Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

It's Halloween, 1968 in the town of Mill Valley, Pennsylvania. Stella Nicholls is out with her friends Auggie Hilderbrandt and Chuck Steinberg. They are pursued by bully Tommy Milner after the friends pull a prank on him. They find sanctuary in Ramón Morales' car in the drive-in. Stella leads the group to a haunted house. They escape from scary things including Tommy's revenge. Stella takes an old book from the abandoned house. You don't read the book as much as the book reads you. It belongs to Sarah Bellows who lived a tragic life and died horribly.

It's a good in-between horror between the kiddie spooky stories and outright adult gore-fest horrors. I like all the characters. I like the teen actors. I like the spooky and slightly scary stories. I like the idea of the book and the body horrors. The zombie looks good and I expected nothing less from a Guillermo del Toro production. It is not quite an adult horror but it's a good step up from a kiddie campfire story.

While this movie may have had a few of your typical horror movies moments, it is still an interesting concept. The actors all for the most part play their roles well, and the special effects and cgi are all there. I could see this film gain a cult following and maybe end up having a trilogy or even more movies. The fact that this movie doesn't have a lot of star power is another reason why I enjoyed it. I like seeing young, up and coming actors shine new light into a genre that is seldom successful at actually making a good and enjoyable film. This one gets two thumbs up from me!

Film directed by André Øvredal and co-written with Guillermo del Toro, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019) benefits from an efficient Halloween atmosphere, an excellent photography, the nostalgic 60's dress code, impressive old cars and rather talented young actors. On certain aspects, in particular the ineluctably-fatalistic side, the film makes me think of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) directed by Wes Craven in which a psychopath sadistically haunts teens during their sleep.

After the showing of a cult film (Night of the Living Dead (1968)) in a drive-in theater, a group of teens arrives, we do not really know how, in a time-worn mansion on the edge of town, abandoned for ages after an unexplained murder. By chance, they find a book. A cursed book! The small town will then suffer a wave of atrocious deaths. Stella and Ramón will have to face their own worst demons in order to stop the carnage and save the inhabitants.

As a synthesis: an efficient teen movie for getting started with cinematographic thrills. 6/7 of 10

Good: The main story that is tying the 'scary stories' together is interesting and a fresh take as the 'scary stories' are short and filler needs to be made for a feature film. The direction from Øvredal is great finding the right amount of scares to be had with built suspense from the grisly production by Del Toro.

Bad: The cast is fine, nothing spectacular or atrocious, it is something you would expect from a horror film. Some lines are cheesy and laughable. The main story could have been shortened.

Overall: Although there is nothing innovating it is still a solid fresh straight-up(less jump scare, more imagery) horror of 2019 that can pass the time with entertainment and chills to be made.

3.5/5

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is the type of book that has most certainly made its impact. At the same time, it's also virtually impossible to adapt directly since it's a collection of short stories. While it would possibly work as an anthology horror, the movie takes a different direction and makes its own story that incorporates characters from the book's stories as villains. With horror maestro Guillermo del Toro as producer, it captures the essence of the book, which is good enough. All things considered, this is really more of an ode to horror as a genre, and to the things that scared us as kids. It incorporates several horror subgenres, which was a great addition. It has ghosts, zombies, body horror, and a monster sequence near the end. Popular characters from the book's terrifying illustrations appear, and they look fantastic. It has a great feel to it, and Del Toro's fingerprints are apparent in it. Unfortunately, it has some drawbacks. The main human cast is bland and forgettable. There's nothing here that you've never seen before. Overall, this is the type of movie that would be great if you're a kid and it's your first horror movie. However, if you were in elementary school when SSTTITD was at its peak, you'd be in your 30s at least in 2019 when this movie came out. Today's kids probably haven't heard of it (although who knows, I knew it growing up in the 00's). It ends on a sequel hook, curiously enough, so that may be on the horizon.