Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019) User Reviews

Nice visuals, but weak overall

[gbill-74877 · 5/10 · 5 September 2019]

Highlights:

• The visualization of the various horror figures, e.g. Harold and the Pale Lady.
• Several creepy and/or shocking moments keep things interesting, e.g. the pimple scene.
• Zoe Colletti as Stella was fun to watch.

Lowlights:

• The 'outer story' constructed to wrap the stories together is lazy and uninspired. It would have been better just to leave them separate and flesh them out a little, drawing out the tension in each.
• I liked the attempt to bring in the 1968/Nixon/Vietnam stuff, but it just came across as awkward.
• The characters are all pretty stock, giving the film a packaged feeling.
• The scene with Stella and Sarah towards the end is in particular forced and weak ("that's on you" ...ugh, an eight year old could have written this)
• Overall comes across as pretty standard stuff. It's not horrible, but it could have been much better.

Entertaining!

[jenkothetarheel · 7/10 · 12 August 2019]

While this movie may have had a few of your typical horror movies moments, it is still an interesting concept. The actors all for the most part play their roles well, and the special effects and cgi are all there. I could see this film gain a cult following and maybe end up having a trilogy or even more movies. The fact that this movie doesn't have a lot of star power is another reason why I enjoyed it. I like seeing young, up and coming actors shine new light into a genre that is seldom successful at actually making a good and enjoyable film. This one gets two thumbs up from me!

Surprisingly entertaining.

[bob-the-movie-man · 7/10 · 8 September 2019]

To my surprise, this movie was not what I was expecting at all. From the title, I was sure I'd see a portmanteau movie of unconnected short stories, similar to 1983's "Twilight Zone: The Movie". But with a kid-centric plot and set in a small American town, the formula is similar to "It" or "Super 8". However, the episodic nature of serial "incidents" aligns it more with the style of the "Final Destination" films.

Stella Nicholls (Zoe Margaret Colletti) is a horror geek and aspiring writer living in Mill Valley, a small Pennsylvanian town during the Nixon election of 1968. Stella has a couple of friends: the requisite Scoobie Doo Shaggy character Chuck (Austin Zajur) and the 'sensible' "it's all science" character Auggie (Gabriel Rush). But pursued by local hoodlum Tommy (Austin Abrams), Stella, Chuck and Auggie are thrown together with draft-dodging outsider Ramón (Michael Garza).

They escape into the local spooky house - a house where legend has it that terrible things were done to a strange albini girl, Sarah. That legend has it that Sarah used to tell local kids scary stories through the walls. And Stella finds a book... a book that appears to be unfinished....

This is a time when horror films are either "old school" or more psychological in nature (like "Hereditary"). This one has Guillermo del Toro's hand behind that of lead-writers Dan and Kevin Hagerman. And it's firmly old-school. There are some effective (but at times comically created) spooky moments that are scary without being hugely gory. This earns it a UK15, rather than a UK18, certificate. It's disappointing that doesn't stretch to 12A to attract a younger teenage audience, since the source material is actually from a "Goosebumps"-like set of short stories by Alvin Schwartz.

The story's 'episodes' are nicely varied. At the gross-out end of the scale is an episode with Chuck's sister Ruth (Natalie Ganzhorn) that might get arachnophobes running for the exits. My personal favourite? A 'red room' episode with the oncoming fate comically arriving in slow-motion like the steam-roller in "Austin Powers"!

This is another film that relies on the quality of its young cast, with the only moderately well-know cast name being Gil Bellows as the local sheriff. In this regard, the stand-out performance is that of Zoe Margaret Colletti who does a fabulous job as Stella. She's been in a few films in the past ("Annie", "Wildlife" and "Skin") but this is her breakout performance in a starring role. She's done her CV a great favour here.

Directed by "Troll Hunter" director André Øvredal, I really enjoyed this one. I'm not a massive fan of 'slasher' style horror films. I have no burning desire to be constantly reminded of what the inside of my body looks like. So this turned out to be much-more to my liking than the normal horror flick. It had enough spookiness to make me turn on the lights when I got back home, but not enough to pervade my dreams.

