Directed by André Øvredal, this movie is an adaptation of the “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” books by Alvin Schwartz. This movie is a narrative based horror about a group of teenagers that find a book that writes its own stories and the stories actually come true. They have to find a way to stop the evil spirit writing the stories before they have a story written about themselves.
The acting in the movie leaves a lot to be desired. Zoe Colletti is not the best fit for the main character because she never seems truly scared when something scary happens. She seems like she is acting too much and doesn’t sell her fear. That doesn’t mean all the actors are bad though. Gabriel Rush does an excellent job in showing Auggie’s personality. Austin Zajur, the actor for Chuck, also does a good job in the red room scene with the pale lady. He seems truly scared and it creates a very spooky and stressful scene.
The special effects makeup in this movie was amazing. The scarecrow scene has great special effects and looks absolutely terrifying along with the spider scene. The monsters also looked amazing. The corpse and the pale lady looked terrifying and exactly like the art from the books. The graphic effects on the other hand are not as good. The CGI used on the Jangly Man looks really fake and really takes away from the horror. It was very disappointing to see, especially because it is the climax of the movie.
The horror elements in this movie are good in the first and second act but near the end, it loses momentum. The first scary scene, the scarecrow scene, is the perfect blend of fright and suspense as well as the big toe scene. The scariest part of the whole movie, in my opinion, is the red room scene. It built up the tension for the climax only for the climax to be a massive disappointment. It is the least scary part of the movie. The poor acting mixed with bad CGI gives the movie a very cheap ending. There is also a lot of body horror which makes for some pretty hard to watch scenes. The spider scene, the scene when spiders crawl out of someone’s face, is the worst offender and I had to look away at some parts.
Overall, this movie is alright. It is an interesting way to adapt a bunch of small stories into one big movie and has some good horror elements. There is a lot of body horror in the movie which might be disturbing for some people to watch. The acting and CGI is not the best and takes away from the horror. Because of all of these things I give this movie a 2.5 popcorn buckets out of 5.
