‘Scary Stories’ targets a neglected audience

Posted on August 23, 2019

By MARK VIOLA

It wasn’t until I was talking with some people about the new film, “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,” based on the horror anthology books targeted at teens, that I remembered just how many horror books I read as a kid. For somebody who is not a fan of horror movies, it came as a bit of a surprise. Also surprising is the fact that I have no recollection of the “Scary Stories” books, which were written in the 1980s and early 90s, but seem to have been more popular with people growing up in the 2000s than my generation.

I was mostly interested in the film adaptation because it was produced by Guillermo Del Toro (“The Shape of Water,” “Pan’s Labyrinth”), who also developed the film’s story. The adaptation creates a central plot to tie together the books’ otherwise unconnected short stories designed, as the title would suggest, to tell your friends in the dark.

Like the books it is based on, the movie feels like it is a bridge between the more light-hearted young adult horror stories and the more adult films that younger teens might not yet be ready for. The tone isn’t always stable, ranging from downright disturbing to borderline comical, but I felt the film does a good job setting up the framework , although the pattern does begin to feel a little too familiar by the end.

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