Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
- An entertaining and suitably scary entry into the tween horror genre.
Full Disclosure: I was unaware that this film was based on a successful series of short stories for children. What attracted me was the involvement of horror/sci-fi mastermind Guillermo del Toro, who wrote a screen story based on the books.
Review
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a fun watch for any age group, but it targets the 9-14 age range. For young horror fans, it bridges the gap between those too old to be creeped out by Goosebumps, but who aren’t quite ready for the gore and adult subject matter of movies like It. The film is led by a cast of charismatic and capable young actors, despite there being no household names attached. It’s well-paced, well-directed, and well-written. It has all of the familiar tropes you look for in this type of movie: A small town with a secret and sordid past, a rivalry between outcast nerds and asshole jocks, urban legends that come to life, and of course, a haunted house.
The obligatory, “Don’t go in there!” moment that every haunted house movie needs.
Scary Stories is ostensibly an anthology held together by an overall frame story. A group of ill-fated teens stumble upon a cursed book that writes its own stories. The catch is, whoever finds the books is the subject of these horrific tales… and the tales come to life! The movie spans four stories while the main characters race against the clock to reverse the curse and save themselves from being victimized by the haunted book. It’s fun, it’s creepy, and it’s a worthwhile addition to anyone’s Halloween season viewing this coming year.
Spoilers Ahead
I admittedly had to set my popcorn down during this scene for fear of projectile vomiting on the unsuspecting teen sitting in front of me.
While every story in the movie is unsettling enough to creep out its target audience, none of them got to me like "The Red Spot”. I’m sure I’m not the only one who shares this opinion, but pimples are fucking gross. Pus-filled blemishes are inherently disgusting. Replace pus with hundreds of living spiders and oh man, that got to me. It’s turning my stomach just writing about it right now. It’s no wonder that poor Ruth (Natalie Ganzhorn) wound up institutionalized after her ordeal.
While Ruth’s fate is indeed regrettable, at least she survives. The same cannot be said for her brother Chuck (Austin Zajur), who is literally absorbed into a marshmallow looking creature only known as “The Pale Lady”, never to be seen again. Situations like this are what set Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark apart from normal children’s horror. There are real stakes here. People actually die. Other than the main character (because the “Final Girl” never dies in these movies), you fear for everyone at any given moment. There are things left to the imagination, which is always inherently scarier than just outright showing us the guts and gore. This is a case where a PG-13 rating actually helps make the film creepier.
Gotta give props to the prop people. These monsters are original and terrifying to unsuspecting tweens.
5 Quick Hits
One of the highlights of the film is Lana Del Rey’s cover of the 1966 Donovan song, “Season of the Witch”. The haunting rendition sets the tone for the film and it’s catchy as hell.
Scary Stories certainly sets itself up for a sequel. I was pretty shocked as the film was wrapping up because none of the dead or missing kids came back. It seemed pretty bleak for a movie aimed at preteens. That is, until, the heroine makes a statement of intent that their journey is far from over.
I love that this movie is a period piece set in 1968 in a small town. It’s so hard to make a convincing horror movie in a world with cell phones and the internet. When help is always in your pocket in the form of a phone call, it makes being stalked and killed by a supernatural monster even harder to believe. The time and setting also lend to the atmosphere. It’s the height of the Vietnam War, counterculture is in full swing, and it’s a time where America was rapidly losing its innocence. It adds a layer of depth to the film that would be lost if it were set in 2019.
With so many overlapping stories and characters, and with only about an hour and a half to cover it all, there is a lack of character development in this film. The story would maybe be better served if it was a streaming miniseries, but then people would call it out for being a rip-off of Stranger Things, so it’s a bit of a lose-lose situation.
Dean Norris (best known as Hank from Breaking Bad), is underutilized here. I wanted to see more of him in this. He had the seed of an interesting character, but to my last point, there wasn’t enough screen time in a single film for him to grow.
