THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
There are stories that can be told in many ways possible to make the experience. And sometimes, the best kind are Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.
PLOT
Based on the titular series short stories written by Alvin Schwartz, the 2019 film takes place in 1968 Mill Valley, Pennsylvania. The story here follows aspiring teenage writer Stella, a horror fan who lives with her father Roy, overworking himself since her mother left them both. On Halloween night, she and her friends Auggie and Chuck choose to prank bully Tommy Milner (Austin Abrams). When the latter tries to retaliate with his jock posse, the other teens take the cover of drifter Ramon Rodriguez. Together, they end the night by exploring the former home of the Bellows family said to be haunted. At the time, the youngest daughter Sarah Bellows was accused of witchcraft when local children would start disappearing before she would commit suicide. In the film’s present, Tommy would officially get even by locking the group in, as well as Chuck’s sister Ruth. Once they find a way out, Stella would take a book of short stories written by Sarah. When returning home, a new story is written into the book on its own dubbed ‘Harold’. As the said story is written, Tommy would be attacked by the local scarecrow of the same name (Mark Steiger) and transform into one as well after being stabbed in the back with a pitchfork. When he is reported missing the next day, Stella is sure that the story came to life. She shares her discovery to her friends and while Chuck seems to believe her, Auggie chooses to dismiss the truth. She tries to end the horror by putting the book back at the home of the Bellows', only for it to come back to her shelf by the time she comes home. When Ramon visits and notices the book, another story is written. In 'The Big Toe', Auggie gets abducted from under his bed by a corpse with a missing toe (Javier Botet). When Stella & Ramon reach his home, it is already too late. By the next day, they try to destroy the book by burning it, only with no result. With the help of Chuck, they choose to do research on the Bellows in hopes to find an answer to stop fantasy becoming reality. At a local gazette, they discover a woman named Lou Lou Baptiste (Lorraine Toussaint) was fired after Sarah died, allegedly teaching her black magic. Upon this discovery, another story is written. In 'The Red Spot, Ruth's spider bite on her cheek would pop and a swarm of spiders would crawl out of her face. By the time the group finds her in school, Chuck saves his sister by throwing water on her, which repels the rest of the spiders. Due to a severity of the injury, Ruth would be taken to the hospital. After this, Stella and the boys would find Lulu to find an answer about Stella's past. With the woman now being old and blind, the only thing she confirms is that she never taught magic, nor did she die in her home but in the hospital she was institutionalized by her older brother Ephraim (Will Carr). As they snuck into the R.E.D. room of the hospital, they find proof that Sarah was trying to reveal to the public that her family who owned a local paper mill was poisoning the town's water with mercury, hence the multiple deaths of the town's children. To cover it up, Ephraim and the family would torture her and put the blame on her. Upon this discovery, another story comes to life. In 'The Dream', Chuck would be absorbed by a phantom of his nightmares, a pale lady (Steger). As Stella and Ramon would try to find him, they would only get arrested for trespassing. When confronted the Chief Turner (Gil Bellows), he would call out Ramon for evading his draft into the Vietnam War. Ramon, whose last name is actually Morales, would confess he's avoiding it due to the fear he's felt since his brother was killed in action in the said war. Stella tries to explain the power of the book, but the chief chooses to not believe it. The truth would only be proven when a fourth story comes alive. In 'Me-Tai-Do-Tee-Walker' a contorted figure dubbed the 'Jangly Man' (Tory James), breaks into the station and kills the chief. Ramon and Stella would run away from the station, heading back to the Bellows' house with the hopes to end the terror once and for all. As the Jangly Man chases Ramon in the house, Stella would be pulled into another room of the ghosts of the Bellows family, reliving the torture Sarah went through. She would then see Stella's ghost, tell her she knows the truth of what happened to her and promises to share it to the public. She proves her honesty by writing it in blood on her book, which causes Sarah and the Jangly Man to vanish. After this incident blows over, Stella would write Sarah's story in the papers, scoring her first place in a writing contest. Ramon would willingly go to Vietnam and as he says goodbye to Stella, she promises to write to him. The film would end with her going on a trip (still with the book in her possession) alongside Ruth and Roy, hoping to find Chuck and Auggie.
