Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)

phancy.com - horror reviews - MOH 2019

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

IMDb Info

Release Year: 2019
Runtime: 1h 48min
Country: USA, Canada, Mexico
Language: English
Genre Tags: Adventure, Horror, Mystery
Plot Summary: On Halloween 1968, Stella and her two friends meet a mysterious drifter, Ramón, and uncover a sinister notebook of stories.

Poster - Title Card

phancy.com rating:

phancy.com notes:

Outside Reviews:

Tomris Laffly
3 out of 4 stars - rogerebert.com

Group of misfit kids on a mission? Check. Period nostalgia (that's not the overdone '80s of “Stranger Things” and “IT”)? Check. Small-town Americana that delightfully rhymes with “Hill Valley”? Check. Halloween? Haunted house? Possessed object? Check check check. That’s certainly enough familiar ingredients to make a foolproof pot of genre stew. And thanks to Øvredal’s visual flair and visceral dedication to the monsters of Guillermo del Toro (among the team of writers and producers here), clearly a major influence on the “Trollhunter” director’s bittersweet approach to the field, this satisfying though far from innovative dish boasts comforting flavors throughout.

A.A. Dowd
Grade: B - Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark could scare kids as much as the books scared their parents

Still, in its blurring of demographic lines (who is this movie for, really?), Scary Stories does manage to put its own spin on the parent-incensing spirit of the original. It’s the rare horror movie that feels both “suitable” for adolescents and determined to really scare the living shit out of them—to give them the kind of jolts of fear most “movies for children” over-protectively deny them. Plenty of kids may end up feeling like they got away with something here, too.