The young cast perform well. They are given enough back-story and personality by the script to make you care about their fate.

So overall, this one comes with a "Recommended for wimps" (like me)!

(For the full graphical review, please check out One Mann's Movies on t'interweb or Facebook. Thanks.)

Scary and entertaining horror for the PG13 crowd

[nashw82 · 7/10 · 27 August 2020]

I've never read the books but that didn't seem essential to enjoy the movie. A few scary moments but very predictable for most horror fans. However, I think its quite good for its target audience, early teens making the first steps into horror movies. I'll definitely watch it again with my kids when they are a little older.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

[0U · 19 March 2020]

In small town America 1968, there is a dark history that hangs over an old abandoned house regarding the fate of the Bellows family. While escaping the town bullies, a group of teenagers break into the house to hide and it is in this house they find a dusty old book full of terrifying stories but as they take it away with them, new stories begin to appear in the book and the group of friends start to disappear one by one. When I first saw this advertised, I had never heard of the books on which it is based and from the trailer I couldn't figure out who the audience for this story might be. From the trailer I felt it was aimed at young teenagers but then some of the imagery used on screen seemed so terrifying and disturbing i thought it couldn't possibly be. Well it turns out it is aimed at teenagers and if i was a teenager watching this i would probably have loved it. As an adult i did still enjoy it, the horror elements were done brilliantly, scary, disturbing and memorable. It's the bits in between the horror that let it down slightly. I just felt the characters weren't developed enough and didn't really gel together like the young cast of IT did. Visually impressive and a decent story behind it but could have done with some extra time dedicated to character development.

The Book of Horror Stories

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 9 December 2019]

In 1968, in Mill Valley, Pennsylvania, the outcast teenager Stella Nicholls (Zoe Colletti) is an aspirant writer that has only two friends, Auggie Hilderbrandt (Gabriel Rush) and Chuck Steinberg (Austin Zajur). On the Halloween night, the trio of friends decide to play a prank on the bully Tommy Milner (Austin Abrams) and flee to a drive-in theater where the stranger Ramón Morales (Michael Garza) hides and protects the teenagers. They decide to spend the night visiting the haunted house of the Bellows family, where Stella finds the book of stories of the notorious Sarah Bellows (Kathleen Pollard). She brings the book home and soon she realizes that Sarah is writing one horror story per day with each one of them and she tries to find a means to stop Sarah.

"Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" is an entertaining horror film with short stories linked by a lead story with Stella and Ramón. The plot is not gore or scary and disappoints fans of the genre. But if the viewer likes mystery and fantasy films, he or she will certainly enjoy this film. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Histórias Assustadoras para Contar no Escuro" ("Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark")

Adult Goosebumps with a PG-13 Rating

[Yee_Reviews · 7/10 · 8 August 2019]

Good: The main story that is tying the 'scary stories' together is interesting and a fresh take as the 'scary stories' are short and filler needs to be made for a feature film. The direction from Øvredal is great finding the right amount of scares to be had with built suspense from the grisly production by Del Toro.

Bad: The cast is fine, nothing spectacular or atrocious, it is something you would expect from a horror film. Some lines are cheesy and laughable. The main story could have been shortened.

Overall: Although there is nothing innovating it is still a solid fresh straight-up(less jump scare, more imagery) horror of 2019 that can pass the time with entertainment and chills to be made.

3.5/5

Underwhelming Stories to Tell in the Dark

[questl-18592 · 6/10 · 13 February 2020]

After watching this two and a half times, I think this is going to perpetually fall into the category of movies I don't particularly like but I appreciate what it's trying to do. Scary Stories feels like it's trying to be a horror movie for a younger audience and that's a market that feels like it's always been underdeveloped and mismanaged. Every now and then a movie comes out to try and scare the bejesus out of kids but usually they default to quirky and fun with gothic overtones.

