Film Review: Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark Makes Rage A Dark Magic
Rage is a dark magic. I never thought of that. Yet, as you see Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark, and watch its villain mercilessly terrorize and kill a group of teens, you realize unhealed anger is fatal. In killing your spirit, you, literally, can make yourself feel justified to kill others. Imagine that! Being so enraged, you support a child being locked upon a woman in need being battered. It’s madness, but so is pain. In a time when hate is on a deadly rise, the new film directed by André Øvredal and written by Guillermo Del Toro is fun, scary, and deeply relevant.
Stories hurt. Stories heal. Tell them enough times, and they become real. These lines are repeated throughout the film as a gang of teenagers try to figure out what happened to “the monster” or rather Sarah Bellows. Entering a haunted house, which is the first, basic “no no” of any classic horror film are Stella (Zoe Margaret Colletti), Ramón (Michael Garza), Auggie(Gabriel Rush), Ruth (Natalie Ganzhorn), and the hilarious Chuck (Austin Zajur). They are the “nerds” or outcasts of their school; being chased by the quintessential, cruel jock Tommy (Austin Abrams). Of course, knowing the myth of this haunted house, they try to stir spirits, and the results are terrifying, catastrophic, and, at times, kind of funny.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Trailer #1 (2019) | Movieclips Trailers
The film’s thrills come with an idea of “due justice.” Taking Sarah’s book of haunted tales, each character must confront an old fear, of which del Toro’s script has no qualms getting humorously deadly. In a press junket, Del Toro said a point in his films is that bad things happen to young people. In most films/ the world, we treat youth like they are invincible and forever fresh. Yet, now more than ever, we know they get hurt or, worse, killed. In this sense, Øvredal beautifully directs and envisions the humanity of being young, and how the “loss of innocence” stems from having our youthful promise turn to adult regret. For this, the cast is absolutely amazing; adding layers and love to their characters, which makes you want to protect them.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Trailer | ‘Season of the Witch’ | Movieclips Trailers
I laughed, cringed, and cried during Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark. Based on the books by Alvin Schwartz, I was ready to have frights. Yet, there is such a rich poignancy to this film. Its fears, literally, derive from a character, Sarah, that was tortured in life by her own family; only to watch her name, as a ghost, be transformed into terrifying. So often, in history, is the “savage” treated as deserving of the civilized’s abuse. While Stella and co. try to uncover the truth, facing visually eclectic and horrifying monsters, Sarah’s story really scared because it felt real. Society can make a good person appear bad and a bad person appear good; such propaganda deriving on money and looks rather than morals. Yet, how, as a good person, do you keep your heart from being lost while living through tragedies that take your mind?
Again, Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark is riveting. Its’ teenage cast has such a bright future, and Colletti’s Stella and Garza’s Ramón are heroes with heart. Each sharing their own background of sad, life tales, they prove you have to be strong to not get lost in your rightful rage. Hence, I would TOTALLY see them in a sequel. Lord knows, Schwartz wrote a lot of material! Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark comes out on August 9.
