The Latest from the Mind of Producer Guillermo del Toro!

Kaleidoscope's latest is on Warner Bros. & New Line Cinema's production of "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark".  Directed by Andre Ovredal, the movie stars Zoe Margaret Colletti, Austin Zajur, Michael Garza, Gabriel Rush, Austin Abrams, Dean Norris, & Gil Bellows.  Rated 'PG-13', it has a running time of 1 hr., 51 min.

The setting is Halloween night, 1968, in the town of Mill Valley, PA.  3 teenagers--Auggie (Rush), Chuck (Zajur). & scary-story obsessed Stella (Colletti)--decide to play a prank on the local bully, Tommy (Abrams).  After setting the prank, the 3 set about evading Tommy with the help of a teenage drifter who has entered town, Ramon (Garza).  On the run, the 4 come upon the Bellows house, a home once owned by the family that developed Mill Valley.  Now, it is considered the town's haunted house.  Since it is Halloween & with Stella's writing of her own scary stories, the quartet enter.  Inside, they find a secret room & a book of scary stories that belonged to Sarah Bellows; ominously, her visage has been removed from all the family photos in the house. Tommy finally locates them & locks them inside the room that they occupy.  After they scream for awhile to be released, Tommy departs the house.  Soon, an unseen presence releases them.  The next scene depicts Stella in her house with Sarah's scary stories book.  As Stella peruses the stories & comes to the last one, she notices that a new story is mysteriously being written in blood in the book; portentously, the main character is bully Tommy.  Act I ends here as the tensions & stories increase in the final 2 acts.

This is Ovredal's 1st major film effort, & his reliance on tropes used by other directors such as Carpenter, Craven, Shyamalan, & del Toro is evident throughout.  Additionally & more relevantly, he seems to have been inspired by the Blumhouse "Insidious" & "Sinister" franchises.  Not that that is necessarily a bad thing; there is just nothing new here.  Throughout the scenes, this reviewer kept referencing the previously mentioned auteurs & films:  group of teens, check; type of haunted house, check; Book of Secrets/Stories, check; etc.  Yes, these tropes are used throughout films of this genre; however, Ovredal adds no new and/or interesting touches or nuances to them; hence, the result is an average 'scary' film with a touch of del Toro-inspired creatures.  The screenplay by Dan & Kevin Hageman and del Toro, based on the book by Alvin Schwartz, relies on the same written analogies as Ovredal relied on for his visuals:  been there, done that, with little to no originality.  The main positive to the script is that the writers kept it 'PG-13' so that young people may see the film.  The five young actors perform with genre capability.  Although Colletti is the main character, her emoting is on a generally bland level.  The one standout is Zajur as Chuck; he is the opposite of bland here.  One believes the terror that he feels & expresses.  This reviewer looks forward to his next effort.  Cinematographer Roman Osin creates a palpable level of tension throughout with his creative use of shadows, light, & darkness.  Marco Beltrami's & Anna Drubich's atmospheric score creates several levels of moodiness & foreboding.  The creepiness generated by the film is due more to this trio's efforts than to the directorial & script's endeavors. 

I give "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" 7 out of 10 nuggets.  This is an average 'scary' film that belies the del Toro imprimatur.  If one does not see this film with the expectation of a Guillermo del Toro standard, he or she may have a better experience.  Head to your local cineplex at your discretion.