While growing up, many of us discovered Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and the images the stories put into our heads have never left. The fear that every small blemish was an infected spider bite or resisting the urge to look in the backseat when we see flashing headlights. Although the stories and illustrations are simplistic in nature, they were effective nonetheless and survived the test of time. There is no doubt director André Øvredal felt immense pressure to hit that nostalgic sweet spot for the much-anticipated film adaptation, released on August 9th.
Set in the quaint town of Mill Valley, Pennsylvania, in 1968, four teenagers explore a local “haunted house” on Halloween night and stumble upon a hidden room. Stella (Zoe Margaret Colleti) finds a book of disturbing stories belonging to the room’s previous tenant, Sarah Bellows (Kathleen Pollard). She removes the book from the room, which awakens something evil and angry, resulting in new stories being written, aimed at Stella and those around her.
While the main story itself is not exactly groundbreaking (kids unleash angry spirit and must find a way to contain it), the plot is solid enough to support the featured Scary Stories in a way that makes sense. As mentioned before, the film has some big nostalgic shoes to fill, and bringing the illustrations to screen in a terrifying and respectful way was crucial. Side-by-side comparisons show how much dedication went into bringing Harold the scarecrow, “The Big Toe” corpse, “The Pale Lady,” and The Jangly Man, featured in “Me tie dough-ty walker!,” to life. The cherry on the top are all the practical effects used in place of pure CGI, which you can see more of in the clip below, courtesy of INSIDER.
I applaud the decision to set the film in a time before social media and cell phones, as those elements could have quickly ruined the simplistic tone that was so important to making the stories work. It was also refreshing to see a nostalgic teen squad film not set in the 1980s, as there has been an oversaturation since the debut of Stranger Things.
It is important to go into Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark with proper expectations. Although horror fans who grew up with the books wanted, and expected, a straight horror film, it is more in the same vein as Goosebumps and Are You Afraid of the Dark. That is not to say that there isn’t horror, because there is, but some fans may find themselves wishing they pushed things a bit further.
Overall, the film did the Scary Stories we grew up with justice in both design and storytelling, and that leaves this writer a happy camper.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is now showing at theaters nationwide.
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