Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)
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The story
On Halloween night in 1968, in the fictional Pennsylvania town of Mill Valley, teenagers Stella, Auggie, and Chuck visit the supposedly haunted home of the Bellows family, accompanied by newcomer Ramón. Inside a secret room, they find a book of horror stories written by Sarah Bellows, the family's daughter. Ostracized for her albinism and accused of witchcraft when the town's children began to die mysteriously, she allegedly committed suicide in 1898. The local bully, Tommy, locks the group inside Sarah's room along with Ruth, Chuck's sister. After Tommy leaves, the lock is mysteriously opened, and Stella takes Sarah's storybook home.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
On Halloween night in 1968, teenagers Stella, Auggie, Chuck, and Ramón explore the haunted Bellows home in Mill Valley, Pennsylvania. They find a book of stories by Sarah Bellows, a woman accused of witchcraft who died in 1898. After being locked in a room, Stella takes the book home, where stories begin to write themselves in blood. The stories manifest as reality: a scarecrow named Harold kills the bully Tommy, and a corpse drags Auggie under a bed. The group discovers the Bellows family was actually poisoned by their own paper mill, and Sarah was framed. They learn Sarah hanged herself in a hospital after being subjected to electroshock therapy by her brother. As the book creates more nightmares—including a spider bite that turns Ruth into a victim and a phantom that absorbs Chuck—the group investigates the truth. Stella eventually enters a dream state to confront Sarah. She writes the truth of Sarah's innocence in blood, causing the monsters to vanish. Stella publishes the truth in the papers, while Ramón prepares to enlist in the war.
- First release year
- 2019
- Runtime (minutes)
- 107
- Production countries
- United States; Canada; Mexico
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- André Øvredal
- Writers
- Dan Hageman · screenplay; Kevin Hageman · screenplay; Guillermo del Toro · story; Patrick Melton · story; Marcus Dunstan · story
- Cast and characters
- Zoe Colletti · Stella Nicholls; Michael Garza · Ramón Morales; Gabriel Rush · August "Auggie" Hilderbrandt; Austin Zajur · Charlie "Chuck" Steinberg; Natalie Ganzhorn · Ruth "Ruthie" Steinberg; Austin Abrams · Tommy Milner; Dean Norris · Roy Nicholls; Gil Bellows · Police Chief Turner; Lorraine Toussaint · Louise "Lou Lou" Baptiste
- Genres
- supernatural horror; monster movies
- Themes
- truth vs. imagination; cultural anxieties; innocence and coming of age
- Tone and mood
- creepy; macabre; vintage; harrowing
- Setting
- Mill Valley, Pennsylvania, 1968
- Premise and plot tags
- supernatural; horror; Halloween; monster; mystery
- Source material / true-story basis
- children's book series by Alvin Schwartz
- Franchise connections
- Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
- Content notes
- horror
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 61 · scale: 100 · review count: 33; CinemaScore · score: C · scale: A+ to F; PostTrak · score: 3 · scale: 5
- Production trivia
- The film features an original score by Marco Beltrami and Anna Drubich.; The studio spent over $20 million promoting the film.; The film was shot in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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