I just knew that this movie is kind of an adaptation from its book version which contains numerous short stories. Basically this movie tells the origin of the book which features some of the short stories and the author itself, in this case isn’t Alvin Schwartz but Sarah as the owner of the book.
Celebrating Halloween, Stella, Auggie, and Chuck were chased by Tommy after the gang tricked him. Luckily they were helped by Ramon in a drive-in cinema. To spend the night Stella invited Ramon and his two friends to visit the abandoned Bellows’ house. They were talking about the known story about Sarah, the family’s daughter who is believed to be locked up there and caused the death or missing people case in the neighbourhood. Suddenly Tommy and Ruth – his girlfriend and Chuck’s sister – chased the gang again then locked them and Ruth at the house. However they’re unlocked by an unknown spirit and Stella took Sarah’s story book and inadvertently asked Sarah to tell a story to her. At her home, while reading the book, Stella found the book was writing a new story itself and the written story became real. Stella has to find a way to stop the book writing more stories which make her friends suffer and disappear.
The book version of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (later shorten as “Scary Stories”) literally contains scary stories for children. The stories let children feel and imagine the unique horror situation by themselves. For example, what if a toe appears on your dinner soup and then the creature who owns the toe want to take it back? The horror ideas offered by the book (as by the movie too) seem fresh and original. Therefore the horror aspects (such as its jumpscares) presented in this movie is very different from what we used to see at The Conjuring Universe or Insidious film series for example. And the scary creatures featured here are only scary for children, not adults. Thus this movie isn’t for those who are looking for a really terrifying horror movie. To find out what kind of horror movie Scary Stories would be, just imagine it as Goosebumps with more deadly stories.
The movie started with common stupid premise, a group of child went to a haunted house and brought sacred suff from inside. However, the story is seem developed in a right track, makes us can enjoy the children’s adventure until the end. Here Stella could aware that Sarah’s book could write a new story itself and affect people around her. Thought that she is in danger, Stella still didn’t act stupidly, she even tried to return the scary stories book to its origin. The oddity of the book brought Stella and her friends to find out how Sarah’s spirit makes the story become real and explore Bellows family’s past which later reveal what really happened to Sarah. Story can be hurt, that phrase from the start of the movie is the hint to it. Being told alternately with stories which aimed at Stella’s friends, Bellows’ investigation plot is presented quite clear in no hurry. Even though Stella and some of her friends are not skeptical with what the stories done to the missing people around her, some skeptical characters still exist though, and it’s necessary to develop the horror plot.
In the end we finally know the mystery of Bellows family. However the drama part of Scary Stories still left an incomplete plot regarding Stella’s background. Stella is described as a lonely girl who likes to write horror story, that’s why she dared to take Sarah’s book. In her house, Stella feels guilty, thinks that she is the reason why her mother went away. The dad – daughter relation between Stella and her father didn’t explored enough, it’s unclear how her father thinks about her. In addition, the movie never gave the hint about why did her mother go. I thought the disappearance of her mother is related to the missing people cases in the town, but finally I didn’t think so. And as a minor spoiler, in the end Stella claimed that she could bring her disappeared friends with the book. However the movie didn’t show the hint to make it nor the effort from Stella regarding it.
In short, this movie came as a horror movie which could be enjoyed with children. The plot of the movies also enjoyable to follow. As a score, I would give 7.5 of 10 points to Scary Stories.
Notes of Hobbies 