Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

“Stories hurt, stories heal.”

Filmology Rating: 2.75 out of 4

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark was produced by Guillermo del Toro and directed by André Øvredal. 

When friends, Stella, Auggie, Chuck, and Romón, go to a haunted house on Halloween, they find a secret room containing a book that belonged to Sarah Bellows- a girl who hung herself decades ago. The book contains several scary stories that are directed towards Stella and her friends. If they don't do something, all of them will die.

Beside falling into usual horror tropes, this film succeeds on many fronts. The one thing it gets right is characters. The first thirty minutes is committed to getting to know Stella, Auggie, Chuck, and Ramón. So often in horror films, there is no ramping to the horror elements; the film slaps you in the face immediately and expects you to care for the characters. Luckily, this film steered very clear from that. Even though a lot of the characters themselves felt loosely written. At least someone tried. 

There is lots of time dedicated to creating memorable imagery. For some, a lot of this film won't have a huge impact, but this is a great gateway horror film for younger people. There is great tension as well, but it is sometimes concluded in a loud jump scare. 

The plotting is very cliche. Seeing four teenagers, who are nothing like the Losers' Club, go into a haunted house and find a creepy book. One by one, they are put in life-threatening situations. They go to the library for research. They visit an old women who has knowledge. Then have to stop the curse or whatever. It's all very generic.

There is also some very strange Richard Nixon references. Every twenty minutes, they cut to a television screen where Nixon is talking about the war in Vietnam. It's almost like the filmmaker is making commentary that Nixon and the Vietnam War was a scary story as well? It was all very weird. Sure, it's the late sixties and that was happening, but it happened so occasionally that it was obviously trying to accomplish something. 

However, the direction and the decently-written characters keep the film from feeling like a typical pre-Halloween horror film. Go for the atmosphere and great creature design.

Rating: See It

-Nolan