SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK (2019) ****

If you were a child of the ‘80s like me, you probably grew up reading the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series by Alvin Schwartz.  The stories themselves were scary, but those illustrations by Stephen Gammell were the true stuff of nightmares.  The series holds a special place in my heart as it was one of my major gateways into the horror genre. 

Part of the fun of parenting is sharing the stuff you loved as a kid with your child.  Because of that, my daughter loves the books as much as I did as a kid.  I’m so happy we got to share this fun, atmospheric, and most of all… SCARY film adaptation.  If you’re a fan of the old books (or just the horror genre itself), you’re going to love seeing these timeless tales updated and reimagined for a new generation.

The plot is kind of like the recent Goosebumps movie as it revolves around a haunted book.  Unlike that movie, the monsters are legitimately scary, or at the very least creepy.  One thing I loved about the film was that it stuck to the tried and true adage of a horror movie:  If you’re stupid enough to go into the local haunted house, you deserve what you get.  Especially these kids who read stories that are written in blood from the haunted tome.  They even make sure the heartless bully gets it worst of all.  In fact, he gets it so bad you might even feel a bit bad for him.  I know he deserves his comeuppance, but he didn’t deserve… THAT.  It’s seriously the creepiest thing I’ve seen in a PG-13 movie.

You know how some movies are just attuned to your wavelength?  That’s Scary Stories in a nutshell.  Not only was it based off one of my favorite book series, it’s chockfull of scenes of characters doing things like reading horror mags while Donovan’s “Season of the Witch plays, or trick or treating while “Quick Joey Small” blares from a radio, or hitting up a drive-in to see Night of the Living Dead… and that’s just the set-up before the stories even begin!  How could I not love it?

Is it a bit long?  Does it contain yet another predictable “The Ghost isn’t Bad, She’s Just Acting Out Because of an Unspeakable Wrong Done to Her” plotline, which now come standard issue in movies from producer Guillermo Del Toro?  Well, yes and yes, but it hardly matters in the long run.  When I think back to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, will I think about its running time?  Nope.  That’s because the sounds of giddy nervous laughter coming from my daughter during the scarecrow scene will stick with me the rest of my days.  What more could a horror fan (or a father) ask for?