Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark....Does it Work? Let's Find Out!
So I’m not saying this movie is so scary it gave me nightmares…but it gave me nightmares…anxiety and panic induced nightmares…where I couldn’t tell if I were awake or not…and it’s a kid’s movie…
SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK was directed by André Øvredal and stars Zoe Margaret Colletti, Michael Garza, Gabriel Rush, and Austin Zajur as a group of friends who, on Halloween night, go into a haunted house and discover a book of stories that may or may not be cursed. One by one the friends must face their own fears in order to survive. And yes, this is a PG-13 horror film meant for younger audiences. That means disturbing images, no cursing, no bloody images, etc. But does it work? Does it capture the aesthetic and the feel of the book series from when we were kids? Let’s find out…
The way I work every review I do, I usually talk about the things I disliked, the issues I had or whatever little things that just didn’t work for me. I honestly did find a few flaws, mostly in the acting. There were moments where the lead, Zoe Margaret Colletti, whom I loved for the most part, was doing things that seemed a bit counter productive to what the group needed to survive the monsters that were unleashed upon them. Also, the movie seemed a bit rushed, like it could’ve done with a maybe another 10-15 minutes. Like, when things start going bad for our group of friends, it happens so quick that I wasn’t even sure what their names were. Some of the CGI was cringe-inducing. I mean, these issues may sound major to some people, but honestly, I had to dig real deep to find any issues or criticisms for this movie.
As for everything else? SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK captured EVERYTHING that made the books awesome; you could see the artwork come to life. The monsters were scary, there was plenty of amazing tension in the film, especially one sequence in a hallway that absolutely freaked me out. When the actual terrifying moments happen, when the stories come to life, that is where this movie hits every viewer right in the chest. There were some things that happened where I was genuinely surprised they went there. The acting is solid, and the cast are charming and work well together. Austin Zajur was a favorite of mine from the cast, as he was funny and charming, and the look of dread in his eyes was very convincing. The plot of the film is great, too. I really dug the idea of them finding a cursed book and it using their fears against them. There was some awesome conventional effects thrown on top of the CGI that I felt helped the movie out (particularly near the end).
In the end SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK is a fun, light-hearted horror film that excellently captures everything that made the book series popular. It’s got some good scares, some excellent moments of tension, jokes that come out of nowhere that really make you laugh, a great young cast, and some seriously spooky monsters. It reminded me of what it was like when I first picked the books up when I was 8 at a Scholastic Book Fair. So because of all that…I’m going to give it a…
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