With the Guillermo del Toro produced film adaptation of Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series set to drop in August, interest in the popular children’s books is at fever pitch. The three books, which were released between 1981 and 1991, drew massive attention for their frighteningly fun preservation of spooky folk tales, and their memorably terrifying art by Stephen Gammell.
A new documentary directed by Cody Meirick, titled simply Scary Stories, focuses on fandom for the books, the controversy they caused among concerned parents, and a bit of background on writer Alvin Schwartz. The film comes at a perfect time for fans to delve a bit deeper into the classic horror collections. Scary Stories is an worthwhile exploration of the books that does a good job of balancing between giving super fans a platform to profess their love, and giving viewers interesting tidbits into how the book came to be and the effect it had on the world.
A common pitfall for documentaries centered around works of pop culture is to simply inundate viewers with gushing fans without providing much in terms of substance or history. I love the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books, I’m sure you love them too, if viewers wanted a feature-length lovefest, they could probably reach out to any number of people in their lives and get that. The Scary Stories documentary is smart to balance this a bit, primarily in the form of artists who were deeply inspired by the books, with some genuine background info that is interesting and puts the books in a new light.
Interviews with Schwartz’s family members give some meaningful insights into a man that I’m sure many fanatics of his books know very little about. The documentary also goes into some detail into the proposed banning of the books from school libraries, featuring interviews with people who landed on both sides of this issue. Also included is a bit on the publishing history of the books.
The interviews and subjects are separated by animated interludes that do their best to mimic the visual style of artist Stephen Gammell. Many fans of these books (and there are MANY) will be quick to exclaim that Gammell’s trademark art is the primary reason that they are so connected to the books. These short animated sequences add a nice flair to the film and do a good job of calling viewers back to that feeling of seeing Gammell’s haunting art for the first time. Even more interestingly, excerpts from an excellent interview with Gammell, who was notoriously private, are read during the film. Fans of children’s horror literature will also be delighted with the appearance (in video interview and others in sound bites) of authors like R.L Stine and Bruce Coville.
Scary Stories is an essential watch for fans of Schwartz’s books. It’s equipped with a bit of background and insight, but also finds time to hear the fans. After completing the documentary I was compelled to pull my copy of the books off my shelf and lovingly thumb through.
Following a limited theatrical release – which includes Los Angeles, New Orleans, Columbus, and Texas – Scary Stories will be available on VOD May 7th with a DVD release set for July 16th.
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