Stories heal, stories hurt.
It is Halloween in 1968. The Vietnam War is ongoing, and Richard Nixon is running for the presidential re-election. The town of Mill Valley, Pennsylvania has been bloomed over for years by the shadow of the Bellows family. When teenagers, Stella, Auggie, Chuck and Ramon, infiltrate the abandoned home of the deceased family, they stumble across a book containing scary stories written by the Bellows’ daughter, Sarah, and take it with them. When the text in the book starts playing out in reality and people start disappearing, the teens suspect that there is something supernatural about this book. Together, they band to defeat the evil lurking with its before it affects the entire town.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is based on a series of children’s horror books written by Alvin Schwartz. I myself I’m not familiar with the series books (my +1 read some of the stories growing up, and he was able to recognize a few of the segments portrayed). Despite my lack of familiarity with the material, when I read the film’s plot, I thought it was going to be somewhat in the same vein as 2015’s film adaptation of Goosebumps, a fun nostalgia-based harmless thrill ride where the horror stories come to life. While it is similar in some regards, The film is noticeably much darker than Goosebumps, and has a much more serious take on the scary material, despite some humorous moments. Sadly, though, despite being somewhat darker then Goosebumps, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark doesn’t exactly work as a whole.
The most obvious problem is the pacing, which feels like result of heavy interference during post-production. In the opening sequence, shots barely last for three seconds before abruptly cutting to a different character or location. Five minutes into the film, and the film fails to properly establish the lead characters, yet carries on like it succeeded. Proper character establishments would have helped, too, because our leads are pretty hard to root for. How we supposed to root for kids who think throwing a flaming bag into the drivers seat of a moving vehicle is a fun idea? By the time the storybook comes into the story and imposes danger on these characters lives, I couldn’t care less about what will happen to them.
Sadly, the acting performances do not make anything better. The actors’ line delivery range from flat to outright annoying, and while some of it may have been intentionally directed that way, these characters are aggravating to listen to. A lot of these lines are played for comedy, but these actors do not display enough experience to get genuine reactions. The only actor that truly gets moments to shine is Dean Norris, as Stella’s single father, who actually who actually provides the films few genuinely emotional moments. Despite Norris giving a good performance, he feels wasted here.
To be quite honest, I also had difficulty figuring out the age of these kids. Ramon is clearly old enough to drive, but then you have the other three pulling off pre-teen style pranks, and Stella and Ramon clearly display feelings for each other. One can make the argument that these kids are really all around the same age and that they are just acting juvenile, but the execution fails to establish this, and it gives off some creepy vibes.
Despite a poorly-paced story and weak characters, the film has a few effective scenes of horror and suspense. Possibly the most effective sequence is one involving a walking corpse looking for his disembodied toe, which ends up in one character’s dinner. One shot in that sequence involves a character hiding under a bed trying to hide from the corpse. The director seeds succeeds in playing with our expectations for what could’ve easily been a throwaway jump scare, which this film has plenty of, by the way. Although, If I myself was eating dinner and discovered that there was human toe was in it, I would probably have more reaction than this character did. There is also a moment involving a dismembered head that is simultaneously horrific and hilarious. Unfortunately, this moment is followed by another that goes into the same cringey territory as last year’s sequel to Halloween.
In addition, some of the cinematography feels too basic for the kind of scares they’re going for. With the exception of the previously mentioned bedroom scene, as well as a few shots of an abandoned house, the shot composition feels too bland and lacking in personality. I keep thinking back to the 2017 remake of Stephen King’s IT, and how truly scary some scenes were and how appropriately creepy the cinematography was. Part of me feels that the filmmakers were trying to evoke a fun horror movie for younger audiences, but execution feels both awkward and uninspired.
One of the worst aspects of this film, however, is the ending. Actually, I take that back; it’s the film’s lack of an ending. On one hand, without spoiling it, I have to give credit to the filmmakers for allowing the film to have a dark outcome, but then they chicken out and sequel-bait. The problem here is that it keeps the film from feeling complete. You look back at the first Star Wars film, and despite the numerous future sequels, it still has a climactic ending and can be viewed as a standalone film. Whether this film is successful or not is undetermined at this point, but why not let the film feel complete from beginning to end?
It doesn’t exactly make sense why Lionsgate decided to release this Halloween-set film in the middle of August. Perhaps they should’ve waited until the end of September, or the beginning of October, when it actually makes sense? In the end, though, I had very mixed feelings about this movie. I do agree that there are some genuinely dark and scary moments, especially for any viewers under the age of 18, but this movie has some serious problems that damage the movie’s core. But hey, at least I can say it’s better than Child’s Play!