Movie Review--Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark

"Sarah Bellows, tell me a story."
--Stella Nicholls, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark


Essentially a PG-13 take on an It-style story, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark manages to maintain its unusually mild rating (for a horror movie) while showcasing some of the more bizarre imagery to appear in recent films.  It easily surpasses many other horror efforts this year (some of the biggest standouts being Us and Child's Play) even without featuring the same level of onscreen violence.  Potential sequels could certainly improve upon some elements, but there is much to appreciate in the film.


Production Values

Although some scenes feature CGI that is somewhat obvious, the majority of the effects blend together competently.  The practical effects, in particular, are refreshingly well-utilized.  There are actually long stretches of time without any need for special effects, though, as the task of carrying the movie falls on the story and characters--and both components are largely successful.

For the most part, the potential for fright (whether a person is actually frightened by something is purely subjective, but it is a horror movie) is derived from the atmosphere and the appearances of certain monstrous beings rather than from relentless jump scares.  The fact that the titular stories are created each day (see the story section below) provides a natural reason for urgency, and the key performers react to the situational urgency appropriately.

While the characters themselves could have been explored more, many of them have some fitting standout moments and several even provide fairly significant revelations about their backgrounds.  At their worst, they are still more developed than the characters in other recent horror films like Annabelle Comes Home.  The performances keep the characters afloat even during the slower scenes.


Story

Some spoilers are in the paragraph below (though I do not mention anything more than the basic outline of the first third of the movie!

On a Halloween night, three friends and a new acquaintance explore the abandoned house of the Bellows family, the first family to move to the area, which has since become a healthy town.  Stella, a member of the trio of friends, acts out part of a local legend by asking the supposed ghost of Sarah Bellows (the family's allegedly deformed or insane daughter) to tell her a story.  She finds Sarah's book of stories, takes it home with her, and soon notices that new stories are being added by some unseen force on a daily basis.  More disturbingly, the stories appear to be predictions of the deaths of everyone who ventured into the Bellows' house.


Intellectual Content

As with many other movies, the philosophical ramifications of the events in the film are glossed over.  However, themes emphasizing the role of stories in human life and the personal nature of horror are integrated into the movie in a way that is sufficient when it comes to upholding the story.  There is certainly enough substance for a sequel to become more explicitly philosophical as long as it handles the material correctly.


Conclusion

Though it is already enjoying acclaim due to its technical competence, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark might prove successful for another reason: it is the type of film that might appeal not only to horror veterans, but also to older children or young adults who aren't willing or ready to watch the more mainstream horror movies.  It has the potential to interest younger viewers--and could serve as an ideal "gateway movie" that gets them excited about the genre as a whole.  The PG-13 rating limits the extent of the onscreen brutality, but the movie is still more intense than many R-rated films in some ways.  Anyone who wants to try out the genre without subjecting themselves to gore should find the movie able to fit their needs.


Content:
 1.  Violence:  A boy is impaled with a pitchfork in one scene.  Another scene shows spiders emerge from a hole in a young woman's cheek.  While no explicit gore is shown, some of the images might be fairly disturbing to viewers who aren't used to horror.
 2.  Profanity:  "Shit" and "damnit" are used several times each.