![]() It's a great example of the thoughtful production design that elevates Scary Stories and makes it feel so immersive. The latter is a horror hound who has aspirations of being a writer, and we soon join her at home only to find that her bedroom wall is plastered with movie posters and mementos from classic genre fare. ![]() It's against this tumultuous landscape that we meet our main cast.Ī young drifter, Ramon Rodriguez (Michael Garza), drives through main street as the heroine, Stella Nichols (Zoe Margaret Colletti), cycles past. Nixon posters defaced with swastikas cover the walls of the recruitment centers where groups of excited young boys sign up for the service. Small town America in 1968 is a place ravaged by the Vietnam War and the divisions it's creating. Beginning with a scene-setting montage soundtracked by “Season of the Witch”, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark pulls no punches when it comes to the political backdrop of the times. Del Toro is credited only as producer here but his love for practical effects and movie monsters shines through in almost every scene, and the work done by the core creative effects team of Mike Elizalde (Hellboy), Mike Hill (The Shape of Water), and Norman Cabrera (Hellboy) provide some of the most exciting ones to hit screens in an age. Luckily, that central story is compelling and well crafted enough that it offers up something new and interesting whilst clearly echoing the classic Amblin family movies that shaped the filmmakers who made it. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark has the stuff to become a perennial re-watch when the frost is on the pumpkin.Adapting anthology retellings of classic folklore tales and urban legends was always going to be a hard task and many fans were wary when the first Scary Stories trailer revealed that the film would follow a singular narrative. At the helm, talented Norwegian director Andre Ovredal keeps a measured, tense pace and uses physical space - including the haunted Bellows house, a cornfield, a creepy hospital, and even a bedroom - to great shocking effect. Oscar-winning filmmaker/monster-maker Guillermo Del Toro - who co-wrote Scary Stories' screenplay with his Trollhunters co-writers Dan and Kevin Hageman - seems to have added the Ramon character as a way to highlight bigotry, which can be just as scary as ghosts. It begins on Halloween night, and then Night of the Living Dead is playing at the drive-in, while Vietnam hovers in the background and Richard Nixon's re-election is right around the corner. (Stella's room is filled with classic horror movie posters and monster magazines, as well as a half-finished tale in her typewriter.) We love hanging out with them, and their ghost chase is as secretly thrilling as it is scary. Set in 1968, the movie conjures up a kind of freedom in which the young heroes have the space and gumption to run about town and do their own thing. Based on a collection of short horror stories from the early 1980s by Alvin Schwartz (with horrific illustrations by Stephen Gammell), which was intended for kids, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark cooks up its own mythology as a way of packaging the books' mini-tales into a cohesive story. ![]() Somewhat similar in mood and tone to It, this hugely entertaining scary story has its own delightfully demonic vibe, with strong characters, striking atmosphere, and furious frights.
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