Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark [DVD]

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019), a supernatural horror film that is a joint Canadian and American production. Based on a screenplay by producer Guillermo del Toro, though ultimately based on the children's book series of the same name by Alvin Schwartz.Fun monster-centric, kids-on-bikes-save-the-world, practical effects, haunted house supernatural horror film, set in rural Mill Valley, Pennsylvania on and shortly after Halloween 1968. Three youngish high school age friends, Stella Nicholls, Auggie Hilderbrandt, and Chuck Steinberg (played respectively by Zoe Colletti, Gabriel Rush, and Austin Zajur), joining up with drifter Ramón Morales (Michael Garza), in order to escape a bully and his friends hide in famous local haunted house on Halloween night, the house said to be haunted by Sarah Bellows, a young woman accused of witchcraft and killing children in the town. When the four friends escape, Stella takes a book of Sarah’s, which begins a series of events that threaten first the town bully and then soon others, with the story of what is happening to the person appearing in blood in real time in the book as it happens, each story dedicated to horrible things happening to that particular person. The remainder of the film is trying to understand what is happening and save those being threatened.It's a fun movie; loved the Midwestern autumn vibe of the town, there is a strong cast that has great chemistry together, really neat and genuinely scary monsters, good use of the 1968 time setting with Nixon’s election and the Vietnam War as well as the look of things such as cars, and has a strong “leave them wanting more” ending to it (I hope a sequel gets made). Pacing is great, really enjoyed the practical effects, it is a solid movie all around.

This movie sort of reminds me of the IT mini-series from the 80s--I did not have the pleasure of being traumatized by it as a child so when I watched it as a teenager all I could think was, "wow that's pretty lame." I can imagine some hapless zoomer hearing nothing but terrifying things about this movie from her peers only to watch it in her teen years and ask herself, "so what's the big deal?"That is to say, this movie is entirely too lame to really spook adults, but it is perfect for traumatizing children who shouldn't be watching it in the first place. It has just enough profanity that I don't think most adults would be comfortable letting their pre-teens and mid-teens watch it but I can't see it being too scary for anyone older than fifteen.I enjoyed reading negative reviews of it. There is something incredible about reviewers, you know. For some reason I suppose the veil of anonymity that the Internet provides makes people incredibly comfortable projecting their biases on everything. There are several reviews that moan about this movie being "anti-white male" and I just cannot agree when most of the white male characters are portrayed sympathetically. There's even the rare dad who stayed while evil mom ran off because family life was like, too stifling, or whatever, which seems to be a particularly common fantasy of a certain demographic of terminally online men.What I question is why this movie simply HAD to be set during the 1968 election season however... racism is pretty terrifying, yes, but the thing that gets me is this movie suggesting Nixon was more racist than GEORGE WALLACE of all people. The man was the perfect racist bogeyman and surely the fact that he was a segregationist against racial mixing would have fit perfectly in a movie with a mixed-race romance (albeit with a young Mexican-American man rather than a young Black man). What a missed opportunity! Setting it in rural Pennsylvania was also a strange move vis a vis the racism angle. I am sure there were countless racist whites living in the north during the Civil Rights era and beyond but surely the message would have gotten across better if the story was set in, say, literally any state south of the Mason-Dixon line??Goofy historical illiteracy aside, this is a silly movie that isn't really sure what it wants to do, as evidenced by the fact that it crams several of the better-known stories from the books into under two hours of run time, connected rather tenuously at best (and just off enough to make me question if the production team had even read the stories). I can imagine this being a made-for-TV movie back when such things existed, maybe airing on the Disney Channel (without the swearing and gore, perhaps). The atmosphere of the movie was fine up until the rather infamous "the book reads you" line and then it was simply too goofy to take seriously. I agree with reviewers who say the dialogue is too new-10s to really sell the period piece aspect. Take away the Vietnam War backdrop and this could have been about any backwards town from 2019. I'm assuming Ramon was a young Hispanic man simply for the fact that immigration was (and still is) such a hot-button issue at the time of the film's conception (and perhaps because it was co-produced by beloved Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro). Knowing that... yes, this could have worked as a modern movie just as well. It's your typical anti-Trump kind of movie made by non-Americans.In short I don't know who I would recommend this movie to, except to people who enjoy lame horror movies (like myself). Unfortunately it never comes close to being lame ENOUGH to be truly entertaining. It's another tepid paint-by-numbers "scary movie." There are a couple of good eerie moments at the very beginning (and I liked the Harold sequence up until the victim started puking up straw) but otherwise it just isn't that scary, and the kids babbling about the evil book and doing every stupid horror movie action ever kind of wore out any goodwill I had toward the film. Kind of disappointed del Toro's name was attached so prominently to this (to the point where even several reviews here bemoan how "far he's fallen"... fam, he didn't direct the movie lol). Do I think he could have pulled this off better if HE had been the director? I am not sure, but I do know it would have been more visually interesting and all of the monsters would have been played by Doug Jones (who I was disappointed to see was not attached to the film :-( ), and perhaps the acting would have been a little more convincing. As it is, it is definitely A Movie.

We all really enjoyed this movie. It wasn’t so extreme that it bothered any of us…it was a great, old-fashioned “scary movie” that held our attention the whole time. The acting was good. Glad I watched, with popcorn and dim lights. 👻

Love this scary movie

Absolutely loved it AND it's actually a bit scary! This really was an amazing adaptation and it took me so long to watch it for some reason. Was not disappointed at all.

Kept me engaged

Really good! I thought it was going to be one of those sitting around the campfire telling different short stories, but man was I surprised when it wasn't one of those at all. I also want to say that they did a fantastic job of getting the settings and everything else about it absolutely correct regarding 1968. Great flick... 5 stars.

3 Stars because the sound volume is awful. It's too loud, or too low, or just right, all through the movie... aggravating! The movie content is overall fine. It's not going to scare any adult to death.Worth the watch.

un autre de plus qui agrandis ma videotheque

Il s'agit d'un film de peur original qui saura plaire aux amateurs du genre à propos d'une bande de jeunes et d'un livre pas comme les autres. Il vous faut regarder ce film pour une frousse assurée!

the movie was how I remember it in the theatre a series of stories events take place it’s what one gets going into a supposedly haunted house and removed a book found there that starts everything into motion .

Case was a little flimsy. But the DVD was still good condition and the movie is excellent. Plan on watching it again for the 4th time lol

Great adaptation on the old books. A lot of fun.