Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark doesn’t need (and doesn’t call for) gory or provocative extremes, but it holds the audience’s hand instead. Is there much of a point in the spooks we’ve just seen if they’re all reversible? And if the monsters are a now-gone ghost’s invention, do the lessons learn also have to be reversed in order to bring more of them to life? Scary Stories isn’t crying for a sequel (though it would be great to see some of Stephen Gammell’s other illustrations brought to life), and it also feels like a cop-out. Yet it’s a bit of a letdown in terms of the story’s stakes. As Stella tells it, there must be a way to get the lost kids back, and she’s determined to figure it out.īroadly speaking, that hopeful note sort of fits with the film’s overall message of the harm in history repeating itself and the need to tell the truth and break out of such cycles. After breaking the curse that threatened to kill them all, Stella (Zoe Colletti) is seen in a car with her father (Dean Norris), as well as Chuck’s older sister Ruth (Natalie Ganzhorn), who, after having had spiders birth themselves from a particularly bad zit on her cheek, has largely recovered. Or at least, that’s how it feels until the film’s very last scene, which, in a single moment, undermines the weight that perma-death affords the film by setting up for a sequel. There’s no evidence of a reversal mechanic the damage that’s been done is permanent. Chuck (Austin Zajur) is physically pressed into the body of the pale lady, consumed by the mass of flesh. Auggie (Gabriel Rush) is dragged into the darkness underneath his bed by a monster missing its toe. Tommy (Austin Abrams) is turned into a scarecrow after tormenting the one in his family’s field. Harold? LionsgateĪs the film progresses, three teenagers are declared missing and presumed dead after run-ins with monsters. The film, which imagines the creatures populating the stories as the creations of a ghost seeking revenge for past misdeeds, doesn’t shy away from peril, but there’s a fundamental weakness to the way it tries to wrap it all up. The statement, however, is also at the root of one of the biggest disappointments in André Øvredal’s spin on Alvin Schwartz’s anthology. At a preview of footage from the film adaptation of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, producer Guillermo del Toro said, “In my movies, kids do die.” It’s a bold statement to make about a film geared towards younger audiences, though perhaps a little less unexpected from a horror movie.
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