I remember sitting curled on my Nana’s couch reading Scary Stories to Tell In The Dark as a kid. Specifically I remember being both terrified and mesmerized by the ghoulishly clever and morbid stories that, for a kid’s book, pushed the envelope right off the desk into a fiery pit of nightmarish hell. I’m not exaggerating, if you want to compare to the other “horror” books for the YA set during that time, RL Stine’s Goosebumps series, Scary Stories was the Leatherface to RL Stine’s Gremlins. The stories were imaginative, macabre, and dark but what really set this series apart were the ghastly pencil drawings that accompanied each story. Never fully drawn to the point that they had a ghostly quality, the images usually depicted that stories monster or antagonist. Those drawings stayed with you through every word of the following chapter adding a new level to the terror on the page. THIS was the goal, I’d imagine, for adapting these to film and THIS is exactly why I was so giddy to learn that Guillermo Del Toro was brought on-board.
The trailer below not only qualms any fears I had about the movie not translating but then added a whole new level of fears from the content. The only issue I can see with this movie is who is this for? It’s going to be perceived as too “Childish” for horror fans yet it’s going to be far too terrifying for the 6-13 crowd I’d imagine.
Check out the trailer below and let us know what you think!
