Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark takes place in a small town on Halloween night in 1968, when a young group of friends led by Stella, played by Zoe Colletti, escape a bully - played by Austin Abrams - by ducking into an abandoned old house that’s supposedly haunted. The group finds a book belonging to one of the former owner’s family members Sarah Bellows, which contains a series of scary stories, and Stella takes the book home with her. Soon after, new stories begin to write themselves in the book, with the creatures described coming to life and wreaking havoc in town.
Based on the children’s anthology series of the same name, this film is reminiscent of another film adaptation of a separate children’s anthology series, 2015’s Goosebumps. The two films followed a similar premise where the titular book series is directly mentioned, and the characters from each come to life. While Goosebumps was more of a comedy and notably lighthearted in tone, Scary Stories is a straightforward horror film and is more of an “adult” version of the former.
That’s not to say that the film is too intense for younger audiences. For those who can only stomach so much when it comes to horror movies, this is definitely something that’s much easier to sit through. It’s definitely creepy, mainly whenever one of the stories begins to be written, and many of the scenarios that play out can be unsettling. But it’s considerably less gory than most other horror movies, and even when there’s a setup that may make one squirm, it doesn’t play out in graphic detail.
The film is heavily focused on capturing the atmosphere of good old-fashioned ghost stories, and succeeds well at it. The film is directed by Andre Ovredal, in his third directorial outing, once again in the horror genre, after previously directing Trollhunters and The Autopsy of Jane Doe. His direction is by far one of the film’s strongest elements, with each scene building up just the right amount of suspense that will keep audiences consistently on the edge of their seats.
The movie is constantly engaging the audience with its creepy setups and the solid use of the monsters brought to life by the stories, each of which are faithful recreations of their designs from the original books. The film runs a little over an hour and forty minutes, and what’s commendable is that the run-time is almost never felt here. It’s tightly paced and is constantly moving. Scenes never really drag on for more than they need to, nor does it necessarily feel rushed, outside of the lackluster ending, which wraps things up a bit too neatly.
Besides the ending, the only other downside is that the film does have a notable lack of character development. Many of the characters do feel like cardboard cutouts of other characters seen in these sort of movies, and outside of Stella, there isn’t a whole lot that’s learned about them as the film goes on, nor is the trauma that they experience seeing these stories come to life really explored. They mostly feel there just to serve as a subject for one of the stories. There’s the bully, the clown, the cool guy, etc. And because of this, many scenes are a bit predictable, most of which get a pass due to the fact that they’re well-directed and legitimately unsettling.
While the characters themselves aren’t the best, the acting is solid, and that alone is what makes nearly all of these characters likable. This is the first major role for many of these young actors, and most of them really do an overall great job with the material, especially Coletti who has the most prominent role. Children in horror movies tend to be pretty hit-and-miss, but despite not being the most well-developed characters, the acting makes them overall enjoyable to watch. There are some notable adult actors who appear in small supporting roles, including Dean Norris, Lorraine Toussaint, and Gil Bellows. Unfortunately, these are mostly glorified cameos, and none of these actors are really given much to do for them to leave a lasting impact, with the child actors mostly carrying this.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is an overall solid entry into the horror genre, and is one that is accessible for most audiences. While it suffers from not having the most memorable characters, as well as an underwhelming ending, it has plenty to make up for it. Thanks to some really great acting from a solid cast of newcomers, as well as brilliant directing by Andre Ovredal, this is one set of stories audiences will definitely want told to them.
Recommendation: Watch It
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