Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
On Halloween 1968, reclusive Stella and her two friends meet a mysterious drifter, Ramón, and uncover a sinister notebook of stories.
Cast
Zoe Colletti – Stella
Gabriel Rush – Auggie
Michael Garza – Ramón Morales
Austin Zajur – Chuck
Natalie Ganzhorn – Ruth
There’s something vastly different about Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. This lands in your lap like a fresh pair of shoes; different design / layout, space to work with, a brand new feeling. The movie is split into a number of different stories which fit together nicely and bring it to a dream-like finale. And in each one a character experiences something terrifying or darkly tragic, but overall it is truly bizarre. An example is when a character is stabbed with a garden implement but instead of blood / organs splatting everywhere, straw comes out. As though a bag of horse bedding was just impaled. The surreal atmosphere created by this movie is beyond description, you just have to embrace it for yourself.
The sub-plot used as a base for the stories is filmed like an old-fashioned horror movie, and the young cast deliver such powerful performances that the genre is split between fantasy and drama. And in parts it’s actually quite sad when the history of Sarah Bellows is examined. Think Goosebumps (2015) performed by the cast of Les Misérables: a strange example but you get my point. Stella (played by Zoe Colletti) is surprisingly captivating; when the movie started I assumed she would be just any other annoying female nerd. And yet the actress channels such a passionate energy into her role that she becomes the pillar of the entire movie, taking the viewer on a dark journey as she becomes the narrator of it.
Stories within a story within a story make this movie a good little watch.
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