you you're beautiful it's a compliment, but if you think you're beautiful or wear makeup you're just too conceited and should be punished. There is a short scene about one of the male characters jokingly being vain, and I don't mean to nitpick, but this is just one of several episodes that call out female vanity, and a show that is watched primarily by teenagers needs to be careful about the message it sends. Young girls are constantly having their appearance scrutinized and micro aggressions like this do no help. There is a difference between confidence and conceit.

Catching Cold S1E17, or any episode that ends with a kid disappearing
These villains are very insensitive to their victim's families. That might sound ridiculous, but I can never watch one of these episodes without wondering what the family and friends are going to do or how much they are worrying or how many Amber Alerts these shows have caused. In The Dead Body Part II it is at least acknowledged that the characters assume the character (from Part I) died, but for the most part these episodes leave me sad rather than scared. Maybe I'm thinking about it too much, but missing children are are too big of a deal to take lightly.

Welcome to the Jungle

Abstract expressionist comes from a place of emotional intensity and self-denial, and what better way is there to describe the modern viewing experience. Things don't always make much sense when you first look at them, so I will be giving my take on what I see around me, from movies to TV shows to life in general with critiques and appreciation.