It's 1968, kids are being shipped off to fight in wars around the world. It's a scary time In the United States for other reasons. Like a president who feels his crimes are okay as long as he commits them, gun violence is killing young people, sometimes on college campuses, sometimes in the streets. Protests flicker up as those that we believe could make a stand against tyranny and racism are being silenced.
Sound Familiar?
So what do you get when a haunted book is stolen from a locked house (The "Boo Radley" house in this particular community) that was used by the local Boo Radley to write scary stories in, stories that apparently killed local children sometimes when they listened to their author read them?
What you get is The Book begins to write new stories itself. Stories about the thieves that took it, our sympathetic heroes in this case. And you get an anthology that happens in real time, except the segments are really happening to our characters in short order.
Scary Stories, much like The Gate, is a horror film of the PG-13 variety, but unlike the terrifying Lights Out, can be used to introduce youngsters to horror. But don't get me wrong, there's plenty of creepy and even outright scary moments in this one, so be prepared nonetheless. It's based on a children's book which arose in 1981 and was a collection of takes on folklore retold by Alvin Schwarz with some eerie-ass drawings by Stephen Gammell. Guillermo Del Toro is the producer behind this film, which should surprise no one.
GDT is a guy who hangs on to his memories, his monsters, and brings them to his films, and helps others draw their own pictures as their producer. He is the man behind Andy Muschietti's Mama, and Netflix's Cabinet of Curiosities, which had multiple genre directors telling dark stories. Scary Stories is no different and no failure. I consider this recommended, and especially for this time of year.
As this movie actually opens on a dangerous Halloween night.
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