So, while I don't personally enjoy the gross out horror and the sometimes cheesy effects, I think they are perfect for the target audience. Still, before showing this to kids it may be wise to watch it first and make sure it's right for them but if you're looking for some family friendly scares, this probably fits the bill.

Not too great, not too bad

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 30 December 2020]

Another day, another Halloween-friendly horror anthology, still made for kids but a little more adult in tone than something like GOOSEBUMPS. This in fact feels a lot like TRICK 'R' TREAT but is nowhere near on the level of that movie, and a lot of the time I felt like I was watching a deliberate STRANGER THINGS imitator. There are five stories collected here, and they're all entirely predictable, with youths or youngsters menaced by various CGI nasties. Killer spiders, scarecrows and madness are the order of the day, the highlight being the scenes in which the gang are harassed by a creepy contorted corpse monster which looks great. The rest is merely okay; I've seen a lot better and I've seen a lot worse, and this sits somewhere in the middle.

Could have been darker & better

[sanjidparvez · 6/10 · 12 August 2019]

As a kind of anthology sort of feature, Scary Stories wasn't actually a bad movie but it didn't fulfill my expectations, specially in terms of scare factors. As a huge fan of André Øvredal (director of Trollhunter & Autopsy of Jane Doe), expected it bit more twisted & eerily creepy particularly around the different monster/entity encounters at different segments. Among the ghostly entities, The Jangly Man & The Pale Lady were the most interesting; and while they could have done more with The Pale Lady (looked like a creepy character from a Japanese manga), the intro to this character was kind of disappointing & somewhat same like Harold the Scarecrow. The Jangly Man was the most satisfactory one...wondering what James Wan would have do with it?! Speaking of Wan, at times it just came to my mind that considering the format & the stories...I think Wan or Mike Flanagan would have been a better choice for this film than Øvredal.

It got potential to be more darker, scarier & entertaining but PG-13 approach turned out to be a let down for me. Overall, found it kinda mediocre, though the effort was fairly decent.

Is this a Nickelodeon production?

[mr-jonathanmargolis · 5/10 · 10 August 2019]

The trailers really mislead this one. It appeared to be a dark and ominous horror film. Instead, it's a very mild mystery with some great visuals. No scares at all in this one. Somewhat interesting, but overall I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

in-between horror

[SnoopyStyle · 8/10 · 5 January 2020]

It's Halloween, 1968 in the town of Mill Valley, Pennsylvania. Stella Nicholls is out with her friends Auggie Hilderbrandt and Chuck Steinberg. They are pursued by bully Tommy Milner after the friends pull a prank on him. They find sanctuary in Ramón Morales' car in the drive-in. Stella leads the group to a haunted house. They escape from scary things including Tommy's revenge. Stella takes an old book from the abandoned house. You don't read the book as much as the book reads you. It belongs to Sarah Bellows who lived a tragic life and died horribly.

It's a good in-between horror between the kiddie spooky stories and outright adult gore-fest horrors. I like all the characters. I like the teen actors. I like the spooky and slightly scary stories. I like the idea of the book and the body horrors. The zombie looks good and I expected nothing less from a Guillermo del Toro production. It is not quite an adult horror but it's a good step up from a kiddie campfire story.

An efficient scary movie populated by chimerical creatures

[FrenchEddieFelson · 6/10 · 30 August 2019]

Film directed by André Øvredal and co-written with Guillermo del Toro, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019) benefits from an efficient Halloween atmosphere, an excellent photography, the nostalgic 60's dress code, impressive old cars and rather talented young actors. On certain aspects, in particular the ineluctably-fatalistic side, the film makes me think of A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) directed by Wes Craven in which a psychopath sadistically haunts teens during their sleep.

After the showing of a cult film (Night of the Living Dead (1968)) in a drive-in theater, a group of teens arrives, we do not really know how, in a time-worn mansion on the edge of town, abandoned for ages after an unexplained murder. By chance, they find a book. A cursed book! The small town will then suffer a wave of atrocious deaths. Stella and Ramón will have to face their own worst demons in order to stop the carnage and save the inhabitants.

