Directed by:
André ØvredalCinematography:
Roman OsinCast:
Zoe Margaret Colletti, Michael Garza, Austin Zajur, Gabriel Rush, Austin Abrams, Gil Bellows, Dean Norris, Lorraine Toussaint, Natalie Ganzhorn, Javier Botet (more)VOD (4)
Plots(1)
It’s 1968 in America. Change is blowing in the wind… but seemingly far removed from the unrest in the cities is the small town of Mill Valley where, for generations, the shadow of the Bellows family has loomed large. It is in their mansion on the edge of town that Sarah, a young girl with horrible secrets, turned her tortured life into a series of scary stories, written in a book that has transcended time - stories that have a way of becoming all too real for a group of teenagers who discover Sarah’s terrifying tome. (CBS Films)
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Reviews (9)
A tired 2.5 stars. The best thing here is clearly the exposition and period atmosphere, but that really ends the list of positives. Until the stories are "discovered" and start being told, it's pretty good for the reasons mentioned. Overall, though, it's a terribly routine affair that offers nothing new at all, and which unfortunately is neither scary enough nor comic enough. In fact, the whole thing felt like eating three-day-old bread with butter. You can eat it, and you will eventually (if you have nothing else at home), but you'd much rather have something fresh and more nutritious.
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The cute, soft film is neither scary nor gory enough, but it shows some quality work with the environment/set designs and nicely captures the 1980s. It would have been more successful if it had also been made in that era, as contemporary horror viewers – including the youngest ones – are used to a more intense, goosebump-inducing experience and jump scares, even in movies with worse writing and direction. But intensity is what the audience craves, and intensity is lacking here.
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The result is pretty much by the upper boundaries of the realistic expectations for a PG13 adaptation of a scary book for children. The scenes that adapt the scary stories are brilliant. They can be tense, scary and sometimes even give you the chills. Obviously, the viewer would wait in vain for blood and gore, but even then, it seems that the creators were allowed surprisingly plenty for a “kids” rating. Certainly, there is more horror in Scary Stories than in, for instance, the third season of Stranger Things. I’d love to see more of these scary short stories; more monsters and beasts. But, unfortunately, the binding between the “stories” is a problem. It’s not interesting enough, especially given how much time it gets. The main characters aren’t much of a problem, though it can’t be said that most of them are very likeable. I thought how it would have been if the creators had ignored the story and the entire town would somehow “read” the book, and the monster mayhem started. Overall I’m satisfied, I liked the film. But this year I’ve given four stars to far more significant and interesting horror films, and, also, the previous two works by Øvredal were stronger, so Scary Stories will have to make do with a three.
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Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is an American modern horror movie and an example of what people want. However, I could not get into it at all, although it is great that there is a horror movie with a pretty strong narrative that has some potential. I almost wonder if it would not have been better to have read the original books than watch this movie adaptation, which cannot decide if it is purely for adults only or also for a younger audience.
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Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark reminded me at certain points of Darkness Falls and Goosebumps, where the story also worked with urban legends, revenge and dangerous stories from books. I liked the look of the monsters, even if we’ve seen more "poetically" designed creatures in Guillermo del Toro, who co-wrote the film. I also praise the choice of locations and the production design, whether it was a red hospital, a haunted house, or a cornfield (which looks eerie even in broad daylight). Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark doesn't (fortunately for me) overflow with an abundance of scares and hectolitres of blood, rather it offers a few atmospherically uncomfortable scenes and, as a result, a slightly above average tale of stories that hurt but can also heal. Better three stars!
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