Review of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019) by Davrosdaleks1 — 13 Aug 2019

I found this adaptation of the popular children's book trilogy to be one of those films that has great scares with an okay plot.

Director André Øvredal (who directed the excellent The Autopsy of Jane Doe) really knows how to bring on the scares. For those worried that the violence and gruesomeness is going to be watered down because this is from children's books, be rest assured that Øvredal manages to push the PG-13 rating pretty far. The movie does a great job with the atmosphere when the scares kick in. The characters are attacked by several stories come to life, and each one is accompanied by an unrelenting sense of doom.

The ghosts and monsters in this are heavily based on the original, iconic, and freaky illustrations by Stephen Gammell, which, let's be honest, are as much as responsible for the books' fame as the stories. They look great. They also rely on practical effects when... well... practical. I found the Pale Lady segment to be one of the best scares of the year. Only draw back is that the final foe, though still creepy, doesn't quite compare to the ones before it.

The plot is okay, just okay. The opening suffers from trying to both fit in the exposition and getting to the scares too quickly. The revelation of what causes all the evil to occur felt undercooked. On the plus side, there are a few clever lines in this.

Acting is mostly just okay. The weaker points are Tommy the bully (Austin Abrams) who even by movie terms is too over-the-top and Natalie Ganzhorn as Ruth, one of the teens, who just doesn't gel. In fairness to the actress, I don't know if the director and the screenwriters really had a grip on the character either.

Once again, I want to clarify that the plot isn't bad, just not great. I recommend this for the scares, which by themselves would've had this rated a little higher.