Released in 2019 and directed by André Øvredal with writing from Guillermo Del Toro, “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” is a supernatural horror film that is adapted from the book series of the same name. The movie follows teenagers Stella, Auggie, Chuck, and Ramon in the town of Mill Valley as they undergo horrific encounters provided by a mysterious book written by a tortured child, Sarah Bellows. Sarah suffered a terrible life at the hands of her own family and wrote stories down in a book which she then possessed. The book brought her horrors into the real world and punished anyone unfortunate enough to call upon her stories.
The PG-13 rating of the movie shows that not all good horror movies have to involve huge amounts of gore and blood. This also allows the movie to be a gateway film for kids and faint-hearted horror fans who want to get into the genre.
The movie adapts the original stories and drawings of the characters very well, staying true to the drawings from Stephen Gamel. Writer Guillermo Del Toro was a big fan of the book series, as well as the drawings, so a large aspect of the production was to stay faithful to the original copy, which was done by using a mix of practical effects, as well as computer-generated imaging. Director André Øvredal worked with multiple sculptors and artists alongside creature designer Norman Cabrera to transform nightmares into physical figures, a task that none of the crew took lightly. Many of the monsters were performed by actors in suits, with additional CGI used in post-production. The added effects helped scenes with the monsters most of the time but occasionally ended up hurting the appearance of the monsters more.
Øvredal uses these characters to create a sense of suspense and horror with camera shots, film sets, and the absence of noise right before a jumpscare is about to happen. All of these aspects mesh together to create an experience that is equally creepy and exciting, something that is amplified by having skilled child actors play the roles of the teenagers, allowing the audience to feel for them and get scared for them when they encounter these monsters.
The plot flows well throughout the movie, although some spots between the encounters of the monsters feel sluggish and lack interesting dialogue. There are also a few plot points that are randomly dropped throughout the movie such as Stella’s absent mom as well as Chuck’s sister after the book attacks her with spiders. These dropped points do not take much away from the story, but leave much to be desired by the end.
Overall, “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” is a good starting movie for beginner horror fans and young kids who want to enjoy a scary movie without all of the blood and guts. The effects in the movie are phenomenal, although they are odd at some points due to an overuse of CGI, but the adaptations of the monsters are faithful to the book and the stories are creepy and terrifying when adapted onto the big screen.
