Characters / The Haunted Mask

Note: The main characters of these books recur in the Goosebumps Horrorland series. The main antagonist of these books recurs in the Goosebumps Most Wanted series.

Carly-Beth Caldwell

Portrayed By: Kathryn Long (TV); Clare Halstead (Film); Anndi McAfee (Audiobook)

The main character of The Haunted Mask, a tormented and meek young girl who acquires a cursed Halloween mask which attempts to take over and turn her into a destructive monster. She has a lesser role in The Haunted Mask II, but returns to prominence in the Goosebumps Horrorland book The Scream of the Haunted Mask.

• Adaptational Attractiveness: Downplayed in the TV series. While not some full-on Ms. Fanservice, Carly Beth is considerably more prettier in the TV series. She's tall, has short blonde hair done in a bob-cut, has brown eyes and has a normal-sized nose, unlike the book version who is a short preteen girl with short, messy brown hair and a small nose.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Has brown hair in the books, but the actress who portrays her in the tv series has blonde hair.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Very downplayed. In the original novel, she buys the Haunted Mask. In the TV version, she steals it after the shopkeeper refuses to sell it to her. Despite this, in both versions, she still helps Steve for the same reasons (prevent others from suffering the same fate she went through) when he is possessed by the old man mask.
• Ambiguously Absent Parent: Her father isn't seen in the TV series.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Her tendency to be easily scared makes her an easy target for pranks, even by her friends. She even thinks at one point that she's become the laughingstock of her school.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: At Panic Park, she ends up surrounded by shadow people and transforms into one of them. When she gets back to Horrorland, she is rendered back to normal.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: She almost lost her humanity for the sake of getting her revenge.
• Butt-Monkey: She grows out of it.
• Break the Cutie: In the TV episode, after she is humiliated by Steve and Chuck during lunch, she gets home from school and looks at the duck costume that she changed her mind about wearing to Halloween, but was too late. Knowing that she probably will be further humiliated if she goes out trick-or-treating wearing it, she angrily rips the costume apart while she starts crying.
• Demonic Possession: The mask not only becomes her face, but compels her to do horrible things.
• Demoted to Extra: In the film, where she's merely one of Slappy's random minions.
• The Dog Bites Back: Tired of being pranked and tormented for being a scaredy-cat, she decides she's going to scare people instead.
• Disappeared Dad: As cited above, her dad isn't seen or mentioned in the TV series.
• Evil Feels Good: After putting on the mask and preparing for sweet revenge.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: She buys (or steals in the TV episode) the mask because she believes it will help her avenge herself on her tormentors, unaware of how dangerous the mask really is until it becomes her face.
• Grew a Spine: She's a lot less scared in the sequel and even managed to scare Chuck and Steve a second time.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: In the TV series, she's played by a blonde actress and moments of temper aside, she's a Nice Girl for the most part.
• I Warned You: When Steve comes to her for help after he put on a cursed mask after she warned him repeatedly about how dangerous it was, she is horrified and wastes no time chewing Steve out about it.
• Nice Girl: She can be a bit temperamental times but is otherwise a nice and decent girl.
• Only Sane Woman: In the Horrorland series, she soon becomes the most levelheaded member of the group.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: She is unusually small for her age and after her first adventure with the mask, she becomes brave and is capable of standing up to Steve and Chuck more easily.
• Shrinking Violet: She was a very timid girl easily frightened by just about everything and lacking the resolve to stand up for herself against her tormentors. After her first encounter with the Haunted Mask, she grew out of this trope and became much more willing to assert herself against the likes of Steve and Chuck.
• This Is Your Brain on Evil: The Haunted Mask slowly corrupts her, fueled by her hatred and her plan for revenge. Carly-Beth Caldwell almost lost her humanity when she attempted to use this mask in a revenge plot. The only thing that can remove the mask is a symbol of love, which turns out to be the only thing that saves Carly-Beth.
• Threshold Guardian: In Scream Of The Haunted Mask, she hides the mask in her basement to keep it from menacing anyone else.
• Too Dumb to Live: Honestly, was it a good idea to put the mask back on when it got stuck to your neck and nearly made it impossible to remove it the first time? Luckily, she learns from her mistakes and never puts on the mask again after being told that putting the mask on three times makes it stay on permanently, no matter what.
• Took a Level in Badass: Grows much more brave and tough from the Halloween she spent with the mask.
• Wacky Parent, Serious Child: Downplayed but Carly-Beth is shown to be much more level-headed and savvier than her overly-cheerful mother.
• Who's Laughing Now?: When she eventually turns the tables on Steve and Chuck by scaring them on Halloween. But given how she is being possessed by the mask, she regrets this attitude later on.

Noah Caldwell

Portrayed By: Cody Jones (TV)

Carly Beth's younger brother who loves to pull pranks on her.