As a synthesis: an efficient teen movie for getting started with cinematographic thrills. 6/7 of 10

Scary Stories To Tell in The Dark - 'Goosebumps' for teenagers

[brankovranjkovic · 4/10 · 10 September 2019]

Horror drama based on a book series.

A group of teenagers explore a spooky house and they find a dusty book, they find that you don't read the book, the book reads you and seems to write itself. The stories that emerge cause deaths.

I don't understand how this wasn't released to coincide with Halloween. Pretty disappointing, I was hoping for a lot more as this was rated a C15 in the UK. I'm not a horror genre fan but was hoping for more, not very scary at all.

Where is my toe?!!!

[Piixie88 · 7/10 · 9 August 2019]

**If you haven't read the books, you're better off not seeing it or you most likely won't like it**

This movie is based off children's books that were published in 1981, 1984 and 1991. Most of the audience this movie will garner will be from people who read these books when they were kids. Hardcore horror fans will PROBABLY not like it. You will not be scared except MAYBE with the jump scares.

I'm sure kids will love it, just be mindful of the age your kids are and how they handle horror. This isn't like goosebumps. People who scare easily will like it too.

They did a wonderful job getting the "scary" characters to look exactly how they were illustrated. In the books none of the stories are connected. Here, a main story was created to connect them. It's actually not that bad. It's scarier and less cheesy than what passes as children's horror but it's not like what adults expect. An in-between horror film with some good, CREEPY and FUNNY moments. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it but sheer childhood nostalgia drove me to go see it.

Charismatic

[baunacholi-86159 · 7/10 · 11 August 2020]

Never read the books nor did I had any expectations esp after reading some negative comments. Well, what a pleasant surprise! Scary stories is in my POV not the usual stereotype horror, leave alone teeny horror. There are some overhyped tv shows around which didn't have the same level of quality and charisma I experienced watching ScSt. The story is most of the time original and quite creepy e.g. The metamorphosis from a regular guy into scarecrow was very effective. The cast did a very good job and was throughout authentic. Some complained about the ending. I felt it worked the way it was executed, no classic Happy End, good job everyone.

An enjoyable flick - but more then that? Nah

[jonatan_juntunen · 6/10 · 9 August 2019]

It was ok. Seriously tho, this movie was not bad, but it was not very good either. Its a completely enjoyable flick, but doesnt really bring anything new. There was not one scene where i even felt a twinge of fear, so if you are there for the horror, look somewhere else. Cgi was ok, could have been done practically, but to no surprise they didnt choose that route. The movie feels very slow phased at some moments, something that led me to yawn several times. When the climax finally happens, it - wait a minute? What climax? There wasnt one.

Scary movies do not have "scary" in the title. But good one might...

[GiraffeDoor · 7/10 · 13 December 2021]

I know it's riding the success of that Goosebumps movie but this tries to be more of a horror movie than the spooky adventure so I feel it finds a niche.

Still more of an adventure movie than a horror movie but it works. A mysterious and dark exploration of an unknown force in which I was never certain about the safety of any character except the protagonist. Kind of goofy in parts but since I never gave this movie much credit in the first place, it never really jarred.

With many vivid sequences, this packs a lot of nostalgia and thankfully they keep the designs from the original illustrations.

They actually have a pretty neat plot dreamed up and it's nice to see they were conscientious about depicting police realistically.

Ending scenes kind of annoyed me though. He was so close...

Dodge the draft!

The title is half right: it is dark, but it isn't scary.

[BA_Harrison · 4/10 · 21 August 2019]

I knew very little about this film going in and, judging from the title, expected a horror anthology along the lines of Creepshow (1982). What I actually got was a very tired ghost story, one that treads familiar ground and regularly resorts to loud noises to try and make the viewer jump (or in the case of my friend, who fell asleep in the cinema, to wake them up).

