Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark Is Final Destination Meets Goosebumps With Surprising Results

    

        Horror movies released 2019 have been hit and miss in regards to quality for the most part. Happy Death Day 2 proved to be a strong sequel to the 2017 smash hit original despite underperforming at the box office. The remake of Pet Semetary despite not reaching the intended box office stature of Stephen Kings other book turned movie adaptation IT, still managed to be a reasonably satisfying remake despite the crappy ending. Child's Play with Mark Hamill surprised as being a decent horror reimagining/reboot of the 80's classic, and now IT Chapter Two, has made its way into theaters with a thunderous box office intake though not as successful as the first both financially and critically. To get the point across, 2019 has been both a hit and miss year for horror movies both quality and box office as audiences are craving for a solid scare. With Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark, that trend continues with a PG-13 childrens horror movie tale based on a collection of three short horror stories written for kids with the same title. Directed by Andre Ovredal and based on the children's book series by Alvin Schwartz, the screen story was written by Academy Award Winner Guillermo Del Toro and adapted to the screen by Dan and Kevin Hageman. Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark despite being grounded by it's PG-13 rating, is surprisingly​ effective as a horror movie while providing a gateway into the genre of horror for young generations of filmgoers and horror enthusiasts.

      The plot for Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark takes place in Pennsylvania town 1968 during the Vietnam/Nixon era. The town has been haunted by dark mysteries surrounding an old family mansion where a teenage girl turned her experience of torture into a book of scary stories. For a group of young teenagers (Played brilliantly by Zoe Margaret Colletti, Michael Garza, Gabriel Rush, and Austin Abrams), the stories become too realistic as they not only end up discovering her tales, but must fight to save their own lives as their own dates are being magically written. Making a children's horror story is a unique and bold move, that pays off nicely here as the film is not only effective and we'll executed in terms of drawing young audiences into the plot with young characters they can relate to, but also manages to entertain older horror fans as well. It helps that the young actors all deliver strong performances, that are believable and add heart to the story with an atmosphere that's dark and staged well enough to provide some solid suspense. The audience grows to care about the young teenagers characters as they watch them try to be different in a small town, making them feel lost or
misunderstood. The story has a combination of both IT and Final Destination with the small group of young teens feeling like the Losers Club from IT, 
with how society views them as well as them trying to out think and survive their supernatural Boogeyman before each one is ultimately picked off. Director Andre O Vredal takes a simple yet effective formula and gives it a sense of freshness to it, that carries a perfect balance of young teen drama mixed with them trying to deciper a system of rules in a haunted book which ultimately comes with terrifying results.

      As far as the films acting goes, the young cast does a believable and terrific job playing a group of young teens encountering something spooky while trying to stick together to change their fate. Zoe Margaret Colletti, Austin Abrams, Michael Garcia, and Gabriel Brush all deliver surprisingly strong performances, as they completely sell their situation to the audience as well as making a believable group of young kids befriending each other while struggling to defeat this spirit they unearthed. Zoe Margaret Colleti does great playing young horror fan Stella, who ends up finding Sarah's book and taking it home. She tries to discover the truth about Bellows family and save the lives of her friends from unwritten fates. Stellas character is the heart and soul of the film as she helps bring the rest of the cast together in terms of the story. Other notable supporting performances come from Dean Norris in a brief role as Stella's father as well as Lorraine Toussaint. Gabriel Brush does well as the local town sheriff, who constantly harrasses the young Hispanic teenager in the group played by Michael Garcia. He comes across as the typical authoritative character, that audiences dislike in horror movies because they not only come across as being useless but don't have a clue what's going on. Despite the cast being relatively unknown for the most part, the performances they deliver are most impressive with Zoe Margaret Colletti and Michael Garcia shining as Stella and Ramon. Both not only do great jobs here but have chemistry making the audience care about their friendship/romance in the midst of things. Austin Abrams shines as the effective yet generic bully Tommy. His character isn't anything original in the realm of horror yet Abrams makes the most of his character like the rest of the cast. The performances as a whole help to give the film a sense of innocence within the films spooky edge, that echos children's horror stories of the 80's and 90's era.