• Annoying Younger Sibling: He likes to pull pranks on his older sister, Carly Beth. His Establishing Character Moment is a very good example of this.
• Jerkass: He's constantly scaring his sister. He takes advantage of her easy-to-scare nature. He even wants everything Carly Beth owns, like her duck costume and her mask.
• Satellite Character: Aside from being Carly Beth's annoying little brother, he doesn't have too much characterization outside of being an Annoying Younger Sibling who loves to scare the crap out of his sister.

Steve Boswell

Portrayed By: George Kinamis and John White (TV); Andrew Morris (Audiobook)

The primary bully figure in The Haunted Mask. He loves tormenting Carly-Beth Caldwell, but gets a taste of his own medicine when she acquires her evil mask. He's the protagonist of The Haunted Mask II when he finds a mask of his own. In the TV show adaption of the second book, Steve's mask makes her the puppet of Carly-Beth's mask and he has to serve him if he wants his face back.

• A Day in the Limelight: As a result of The Haunted Mask II.
• Adaptational Dye-Job: In the books and first Haunted Mask episode, Steve has brown hair. In the TV adaptation of The Haunted Mask II, he's played a actor with dirty-blonde hair. Justified as his old actor was (most likely) unavailable at the time, so, George Kinamis had to be replaced.
• Adaptational Heroism: While still a bully, some of the pranks that he did in the novels (i.e. releasing a squirrel at school) are omitted in the TV series. He also has a bit of a crush on Carly Beth and even protects her from being taken over by the Haunted Mask in the sequel episode.
• Ambiguously Absent Parent: Much like Carly Beth, his dad isn't seen or mentioned in the TV series.
• Ascended Extra: He became the main character of The Haunted Mask II, which stands out a bit more than you'd think as Steve was also the narrator, unlike Carly-Beth in the first book.
• Asshole Victim: Downplayed. While he definitely had it coming (initially) as he got the old man mask from breaking into a closed party store, it was still very hard to not feel sorry for him due to how horrific he had suffered from wearing it, especially in the TV series.
• The Bully: Similar to Conan Barber in the Monster Blood books, he's a bully in every Haunted Mask book he's appeared in, though significantly less harmful of one since his bullying is limited to mean pranks while Conan's crosses into physical abuse. The first book even states that he and Carly-Beth consider themselves to be friends in spite of the pranks. However, he's also a bully whose victim has begun asserting herself and he becomes rather pathetic as a result.
• Butt-Monkey: In The Haunted Mask II to different degrees in the book and television show. In the book he's tortured by a bunch of bratty first graders while his mask slowly turns him into an old man. In the TV show, the mask still turns him into an old man, but he's now being controlled by the Haunted Mask.
• Break the Haughty: The Haunted Mask and The Haunted Mask II show him getting what he deserves. Unfortunately, it is implied that latter was retconned thanks to The Scream of the Haunted Mask, and Steve remains a Jerkass.
• Child Hater: As punishment for a prank he pulled Steve was forced to coach a first grade soccer team, but he grows to absolutely loath the kids because they make things difficult for them.
• Disappeared Dad: As noted above, we never hear about his dad in the TV series and his mother is implied to be a single mother.
• Doomed New Clothes: As a result of becoming the captain of the first-grade soccer team, the Hogs, Steve comes across this twice. His brand new sneakers get squished by one of them stomping on them, and the brand new sweater that his mother made him wear for picture day gets covered in mud.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In the TV show, he throws himself in front of the haunted mask when it targets Carly Beth to protect her. This turns out to be the symbol of love that frees his own mask from his head.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He savors every moment of scaring Carly-Beth and pulling cruel pranks on her in the first book. Even in the sequel, he still has shades of this after setting loose a squirrel in the girls' locker room. In the TV show, however, he displays the "Heart of Gold". While he delights in scaring and pranking Carly Beth, it's revealed he just does it because he likes her, and in The Haunted Mask II, puts himself in front of the haunted mask even while he's suffering in his own mask to protect her.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Is scared shitless by Carly-Beth in the first book and then treated like crap by the first graders in the second book.
• Loving Bully: In the TV show, he claims the reason why he picks on her so much is because he actually likes her. This turns out to be true when he saves her from having the evil mask from the last movie bond with her again.
• The Prankster: His pranks are primarily directed at Carly Beth.
• Promoted to Love Interest: For Carly Beth in the television series, where he admits he always teased her because he liked her and makes a Heroic Sacrifice to save her, which is called another "symbol of love" in-universe.
• A Taste of Their Own Medicine: In The Haunted Mask II, he's tormented by the first graders the same way he tormented Carly Beth.
• Took a Level in Kindness: The ending of The Haunted Mask II in the TV show proves he actually does care for Carly-Beth when he stops the Haunted Mask from taking control of her, acting as the symbol of love needed to remove his mask.
• Villain Protagonist: He is this at the beginning of the story, still up to mischievous schemes and behavior. He mellows out, though, and Took a Level in Kindness.

