On Halloween Night 1968, four kids escape a vindictive bully by taking refuge in a spooky old home. As they cower, they discover a half completed book of scary stories. As the night goes on it becomes apparent that the stories are becoming real, and the teens must discover the secret of the book before their tale is told.
The influences on the film are plain to see. There’s a dash of Stephen King, sprinkles of The Ring, and more than a little bit of IT. It’s the story of a group of kids trying to solve a frightening mystery, which is very fashionable at the moment. Aesthetically it’s definately a familiar American Halloween tale. But it does have a fun premise of a self-writing, self-fulfilling prophecy book. The horror sections are very assuredly handled. There are long periods of tension as the very effectively designed monsters stalk the kids. Director André Øvredal (of Troll Hunter and The Autopsy of Jane Doe) favours unsettling images over jump scares, for the most part.
The character’s may draw from familiar archetypes but they’ve been realised well by the writers and performers. Zoe Colletti as the lead girl Stella is very compelling. Michael Garza plays a far more interesting male lead than you typically find in ghost stories. Auggie and Chuck provide much of the comedic relief and do so quite naturally. There’s also an excellent performance by Dean Norris as Stella’s heartbroken father. The character’s are all enjoyable and charming enough that it’s a real sorrow to lose them throughout the movies run time. It adds some stakes to the frights.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a little frustrating for how close it get’s to greatness. It nearly ties all of the scary stories into the psychologies of the various characters, but the character’s aren’t quite fleshed out enough. It nearly manages to have more than a superficial connection to it’s time frame and the horror of the Vietnam War. It very nearly has a point to make about the nature of stories and how they stay with us and influence us. Thematically it’s all just a little muddled and unsatisfying. It tries to do too much and doesn’t manage to tie it all together into a cohesive whole.
Scary Stories get’s within a hairs breadth of brilliance, but is ultimately weaker than the sum of it’s parts. The parts, however, are glorious, spooky fun. It’s a nostalgic and deeply frightening ghost story that is a perfect scary movie to watch in the dark.
Four Stars