      In terms of directing and writing, Andre O Vredal does a good job of creating a genuinely spooky atmosphere and centering it around the Vietnam era in America during the late 1960's, using it as the films backdrop. He crafts a film that serves as being a nice throwback to the 80's children movies, that were allowed at the time to lean on the side of being creepy, unusual, a tad spooky, and feeling unsafe. The film has a Goonies/The Outsiders feel to it. Vredal gives the film a pacing that feels just right for the type of story he's trying to tell with the film never feeling like it slows down and goes back and forth between the main characters and the scary scenes. What makes the directing in this movie commendable, is how it chooses to build a steady and well-crafted atmosphere that's genuinely creepy rather than being grisly and gruesome. The movie has moments where it's intense and disturbing but it's not excessive nor done to the point where it feels like it's over-the-top. There is never a point in the film where it feels scary, but its effective at being dark, creepy, and engaging with the teenagers arc being the heart of the story. In addition to the IT and Final Destination vibe, the film also carries a Goosebumps and Stranger Things feel to it with the young kids being surrounded by an atmosphere, that's spooky and unpredictable with the presence of ominous creatures and spirits making it haunting. The films screenplay is written strongly as it spreads the different horror stories of the books throughout the film, while giving the young teens enough backstory and personality to make them more than just cutout generic characters in a horror flick, that the audience can grow to care about as well as ponder their fate. Given the film is 108-minutes total in length, its actually longer than the typical horror flick but it utilizes its running time to create appealing teen characters, while building off each scene creating a unique blend of suspense and character growth mixed with a rich visual scenery.

      In the end, Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark doesn't break any new ground nor change the horror genre, it simply presents a slick horror story that manages to be surprisingly entertaining and well-executed with the twist being it's teen oriented. The acting is believable due to it's likeable cast, strong writing, effective directing with the film carrying some fun set pieces, top notch make-up effects, stellar art-set decoration and costume design showcasing the 1960s style of clothing, and brilliant cinematography giving the films setting a nostalgic and authentic feel. Some of the films most effective and creepy scenes have to deal with spiders, a scene involving a pimple, and a red room with an end fate that's both creepy and funny with the audience getting a kick out of it. A good horror movie isn't complete without compelling characters that the audience can relate to making Stella and Ramon the ideal duo, who ultimately have no choice but to face their own worst fears in order to stop the carnage and save the townspeople.

      Is the movie perfect? No, the film is often light on actual scares and has some elements that don't work for it. Examples are the use of the Nixon and Vietnam War subplot for the 1960's angle, they don't do anything to advance the story other than just to be in the background. The only thing in the whole film it pertains to is the character of Ramon as it's implied he attempted to dodge the draft after seeing his brother sent to war and ultimately killed. While effective in character growth, it still doesn't do much in terms of pushing the actual narrative of the story which brings the focus on that subplot into question. Some of the dialogue and acting has moments where it comes across as being cheesy such as the climactic scene with Stella and Sarah where Stella says it's not excusable what Sarah went through but her actions afterwards are on her or as she puts it "that's on you." Despite similarities to other films as well as obvious borrowing of other horror movie subplots (The movie doesn't have to be Scream level original but some attempt at creativity would've been appreciated instead of coming across as familiar territory at times), the film still manages to be an interesting and fresh take on the horror genre while being faithful in terms of bringing the books haunting illustrations to life. Although light in originality, its well-built in suspense and chills making it an entertaining horror flick worth checking out by both young horror fans as it carries with it a Goosebumps type vibe while having elements for older horror fans to enjoy.

Final Verdict: Definitely worth watching if you're a horror fan. Don't be put off by the fact that it's PG-13, it's still effective in terms of being both scary a creepy.