The Shopkeeper

Portrayed By: Colin Fox (TV)

The owner of a mask shop in The Haunted Mask. Also appears briefly in The Haunted Mask II. He creates masks of living flesh to conceal his own deformities (see All There in the Manual below) but they always become corrupted and ugly, forcing him to keep making new ones.

• Adaptation Expansion: In the TV episode of The Haunted Mask II he has a greatly expanded role, wherein he gets taken over by the original Haunted Mask.
• Adaptational Heroism: In the book, he sells Carly Beth a mask that he knows is cursed for only $30. In the TV adaptation, he flat out refuses to sell the mask, and Carly Beth winds up stealing it instead.
• All There in the Manual: His backstory is provided in the Goosebumps Collector's Caps Book, wherein it's revealed he was injured and turned into an adult in a high school chemistry accident, leading him to begin creating the masks.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Despite his all-black attire and generally slightly threatening manner, he isn't that bad of a guy, just sort of moody and depressed.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Shopkeeper's real name is never revealed (not even in the backstory described above). The TV episode credits him as "Tall Thin Man"
• Gone Horribly Wrong: His experiments to regain his looks could not have gone worse.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In the TV episode. Although grumpy and moody, he still does everything he can to help Carly Beth remove the mask, out of sympathy for her plight.
• Mad Scientist: Quite possible with this guy. If not mad, then at the very least eccentric.
• Multiple-Choice Past: Although, as noted above, he is given an official backstory in the "Goosebumps Collector's Caps Book", the episode has it so that he created the mask to cover up some kind of natural ugliness.
• Nightmare Face: He reveals in the episode that he is currently wearing a mask that is starting to decay. His real face underneath it is implied to be so horrifying that he is afraid to show it to Carly Beth.
• Reed Richards Is Useless: His advancements in creating ultra-realistic prosthetic faces that fuse with the wearer's skin could have ended permanent disfigurement, had he taken the time to publish his discoveries.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: In the episode, he has a very odd, vaguely Eastern European accent.

Haunted Mask

Portrayed By: Michael G. Brown and Scott Wickware (TV)

A living Halloween mask, one of several created by a scientist.

• Adaptational Villainy: In the TV series, it tries to take over Carly Beth in the sequel to continue tormenting others For the Evulz, something that it didn't do in the original novel.
• Antagonistic Offspring: For the unnamed Shopkeeper, and given the circumstances it's not hard to see why.
• Anti-Magic: As shown in Scream Of the Haunted Mask, the Mask grants its wearer the ability to physically harm and restrain spirits(or at least the ones of past hosts).
• Ascended Extra: In the book The Haunted Mask II, the Mask wasn't featured at all. In the television adaption, the Mask is added to the plot as the main villain, possessing the shopkeeper and turning Steve into his minion for the sake of getting to Carly Beth and possessing her again.
• Back from the Dead: In the television adaption of The Haunted Mask II.
• Clingy Costume: If the mask is put on three times, it becomes permanently bonded to the wearer's face after the third time. The only thing that will get it off after that is a symbol of love, but even that's no guarantee it'll come off for good if it's worn again.
• Creepy Child: Its hosts are almost always children, and it seems to possess a rather immature mentality. The version in The Movie will be portrayed by an up and coming child actress.
• Cute Monster Girl: Could be seen as this if you think of it as female. A lot of recent fanart just runs with this.
• Demonic Possession: Happens gradually to its unlucky host.
• Enemy Mine: In Scream of the Haunted Mask, when the ghost of its former owner reawakens to wreck havoc, the mask willingly merges with Carly-Beth to take her down.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: The only way to remove it is with a "symbol of love."
• Evil Feels Good: Has this effect on anyone who wears it for extended periods, growing to revel in the sense of power it gives while unaware their personality is being overwritten. One of it's hosts even came back from the grave just to possess the mask's power again.
• Evil Is Hammy: Has plenty of moments of this in the second half of the episode The Haunted Mask II.
• Evil Is Petty: Aside from gaining a proper host, its only other goal seems to be terrifying others for respect.
• Evil Mask: No, really?
• Freudian Excuse: It was kept in a basement for years by its creator as a failed experiment, which probably led to it developing evil tendencies.
• Godzilla Threshold: It's horrifyingly addictive and controlling, but occasionally it can be useful in fighting other evil beings.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Its origin story is that it was supposed to be a good-looking face to cover up the creator's own ugly one, but it turned even uglier than him as soon as its creator put it on.
• Grand Theft Me: It does this slowly to Carly-Beth, and surprisingly quickly to the Shopkeeper. Judging by Carly's appearance in the movie, it seems it succeeded.
• Hidden Depths: Generally a near-mindless and sadistic parasite but the ending of Scream seems to imply it really does have feelings of gratitude for Carly-Beth,since she was the only one who showed it anything close to affection.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Constantly looking for a host that will accept it.
• Latex Perfection: It's actually synthetic flesh.
• No Biological Sex: It's had both male and female hosts throughout the franchise, but given how Carly-Beth is its favorite, one could assume it identifies as female.
• Noble Demon: Despite its sadistic nature and near mindless it does seem to care about Carly-Beth even helping her fight against one of its former hosts and despite being taken off once again dosen't seem to mind that happening, even letting itself go back into the box and saying to Carly-Beth that she is its favorite host and basically says that it wants to see her again Halloween next year.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: The TV series has it sadistically manipulating Steve into capturing Carly-Beth so it can re-merge with her. "Scream of the Haunted Mask" reveals it actually caused the death of its former host by getting her trampled by spooked horses. And then that girl rose from the grave as a vengeful, sadistic wraith addicted to its power. There's a pretty good reason this thing is among the more infamous Goosebumps creatures.
• Puppeteer Parasite: Unlike a lot of "evil masks" in horror fiction before it, this one is a living organism all on its own.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Downplayed. While the mask doesn't seem to give its wearer supernatural powers, it does make them more aggressive, daring, and hot-blooded, which actually saves the day on at least two occasions.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: First locked up in the back of its creator's shop, then kept in the basement of Carly-Beth's house.
• Tortured Monster: It's mainly motivated by anger and self-loathing from being "unloved."
• Worthy Opponent: As of "Scream of the Haunted Mask", it seems to regard Carly-Beth as its favorite host.