THOUGHTS
I recall being very terrified of these stories during my tenure in elementary school, and the last thing I expected was an adaptation to come through. While I wouldn't deem this the scariest thing ever made, I still believe André Øvredal pays off in making something that can terrify anyone no matter what age. All past stories originally written by Schwartz were impactful for the capabilities of frightening us in more ways than one, which is where Øvredal comes in to match that same level of fear done before. The list of monsters are brought to life in incredible fashion thanks to the blend of practical and visual effects. The Red Spot was so contagious to witness due to my arachnophobia, and this doesn’t make it better. Harold was so bonkers because you never expect a scarecrow to be sentient and take action. The Toe Monster was a lot to process in a minimum amount of time because it gets into your head on how far you can go to care for you care for, particularly appendages. The Jangly Man was so fucking creepy because I never thought to see a body to like such. It’s crazy to see it’s limbs come together whenever they’re apart. It was really the Pale Lady that got to me the most because her silence was deafening and her design has lived on to the most shocking compared to the rest we see here. Seeing it surround Chuck just kicks in a whole new level of claustrophobia. It’s design is again not even close to grotesque but still disturbing. While each monster makes an impact, this overall films works for everyone because it surprisingly teaches viewers there is always a blend of power and passion to the stories we choose to tell and when you care about something, you should not ever give up. I was lucky enough to catch on to this thanks to a strong lead, as well as a nice mix of supporting characters. To be clear, Sarah is the most complex villain to behold in this feature due to how she’s an original characters like the victims she goes after. From what we get out of Kathleen Pollard’s impressive voice acting, we know very well how innocent she was, but is now fueled with rage in her spirit form. She deserves our sympathy as she got punished for trying to blow the whistle, but we fear her for her intent to finish business as a ghost, which was solely spreading the truth. She got even by making her family become part of her stories, but it only made her the monster they framed her to be, thus encouraging her to hurt others who didn’t deserve it. Luckily, there was someone that heard her and was able to fix things overnight. Enter Zoe Margaret Colletti who shined brightly as Stella. We're rooting for her the whole time because she's someone who has an interest, but struggles to let it be heard. With such a hole in her heart due to her mother's exit, it was hard for her to motivate yourself in doing what she wanted. Little would she expect one book to turn things around. The more she searched for the truth, the more comfortable she was in being herself. The determination she unleashed made her brave enough to save Sarah and herself before it could get any worse. Now, she will use that to save her friends if they're out there. There’s not a lot to say about Dean Norris in his given time as Roy, but it is enough to have me interested. Throughout, he makes clear he is a heartbroken man who struggles to cope with being ditched by who he thought was the love of his life. The silence spoke volumes on how hurt he was, until he was brave enough to remind his daughter it was never her fault when she exited their lives. Their phone call showed exactly how much they cared for each other because the last thing they need is to lose each other as well. I don’t know how Stella was able to explain the situation to her dad, but at least he seems onboard to help. Again, I don't think Sarah would be the person she is without the friends she was most comfortable with. Chuck felt likable to me because Austin Zajur made him the most outgoing and wants to make the best out of his childhood. You respect him more because he regrets encouraging the others to check out the haunted house; Knowing Stella would never have taken the book had he not done that. Being consumed by the Pale Lady was a terrible thing to happen to him because no one wants a nightmare to become reality. A fair amount of respect can be given to Auggie as well Gabriel Rush showed him to be the only one who wanted to act cautious. He was the only one vocal on not going to the house and had Chuck listened to him, the chain of events would not have happened. Being taken by the Toe Monster definitely sucked for him since he was clueless the whole time until it was too late. It was fucking disgusting when he bit on the severed toe and I can't un-see it ever. Since both of them were just as harmless as Stella, if there is a chance they're still alive, I do hope they come back without further harm. Another character you're rooting for is Ruth because Natalie Ganzhorn portrayed her as a teen who had her own goals; The play she signed up to do signs her aspiration to act. She definitely came off caring in her own way since she showed sympathy for Chuck when Tommy took things too far. Knowing how she has a heart deep down as well has us frowning when the arachnid terror explodes on her face. It's a big relief she survived the incident because I feel like the whole thing would've given me a heart attack. Knowing that she recovered has me hopeful she'll help Stella however possible to get her brother back. In the darkest of times, friends can come from unexpected places and Stella gained a new one out of Ramon. Michael Garza leaves behind a good impression as this character due to playing him as one whose living in fear and running from it as long as possible. He honestly has good reason to because the last thing he wants is to end up like his brother. However, the time he got to spend with Stella reminded him to not be afraid of obstacles you don't understand because there will be time to figure it out. The battlefield in Saigon was complicated for everyone at the time, but I'd like he'll be smart enough to overcome the odds. I was very impressed of what was brought to the table overall, but there were still a bunch of things that don't make sense to me. For example, I did think it was hilarious for Chuck to get the wrong Spider-Man costume made by his mother, but why does he wait until he puts it on? He should've known it wasn't what he wanted once he noticed it didn't have neither colors red & blue. That's more ridiculous than his mom and sister not smelling his bag of shit he uses to prank Tommy. It isn't surprising when bullies go too far to get even to those who stand up against them, but why the hell would Tommy leave his car in the middle of the yard he crashed into? He's too lucky no neighbor snitched on him once he left. And how the hell did he catch up to Stella's overtime to the Bellows' house. He was drunk driving while also dropping off his friends. And if he went out of his way to drop off his friends, there was no other way to have Ruth still with him other than to get an excuse for her to actually get a spider bite. That even leads to me asking why doesn't she seek medical treatment for the bite. She has no idea if the bite was poisonous and I personally believe had she went sooner, 'The Red Spot' would've not happened to her. I don't blame Auggie for doubting the supernatural activity surrounding the book because that's how scared he is deep down, but he of all should've been super suspicious over the fact there was a stew in the fridge not made by him nor his mother. I'd leave the fucking house over that discovery. I then gotta ask, where is Chuck's mom when he's investigating Sarah's life? She's likely at the hospital tending to Ruth, but she should be calling her son out of worry. It's more surprising than her allowing her daughter to be on a trip with Stella with minimal explanation after Chuck disappeared. Other than that, this movie is quite fine for what it is. In short, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is one of 2019's most underrated for getting as creative as possible with its various forms of terror. Whether or not you read these stories in advance, I recommend this to any horror fan out there.
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