Out of the summer movies that I saw, Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark is by far the one I enjoyed the most. However, if you have ever read my articles before you would know that I tend to not look at movies so critically. I’m the type of person who likes an ending where it’s “happy” or in other words, I like the one where the good guys win. I am never a fan of the bad guy. This movie is no exception but what I talk about might sound critical.

This movie is based on the book trilogy of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by Stephen Gammel (I got the books because of the pictures). Looking back at the source material, if this movie didn’t have much of a story in it, I wouldn’t be surprised. However, I was! There’s a cohesive plot and a fairly good one for what they had to work with. In case you have never seen or read these books, this trio of anthologies are based on folklore from around the world, such as the Wendigo, a myth from the Algonquian people.

The first thing that I would like to talk about is the score, or the soundtrack of the movie. I thought that the score didn’t in any way affect the movie, I do think that it definitely fit the with the movie’s plot.

The acting was great even though these kids aren’t your typical A list actors. If you go and look at the jobs these kids have had in terms of acting, then you would see that they haven’t acted in much. Even if they did, there are some that you probably don’t know. It made it odd to see them in such a big role, actors do have to start from somewhere if they are going to become major in the acting business.  

 If this were to get a sequel, I would definitely go see it. It seems that this movie has a high chance of getting a sequel looking at its success in the box office. With opening weekend making $20,915,346. The total of money made as of right now is $55,403,411, approximately 25.5% of that being foreign and domestic being approximately 74.5% ($41,278,694). It has made nearly double its budget which is most certainly a good sign that we might be getting a sequel. It appears as though I don’t have anything to talk about that doesn’t pertain to spoilers, which means that if you haven’t watched it please go and see it! This is also the part of the article where it’s more in the realm of complaining about spoilers so you have also been warned.

Let me start this part with the fact that it was indeed, for the most part, the main protagonists, Stella’s fault that her friends went missing and people either got hurt or died. Had she listened to her friend Chuck after he told her not to read the book aloud, none of this movie would have happened. I get that they needed a catalyst of some sort to get the movie going but couldn’t they have figured something else out. I can’t be all that harsh here though because this is something horror movies have a tendency to do. If we are all being honest here anyways; while some people wouldn’t have done this do to the history surrounding the book, there are also people who would have thought in a logical manner and opened it, thinking none of it could ever be possible. 

However, if I’m being technical, then in either sense it’d be right. The mercury in the water is the thing that killed the children, not Sarah Bellows. Sarah’s stories only truly harmed people after she was dead, unlike when she was living and they were accusing her of killing children. I still can’t blame Stella either for the whole thing, as part of it was definitely do to with  Sarah. I don’t think that Sarah had any justification for what she did. I get that she was angry and wanted people to know the truth about her, which is fair. Still I think that she didn’t have any right harming any of those people, as to their knowledge they did nothing wrong. I think she needs to calm down. I would say she needs to chill but she’s already a ghost so that would be a little inconsiderate.

I think that the end was pretty good, especially when compared to the recent horror movies I saw. I thought that the ending was acceptable, and while it left room for a sequel, the story was good enough to be a stand-alone film. At least the ending wasn’t as horrible as Pet Sematary!

I would say that I give the movie a total of 8 out of 10 stars. I wouldn’t say that I loved it, but I definitely didn’t expect it to be what it was or I would like it as much as I did. All in all, I found the movie to be quite enjoyable and wouldn’t mind seeing it again. 

If you read this all the way without watching the movie first or you were my poor editor, then you definitely should go and try watching it. I hope that you enjoyed this and I hope to improve and get back in the groove soon!