Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a new horror flick that takes its inspiration from the short story collections written by Alvin Schwartz. For those who drifted away from reading scary stories as a child, like myself, expectations for the movie are based on previous horror/thriller flicks rather than how well the original stories are being brought to life. Although the original book collections were presented as separate stories, the movie is not told in separate sections. Multiple stories from the collection are presented, but they’re told using the same characters and settings instead of introducing new ones, creating one cohesive narrative.
The premise is set up quickly to allow the movie to progress without incorporating a lot of filler. Without going into spoiler territory, a small group of teens in Mill Valley, Pennsylvania enter a “haunted house” on Halloween. They find a hidden room belonging to Sarah Bellows, a girl held in seclusion by her family. As she wasn’t allowed to be seen, Sarah would tell scary stories to the children through the walls for entertainment and subsequent mysterious events would happen involving the children. The teens find the book of Sarah’s scary stories and take it from the house.
Although the book has written stories already in it, one of the lead characters, Stella, notices that a new story is being written in the book with blood involving a bully named Tommy. In reality, the story is foretelling what is going to happen (or what is happening). Similar events happen with “new stories” being written in the book as the movie progresses.
In terms of “scariness,” Scary Stories does fall into the typical horror movie realm by incorporating a lot of jump scares. However, the monsters themselves are creepy and helped to create an intense atmosphere while in darker settings. For example, the scarecrow “Harold” coming to life while being written in Sarah’s book kept me on edge. Harold resembled a corpse mixed with a scarecrow who took revenge on Tommy for beating him and turning Tommy into a scarecrow himself. The other monsters within the film have a similar eerie feeling to them with the stories from Sarah’s book coming to life. The film does not focus on simply adding a lot of gore to emphasize the suffering and fear of victims. As an audience member and fan of horror movies, this stood out to me for having the most originality.
While the visuals in the form of monsters and attacks are the strongest qualities of ***Scary Stories, the film’s actors and writing make the movie even stronger. The actors are believable and look as though they are actually experiencing the events of the film. It is a quality that I feel is lacking in a lot of new horror movies today. The writing captivates fear, humour, and an ongoing intensity while avoiding plot holes.
The movie does conclude with a satisfying ending but, in typical horror movie fashion, it does leave off with some uncertainty that screams “This will be answered in the sequel, if there is one.” If the film is a success, and with many of Schwartz’s stories left untold, I would love to see a sequel in the future.
In the current state of the film industry, it seems as though originality has diminished through book-to-movie adaptations, remakes, and sequels. Scary Stories does fall into this category, but it still manages to feel fresh through its visuals and overall storytelling. It does its job in entertaining the audience regardless of whether it feels genuinely scary or simply creepy. Overall, it is a good film, and I highly recommend checking it out.
