Southern Fried Nostalgia & Fandom: Hey Arnold! Episode Review -- Ghost Bride (2003)

This blog post is dedicated to the memory of Hey Arnold! writer, Mr. Steve Viksten (1960-2014).
Thanks for the work you did and what it meant to me and many many others over the years. RIP.

Ghost Bride (Season 5, Episode 88a) written by the late Steve Viksten and directed by Christine Kolosov was the last and probably the absolute creepiest episode of Nickelodeon's Hey Arnold! animated series involving urban legends. The episode first aired in the United States on Tuesday, November 11, 2003 at 8:00 PM EST along with the second episode, Gerald vs Jamie O (Season 5, Episode 88b). Run time of about 12 minutes.

Because the second half of Season 5 of Hey Arnold! was distributed in North America a year after the originally planned made-for-TV Hey Arnold! The Movie (2002) sadly flopped at the box office and a number of other behind the scenes factors in Nickelodeon's corporate management I won't get into; the episode actually ended up being distributed as the 98th of the 100 episodes of the series in the United States.

When the episode finally premiered, your favorite blogger was a then 26 year old pseudo-adult and still every bit the fan of this show as I was when it first premiered in October of 1996, and remain so to this day. The story in the episode is perhaps one of the most graphic and overall shocking tales any 90s cartoon ever told, and I don't think I'm exaggerating. This is coming from someone who grew up watching classic rerun episodes of macabre horror anthology series like the original The Twilight Zone (and its 1980s revival), Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond, and Tales From The Darkside.

The legend of the Ghost Bride as it is told in the episode ranks up there with some of the best horror stories episodes of Nickelodeon's Are You Afraid Of The Dark? and perhaps even something the Cryptkeeper from Tales From The Crypt would tell.  

The writing for the episode, done by the talented Mr. Steve Viksten (1960-2014) was brilliantly done and more than kept anyone watching it fully engaged. It certainly ranks in my top five episode of Season 5 of Hey Arnold! and in the top 12 of my all-time favorite episodes of the series.
 

The Story

The episode begins one late fall afternoon with a group of our favorite PS 118 kids consisting of Arnold, Gerald, Helga, Harold, Eugene, Sid, Stinky, and Curly are passing by the local city cemetery.

During the ensuing conversation about how creepy the place was, Sid brings up the infamous Legend of the Ghost Bride, which Eugene is clueless about. Curly eagerly wants to tell the story because it’s his favorite story, but the other kids all agree that Gerald is their resident Keeper of the Tales, and a better storyteller. Curly insists, but the rest of the group shouts him down resulting in Curly stomping his foot down in frustration....yeah, real mature dude.

What follows is probably one of the most disturbing and daring stories about double-murder and suicide I think I've ever seen depicted in animation. I give total props to the late Mr. Steve Viskten for the excellent work he did here. 

Gerald: "This tale of the Midnight Society...."

Gerald begins to tell the story that took place eighty years before (back in the Middle Ages) about a beautiful young woman, Cynthia Snell (who isn't named in the story), who was very much in love with her fiance and was eagerly looking forward to her wedding day. However, when that day finally came, the bride-to-be waited all day at the church and the groom never showed up. It's later revealed that the reason the fiance never arrived was because he'd fallen in love with the bride's sister, and leaving her at the alter. Adding insult to injury, the groom and the sister got married the day after the groom was supposed to marry his original bride!

This left Cynthia very hurt and very pissed off.

The following night, she went into her closet and put on her wedding dress and went down to her basement to grab a large, sharp axe. Then she walked 13 blocks to her sister's house, goes upstairs to the bedroom, and lays into her sister and ex-fiance/brother-in-law with the axe while they were asleep in bed. This is only shown by the shadowed axe strokes and Psycho-type soundtrack music....a nice touch there, thanks to Hey Arnold! series composer Jim Lang!

Lizzy Borden, eat your heart out.

The next morning when the horrified police finally arrived, they found the bride sitting in a rocking chair next to the blood-covered bed, rocking back and forth, throwing rice on the bodies and smiling insanely while quietly humming the Wedding March. The deranged bride-that-never-was then committed suicide by jumping out the second-story window and was later buried in the city cemetery in her wedding dress where her name is shown on her tombstone.

According to the urban legend, every year on the night of the anniversary of the double-murder/suicide, the Ghost Bride rises from the grave, walking among the tombs and headstones, humming the Wedding March and wielding her bloody axe as she searches for more victims.

Everyone claps for Gerald as he finishes telling the story, but Curly interjects, still disgruntled, saying that he could have told a better version of the story. He also added that Gerald left out the last and most important fact: that tonight was the anniversary of the Ghost Bride's murderous rampage.

The group of boys agree to show up later that evening before sunset to see if the story is true, despite Harold being scared and saying he had to come so they wouldn't say he was chicken. Curly on the other hand dismisses this and leaves in group in a huff.

Helga asks what time the group should meet, but is told that it's a boys-only thing, with Harold in particular mocking Helga saying that "girls get scared too easy" despite Helga's usual tomboy-like front and Harold's own admission of being scared. An annoyed Helga insists that she wouldn't, but the boys just walk off dismissing her....including her beloved crush, Arnold. Ouch.

