‘Nightbooks’ is a suitably creepy horror thriller for young adults

Posted on September 24, 2021

By MARK VIOLA

Horror films for younger audiences don’t come around that often, and usually when they do, they’re more silly than scary. Finding the right balance between telling a genuinely terrifying story and understanding that parents don’t want their kids waking up with nightmares is a tough challenge.

Reviewing such a movie isn’t all that easy either, because every kid is different, and the same film might induce yawns from one and screams from another. So, as a 40-year-old childless adult, I’m going to do my best in reviewing the new Netflix offering, “Nightbooks.”

Based on the book by J.A. White and directed by David Yarovesky (“Brightburn”), this movie wasn’t all that scary, although it does a good job of making the audience believe there’s at least a decent chance that it could have an unhappy ending for our heroes. That keeps the stakes high, and while there is a bit of slapstick humor here and there to diffuse the tension, there is a solid layer of dread throughout most of the story, even if there aren’t too many in-your-face scares.

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