The Haunted Car

infobox Book | | name = The Haunted Car
orig title =
translator =


author = R. L. Stine
cover_artist = Tim Jacobus
country = United States
language = English
series =
classification = fiction
genre = Horror fiction, Children's literature
publisher = Scholastic
release_date = September 1999
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 118 p.
isbn =
preceded_by = Be Afraid - Be Very Afraid
followed_by = Full Moon Fever

"The Haunted Car" is the twenty-first book by R.L. Stine in his "" series. It is written as a pastiche of "Christine" by Stephen King.

Plot

The story opens in the town of Forrest Valley, where Mitchell Moinian - a boy with a love of cars - has moved to a new home with his family. His father, a DIY man, invites Mitchell and his younger brother Todd to buy some supplies at the hardware store in the family car - a worn-out car described as a "14-year-old, puke-green Chrysler LeBaron". During the drive, the brakes cut out, and the car crashes into a tree.

Sometime after, Mitchell convinces his father to answer a newspaper advert for a sports-car, and they travel to town to see it. Mitchell becomes uneasy when he notices the number of padlocks on the garage door, and even more curious when Mr. Douglas refuses to accompany them on a test-drive. Despite initial worries, Mitchell's father agrees to buy the car, much to Mitchell's delight.

One night, however, Mitchell feels compelled to sit in the car, when he begins to hear voices, inviting him into the car. As Mitchell is sat in the car, he suddenly finds that he is locked in, and he is rescued by a strange girl calling herself Marissa Meddin who acts oddly around Mitchell.

After that, several unusual incidents begin to happen whenever Mitchell is in or around the car. He and Todd almost freeze to death in it, the car drives itself away, and Mitchell finds disturbing messages in the glove compartment, but fails to convince his father about these incidents, and is unable to obtain any information about the car from Mr. Douglas.

One night, Mitchell finds himself being forced into the car, and discovers it to be possessed by the spirit of a young girl similar to Marissa, who died in the car after taking it for a joyride, and now wants to kill Mitchell so that he will be her companion forever. When the car crashes, however, the spirit-girl saves Mitchell's life, canceling out her evil and destroying her spiritual form.

Soon after the crash, Mitchell learns that the girl in the car was Marissa's twin sister, Becka, whose spirit had taken control of the car after her accident. Mitchell has difficulty in convincing his parents about the hauntings, but soon realizes that he and his father had been driving the car the whole time without a battery...

Characters

*Mitchell Moinian - Main character, a car buff
*Becka Douglas - The evil spirit who possesses the car
*Marissa Meddin - A strange girl who is Becka's twin sister "(her relation to Becka Douglas suggests that her real surname is Douglas rather than Meddin)"
*Mr. Douglas - The seller of the haunted car
*Todd Moinian - Mitchell's younger brother who is convinced that their new house is haunted
*Mr. Moinian - An inept DIY man and Mitchell's father
*Mrs. Moinian - Mitchell and Todd's skeptical mother

The Car

The car featured in the book has no comparison with any real-life car. Throughout the book, it is described as a silver-blue sports car similar to a Corvette, which is impossible because a Corvette is a coupe rather than a sports car. The clearest description of the car is a newspaper advertisement, describing the car as:

"New model sports sedan...V-8, white leather interior"

On the book cover, however, the car featured resembles a streamlined version of a Lincoln Continental Mark III, the same type of car featured in the 1977 movie, "The Car".

Taglines

*"Ghosts, start your engines!" (US editions)
*"High-speed engine. Leather interior. And in-car ghost!" (UK editions)