Guillermo Del Toro’s Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark Is Aging Like Wine

The 2019 Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark film, produced by Guillermo del Toro, brought to life one of the most controversial books of the last 50 years. And it did a solid job doing it, managing to honor OG Scary Stories fans from back in the day while also offering a new gateway to the horror genre for future generations.

Countless ’90s kids can remember being too freaked out to check out Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark from the school library. Yet there were just as many who didn’t even get the chance, because, believe it or not, the short horror anthology ranks among the most banned books of the last several decades.

What the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark movie does best is make a scary, taboo book critical to the story. It’s a tribute to the spooky feeling readers got staying up late at night with one of the Scary Story books as a kid. It’s also a nod to the danger school officials and parents all over the U.S. believed it posed.

The “Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark” Movie Playfully Nods To Its Source Material’s Controversial Status

Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark; Written By Alvin Schwartz; Art By Scott Gammell; First Published In 1981

In book form, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a collection of horror vignettes. A trilogy of Scary Stories books was released starting in 1981; More Scary Stories followed in ’84, and Scary Stories 3 came out in ’91. The American Library Association ranks the first volume as the #1 most “challenged” book of the 1990s. That is, the book most frequently removed from libraries.

The Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark movie, which Guillermo del Toro produced and also received a story credit on, is about a vengeful spirit that uses scary stories, written in blood, to bring monsters to life and attack a group of teens. It’s a hint of meta-commentary that never overpowers the film, but is there as an “if you know, you know” for viewers aware of the book’s history.

This plot makes it more than just a Scary Stories adaptation. The movie becomes an ode to the book’s legacy. Scary Stories, the book, is an anthology, and the movie certainly could’ve gone that route. Instead, it takes a novel swing at binding the stories together, via a “harmful” book.

The “Scary Stories” Book’s Art Made It Truly Terrifying; How Does The Movie Live Up To That Legacy?

Scary Stories, The Movie, Plays With The Franchise’s Iconic Imagery

Within its overarching story, the make-or-break part of the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark movie is how it incorporates stories, and imagery, from the books. The stories in Scary Stories were unsettling, but what really made the book iconic were its illustrations, by artist Scott Gammell. It was the book’s art that truly made it one of the most challenged books of the 1990s and 2000s, and it is the art that ’90s kids’ minds will flash to first when they hear the title.

Scary Stories the movie is at its best when it faithfully brings Gammell’s disturbing horror imagery to life. If there’s one thing to criticize the film about, it is that there isn’t enough Gammell in it. There’s too much air between scares. But when the scares hit, they hit with an accompanying jolt of nostalgia for book readers. And for younger viewers, they are a great gateway to getting frightened for fun.

Make no mistake, Scary Stories is PG-13 horror. The book was meant for Young Adult readers of a similar age, but because it was a collection of urban legends and folk tales, and because it was controversial with some schools, libraries, and parents, Scary Stories the book felt taboo to kids in the ’90s and ’00s. The movie isn’t taboo. But it is good light horror that does its best to capture the spirit of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, the iconic book that introduced horror to a generations of kids.

What do you think, readers? What did the Scary Stories movie get right? What could it have done better?

Created by

Alvin Schwartz

Movie(s)

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark 2

Character(s)

Stella Nicholls, Ramón Rodriguez, August “Auggie” Hilderbrandt, Tommy Milner, The Pale Lady, Jangly Man, Big Toe