Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Inspired by Alvin Schwartz’s trilogy of books, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark follows a group of teens (including Zoe Margaret Colletti’s Mia and Michael Garza’s Ramón) as they discover a mysterious old book and subsequently find themselves individually pursued by its ghostly owner. It’s a pretty nifty concept that is, at the outset, employed to impressively compelling effect by director André Øvredal, as the filmmaker, working from Dan Hageman and Kevin Hageman’s screenplay, does a solid job of initially establishing the various characters and the appealingly small town in which they reside – with the watchable atmosphere heightened by the strength of the first few horror-forward tales (ie they’re surprisingly tense and creepy). It’s disappointing to note, then, that Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark grows less and less interesting as it progresses, as the movie suffers from an increasingly tedious second half that’s focused almost entirely around the protagonists’ investigation into their pursuer’s tragic past – with the egregious familiarity of this stuff paving the way for a climactic stretch that couldn’t possibly be less compelling. The picture’s disastrous, downward trajectory is especially disappointing given the effectiveness of its early goings, and it is clear, ultimately, that Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark would’ve been better off had it been structured as a traditional horror anthology.

** out of ****

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