'Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark' is definitely a horror movie for kids. That's what makes it so terrifying
If the PG-13 rating didn't clue you in, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is true to its literary origins in the sense that it's most definitely a horror movie for kids, without the kind of fear factor found in adult horror films.
For adults—and probably kids too—the ghouls in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark were too ridiculous-looking to take seriously. The Pale Lady looks like a jacked-up Teletubby in a bad wig; her belly is heavy and she carries a wide, thin smile. I kept waiting for her to catch sight of herself in the mirror and chuckle. The Jangly Man is a stretched-out humanoid with green skin who can disassemble his body and put it back together again at will.
Ramon Morales is a draft dodger, unable to shake the memory of his brother's body being shipped back in pieces from the Vietnam War. The Jangly Man relentlessly chases Ramon, representing the looming threat of armed service and loss of limb and life. And then, Chuck's fatphobia—a very real, albeit problematic fear in our weight-obsessed culture—caught up with him when he was hugged into oblivion by the Pale Lady.
The terrors of the other teenagers were a little more abstract but still strong enough to spawn terrible fates for them both. Auggie was afraid to believe any of the crazy stories being told by his friends or the haunted book. Instead, he was forced to literally internalize it when he ate that zombie's toe.
Perhaps the overarching theme of the film is the way that this average American town was itself driven by fear, which is why the legend of Sarah Bellows was able to thrive for all of those years. The small town was rocked by the corruption of the entire Bellows family. Mercury from the Bellows' mill got into the water supply and poisoned several children. Sarah had threatened to reveal the family secret so they locked her away in a basement and then a psychiatric ward.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
'Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark': Film ReviewGuillermo del Toro came up with the screen story for this lackluster adaptation of Alvin Schwartz's popular children's horror books.
Read more »
Film Review: ‘Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark’If you were a kid growing up in the ’80s or ’90s who read Alvin Schwartz’ 1981 spook-tale collection “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” (or its two sequels, published in 19…
Read more »
‘Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark’ Review: Macabre 101 for KidsScaryStoriesMovie turns the popular '80s YA anthologies into a gleefully ghoulish Horror 101 primer. Take the kids! Our review
Read more »