I feel like Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a movie that I saw about 20 years too late. As a kid I loved watching Are You Afraid of the Dark and Goosebumps and what we have here is a similar kind of thing to that but with a much higher budget. This is actually based on a series of scary books aimed at kids so that is pretty cool.
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You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice. Check out also our reviews of Goosebumps and Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween.
The Movie Review
Anticipating Guillermo del Toro’s Touch
The premise was neat and with Guillermo del Toro being attached I was quite excited to see what this has to offer. I think that it goes a bit further into the “horror” and scary territory than the two Goosebumps movies do, but it lacks the charm that those two movies have in my opinion.
Misconceptions and Anthology Elements
Perhaps part of the problem here was my perception of what this was. I thought that Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark was going to be similar to something like Creep Show, but obviously more aimed at kids. While this does have a kind of anthology aspect to it which I thought was neat.
Ambitious Storytelling Connections
They try to tie it all together with an overarching story which has been a method used in other anthology horror movies before, but this one tries way too hard to make everything connected. Now, to be fair, I do not actually see how they could have done this any better and it is certainly not bad, but I do wonder if I would have liked it more had the stories been kept separate.
Setting and Discovery
The late 60s setting is cool and the way that our heroine, young Stella gets her hands on this scary book is pretty fun. Stella and her friends are being chased by the local bully and they end up at this old, creepy, and supposedly haunted old place that the town is very scared of.
The Dark Secrets Unveiled
It is here that Stella finds the diary of young Sarah Bellows who was part of the Bellows family that owned the old paper mill. Sarah was accused of witchcraft and with this book of hers that Stella has found, new stories start appearing in it and terrorizing those she has interreacted with. Not just the bully that was chasing her at the start, but her friends Auggie and Chuck too.
Chilling Tales and Visuals
To be honest, I have never read the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books so I cannot say for sure how close the stories being told here are. However, as standalone “ghost stories” I do think that there is some fun to be had here and it would be a great gateway kind of movie if you want to introduce your kids to something a bit scarier than they are used to, but at the same time not completely traumatizing them!
Visual Spectacle and Favorites
The way that this movie is shot is great, it really does look like a big-budget horror movie and some of the creature designs are amazing. Harold, The Pale Lady, and The Jangly Man all look amazing and very, very creepy. However, it is “The Red Spot” story and its spider-infested pimple that I thought was amazing, as a kid I would have freaking loved this.
A Second Viewing Perspective
I recently watched Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark for the first time since it was released in 2019 and I liked it way more than I did back then. I still think it would have been better as an actual anthology movie, but it is a fun horror for kids. I do think that the two Goosebumps movies, especially the first one are better kid’s horror movies though. However, I think had I seen this when I was like 13, it probably would have been a real favorite of mine.
