The Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark trilogy was one of my favorite collections of horror growing up and as I’ve gotten older, my appreciation has only grown. After seeing what became of Goosebumps (2015) , I was dreading this movie but after the trailers I was pretty excited to see these stories that haunted me as a child come to life.
Stella and her friends are normal kids growing up in the late 60’s, celebrating there last Halloween as kids. While running from a group of bullies, they meet a dude at a drive in they befriend and go off to investigate the town’s resident haunted house. Inside the house they find a sinister looking book that tells horrific stories that come to life, and they are the victims. Can Stella and her friends solve the mystery of the book before it claims there lives for it’s scary stories?
First things first, I have to give huge props to the effects team for bringing the book’s iconic pictures to life in pretty awesome and freaky ways. The setpieces are really well designed and there are some creepy ass scenes. The characters are solid and likable enough to carry what would be a generic enough story. There are some jump scares but only one that’s truly cheap without a payoff. There are a few pacing issues I had and I wish we had a bit more of the source material on screen than we got. In the end, Scary Stories is a surprisingly solid horror movie I’d recommend checking out. May the gaming gods bring you glory.
Savior Gaming 