Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

Review #1260: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

Cast: 
Zoe Margaret Colletti (Stella Nicholls), Michael Garza (Ramón Morales), Gabriel Rush (Auggie Hilderbrandt), Dean Norris (Roy Nicholls), Gil Bellows (Chief Turner), Lorraine Toussaint (Lou Lou), Austin Zajur (Chuck Steinberg), Natalie Ganzhorn (Ruth), Austin Abrams (Tommy), and Kathleen Pollard (Sarah Bellows) Directed by André Øvredal.

Review: 
Horror can certainly be affecting for its audience, whether young or old. If anyone can speak to being scared, children certainly have plenty of stories to tell, even after they grow up. This is a film adaptation of the story collection of the same name (consisting of three short books that contained 25 stories each released from 1981 to 1991) that was written by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by Stephen Gammell. I have a vague memory of checking out one of the books as a child, with one certain story lingering through involving a hook. One notable contributor to the film is Guillermo del Toro, who helped produced and co-write the story for the film, which has a modest budget of $25 million and a group of young leads that headline a film taking elements from the books into one cohesive narrative (as opposed to an anthology film). The final result is a decent movie, having a few scares that will work for its target audience of folks looking for some scares whether they know about these familiar monsters or not. Within its main group of castmates, there certainly isn't a weak link among the kids when it needs to focus on moments besides being scared; Colletti carries the film with charm and resourcefulness that makes her well to follow along with right from the get-go. Garza does just fine with following along without becoming too much of a quiet outlier to the film's detriment. Rush and Zajur contribute to a laugh or two as the other cogs in the film's young core (which also features brief moments for Toussaint and Abrams, albeit in the first half) that play just okay. On the whole, while the film doesn't have enough characters to really make for the possibility of a substantial bodycount, at least one does find themselves having a little investment into where the film will go without just waiting for a monster to show up. Of the ones that do appear, I would say that the Jangly Man is probably the most creepy, although there isn't a weak link in the weird bunch. The 1968 setting was a bit of a surprise, but at least it does utilize it to make a few timely scenes stick out just well without just seeming pointless. The narrative that is built around these monsters (and the stories that they come from) is decent, built on safe foundations without bordering on too many cliches to make things less than compelling, where the chills don't become withheld because of weak storytelling. It does set up some bait for the possibility of further tales, and I find that to be something I can look forward to without much hesitation. Whether accompanied with loyal friends or not, this will prove worthy for a look.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.