Infuriated by the boy's dismissal, Helga angrily rushes home where she finds a white dress in her older sister's closet and a mallet and chains in the basement, planning to pretend to be the Ghost Bride in order to scare the boys.

That evening, all of the boys -- with the exception of Curly -- show up at the cemetery. Harold is the last, and is practically peeing himself in fright before even going through the gate. As soon as they enter, Helga chains and locks the gate behind them laughing in anticipation.

The boys check out Cynthia's grave site, where Arnold reads her crooked aged tombstone.

By then the sun is begging to set and nervously they decide to go home, after declaring that the legend isn't true. When they return to the front gate, they find the locked door and begin to panic, thinking that the Ghost Bride really has risen from the grave and picked them to be her next victims. Arnold calms everyone down and leads them to the north gate to see if it's open. By then the sun is down and its now dark.

As the boys are walking through the now darkened cemetery, Harold begins to hear the Wedding March tune being hummed in the shadows. Arnold once again tries to calm the group down -- in a somewhat lame way -- but then Helga (now wearing dark eyeshadow and posing as the Ghost Bride) stands on top of a tombstone brandishing the mallet, which appears to look like a bloody axe. The freaked out group of boys flees toward the north gate, but Helga already closed and locked it, causing more panic. She then uses a rope that makes the gate shake to scare the boys even more, causing them to retreat further into the cemetery.

Heeeeres Helga!

While the boys are struck with fear trying to think of a way to get out of the cemetery (or in Sid and Harold's cases terrified they are about to be chopped up), Helga appears yet again to chase the screaming boys away. The girl snickers in her triumph and mocks the fact that anyone would believe in the urban legend. After she says this, the sound of another voice that is definitely not hers humming the Wedding March can be heard and what appears to be the Ghost Bride makes her presence known by standing on a tombstone behind Helga. She let out an ear-piercing scream of terror and runs away.

She eventually catches up to the boys and admits that she disguised herself as the Ghost Bride to get back at the boys for not letting her come along with them because she was a girl, and then tells them that the real Ghost Bride appeared and is chasing her. The boys are furious and don't believe her, until the Ghost Bride appears right behind them.

The whole group runs away screaming in terror and takes shelter in a crypt. The Ghost Bride continuously circles the tomb, humming the Wedding March and waiting for a chance to attack. Time pass and Arnold decides that they should at least try to leave and get help. Gerald decides to go with him while the others hold up in their improvised shelter.

Arnold and Gerald leave the tomb and, when the Ghost Bride comes into view; they hide the bushes. As the Ghost Bride passes, Arnold takes notice of something and follows her at a distance followed by a nervous Gerald. The Ghost Bride picks up another wooden mallet that looks like an axe and begins busting the tomb door open. Just as she gets the tomb door open and scaring the group of kids hiding inside, Arnold walks up behind her and pulls off her veil, revealing the Ghost Bride to be none other than Curly!

The group gets understandably angry with Curly, except for Eugene who says he can't believe Curly looks good in that wedding dress. Curly explains that his reason why he pulled that stunt was because he was mad at the others for saying that he wasn't as good at telling stories as Gerald and how it wasn't fair.

He would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for that meddling, Football-head!

You know, Curly does pull the look off better.

Sid angrily suggests that they should lock him in the tomb and leave him; everyone agrees and gang up on Curly. As punishment they leave him tied up in the crypt. Strangely, even though Helga also did the same thing (abet not going as far as breaking into a locked tomb with a fake axe), she doesn't meet the same punishment -- or any punishment at all.

As the group is leaving the cemetery -- presumably after Helga unlocks the gate, Arnold reveals that he knew it was Curly. He explained that while he and Gerald were hiding in the bushes, as the "Ghost Bride" walked by, Arnold took notice of his red-and-white striped socks and remembered that Curly was wearing them earlier that day when he stomped in frustration.

As the kids leave the cemetery they also leave Curly tied up and trapped in the crypt. When Sid now asks if they should let him out, Arnold smiled and tells the others that he didn't think it will take long for Curly to figure that the door of the mausoleum only locks from the inside.

The episode ends with Curly, still tied up in the crypt, hearing the real Ghost Bride humming the Wedding March and asking if it's Helga pranking him. His blood-curdling scream of fright can be heard as the episode comes to an end.


My Thoughts

Obviously Curly didn't end up hacked into pieces by the vengeful Cynthia Snell since he's in the rest of the series and in Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie (2017). Like other twist endings in other spooky episodes of the series, the final twist never seems to be canon with the rest of the show.

In my own head canon, I personally like to think that once he gets over his initial fright, Curly tells the Ghost Bride he's a huge fan of hers, or that maybe she realizes this and unties him letting him go because they share the same form of crazy?

Overall, this episode and urban legend is perhaps one of the darkest stories in the series, other than maybe the Haunted Train (Season 1, Episode 8b) that I mentioned in a previous blog post was also one of my favorites. Like that episode, Ghost Bride is also one of those episodes that I enjoy watching traditionally this time of the year around my favorite holiday of the year.

Aside from being a fun and spooky watch, what's the lesson of the episode? Well, I can only think of two in particular: Don't be misogynistic assholes to Helga, because she will get even; and next time the sociopath of the group wants to tell the story....just let him.

Well, that's it for this post, please let me know what you think of this article in the comments below, and as always have a wonderful Dixie Day and Happy Halloween, Y'all!