Based on the books of the same name by Alvin Schwartz, and directed by André Øvredal (Troll Hunter, The Autopsy of Jane Doe), the film follows a small close-knit group of high-school kids (as in Stranger Things and IT) who invoke the wrath of a vengeful ghost when they steal her book of scary stories. Each of the youngsters meets a fate in accordance with one of the stories in the book. The only way to stop the ghost is to unravel the mystery surrounding her death.

Øvredal delivers one or two nicely realised creepy creatures along the way (the monsters apparently faithful to the illustrations in Schwartz's books), but the pace is slow, the when the kids investigate the history of the ghost, the film grinds to a halt (which is around the point that my friend dozed off). The whole 'unravelling of the past to put a spirit to rest' idea is as old as the hills, and the film even includes that oft-told urban legend about the girl who has baby spiders burst out of her face (as already seen in 1987 horror The Believers and Urban Legends: Bloody Mary from 2005).

4/10. The anthology format I expected might have worked better.

Good scare and nostalgic feel

[sleeping_beauty · 7/10 · 15 August 2019]

If you have read the books you will find the hidden Easter eggs, it makes me more fun. There were some artistic liberties taken on a couple stories but it doesn't destroy the original life that it has. I would love for more to be made as their are plenty of other stories to tell, especially if you include the green ribbon from the dark dark room book.

It's Forgettable

[mistakenlymade1 · 4/10 · 1 October 2019]

The movie has it's scares, the plot is a bit messy at some point's. After the movie, when I went to try and make conversation about it, I forgot what I had just watched. The movie is good if you're looking for some really corny popcorn flick, and maybe have a few laughs. I was just disappointed, I guess I had expected too much from a film that at the time I didn't realize was PG-13, it was a Guillermo Del Toro film. The same director who had directed Shape of Water (2017) which had won several nominations. Hellboy (2004), Pan's Labyrinth (2006), Hellboy: The Golden Army (2008), and Pacific Rim (2013) So many great movies from such an amazingly unique director! Even though I was disappointed for how easily forgettable the movie could be, it had very little CGI, only 10% of CGI was used for the monster's while the majority 90% was practical effects, so good job for the special effects team. That's the only compliment I can really give this film.

I did not expect any of that

[Mr-Ghosty · 9/10 · 21 August 2020]

This movie was surprisingly spooky and creepy. Sure there were some simple goofs but overall the story moved at a good pace. My husband and I grew up reading the books and were excited to see how they were going to make all those short stories into an actual movie and we were not dissapointed. I love horror films and I thought this movie was going to be some kiddie spooky movie but my husband said he just might have nightmares from watching it late at night.

Not bad... but not good

[aliceforgotten · 7/10 · 19 August 2019]

This movie looked so good to me but honestly let me down. Yes it had a good story and good directing. But it felt like the whole thing could have truly been something terrifying. The shock value could have been so much better but it was too toned down in my opinion. But minus the non scary "jump scares", the acting was great and well played out. But then the ending honestly felt really dumb.

Misses the mark

[clk264-649-716463 · 4/10 · 14 November 2019]

I grew up reading "scary stories to tell in the dark," and I was really excited whenever it was announced to be made into a movie. The movie itself, is a subpar horror film; a really weak plot and weaker dialogue glued together with really cool monsters. Considering most the people who watch this movie are mainly going to see this for the monsters, the filmmakers really did put their money where it should've gone, so, I gave them four out of 10 stars for it. I would say catch this on Netflix whenever you're bored and really don't feel like paying attention to a movie.

Good for beginners... boring for pro's

[tydoobyreid · 7/10 · 20 October 2021]

I watched this film because it was October and I couldn't fall asleep. I remember watching the previews when I was younger and being terrified.

I am not an average horror movie watcher, and so October is always fun for me to basically piss my own pants and torture myself

Although, this movie (since I'm an adult) was not too scary for me. A couple parts here and there would make my heart race a little faster, but this movie was more of a chills down your spine style thriller

All in all, if you are not a horror movie-goer, this film will definitely give you a good time

If you watch horror quite a bit, the movie is probably not for you

Mediocre acting and a couple awful visual effects brings it to a rough C- (7/10)