The Unloved

The formal name for the masks created by the Shopkeeper. Much like the Haunted Mask, these were created as synthetic faces that sadly became warped and deformed shortly after they were finished. The masks are alive and yearn for someone to wear and want them. Other than the Haunted Mask, the only other masks to be featured were an old man mask worn by Steve Boswell and a purple ghoul mask worn by Steve's friend Chuck.

• Adaptational Attractiveness: The grotesqueness of the masks varies from format to format. In the books many of them are described as having certain animalistic features, while in the TV show they appear as warped and malevolent exaggerations of human faces and in the trading card series they appear very cartoonish.
• Adaptational Jerkass: The old man mask gets in the TV series. While it made Steve feel old and weak in both the novel and episode, in the latter, it also made him act irritable towards others.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: The old man mask actually gets the chance to live without hurting anyone when the kids discover that there's a body it can be attached to. The mask becomes the body's head, awakens, and happily leaves to live a life on its own. This is only in the book version of The Haunted Mask II, as in the TV show it gets destroyed.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: They even briefly come alive at one point and chase after Carly-Beth, begging her to love and want them.
• Killed Off for Real: The TV adaption of The Haunted Mask II opens with the Shopkeeper destroying the rest of the masks, but the old man mask is spared from destruction due to the arrival of the Haunted Mask.
• Tragic Monster: Even more than the Haunted Mask, as these masks plea for someone to just want them and aren't as destructive as the Haunted Mask.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: They disappear save for two in The Haunted Mask II and in the other sequels they're just not mentioned at all.

The Grave-Master

A powerful ghost haunting a pumpkin farm from the second half of Goosebumps Wanted: The Haunted Mask. The Grave-Master has the power to control the plants that grow on the farm, as the farm was built over an old graveyard. The Grave-Master wants to drive people away from the land so the souls buried under the ground can finally rest.

• Badass Boast: To Devin.
  Grave-Master: It's the Night of the Jack-O'-Lantern, Devin. The jack-o'-lantern laughs at death. Are you ready to laugh at death?
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Initially Mrs. Barnes comes off as a friendly, kind woman, but turns out to be the Grave-Master who wants to kill Devin to give her son a friend.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: Played with in a somewhat funny way. Devin initially thinks Zeus the house cat is the Grave-Master in disguise. It's really Mrs. Barnes.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Mrs. Barnes was hoping to take Devin into the ground with her so her son Haywood would have a new friend, and when Haywood is thrown into the grave by the Haunted Mask, Mrs. Barnes flips out and dives after her son.
• Fat Bastard: Devin described Mrs. Barnes as looking very round, almost as if she was made out of pumpkins.
• Mama Bear: For her son, Haywood Barnes.
• Plant Person: Specifically one who controls pumpkin plants. They say the pumpkin vines on the farm are all connected to a single vine growing out of the grave the Grave-Master lives in.
• The Power of Hate: The Grave-Master's powers were created from the hatred of the souls whose graves were defiled by the farm built over their coffins.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: It can transform into a human or animal at will.