2019’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark successfully adapted Alvin Schwartz’ book series into a genuinely spooky movie. Critics and audiences were impressed, with the PG-13 horror going on to make $104 million against a $25 million budget. Then again, with horror legend Guillermo del Toro on story and producing duties, should we really be surprised it delivered the requisite chills?
There are three books in the series, and a sequel adapting the next was quickly confirmed in April 2020. Since then, it’s been all quiet on the project. So, three years on, and with many of the creative team having moved on, is the Scary Stories franchise dead before its time?
Apparently not! IGN spoke to director André Øvredal, whose The Last Voyage of the Demeter arrives in theaters next week, who answered positively when pressed for news on Scary Stories 2:
“We have a story. We have a script. We’ve been working on the script as late as last year and even slightly into this year. The process obviously stopped with the strike — but it’s alive, for sure. COVID and then [The Last Voyage of the Demeter] eating up two years of my life certainly put a dent in the progress.”
It might be some way away, but at least it’s still in the pipeline. In the meantime, The Last Voyage of the Demeter is sounding pretty rad. The story adapts “The Captain’s Log,” a single chapter of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, where the titular ship is tasked with transporting Dracula’s coffin from Transylvania to England, famously arriving as a wreck with no sign of its crew.
Exactly what happened on board remains a mystery, but let’s face it, you don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to theorize what might have happened. We’re very curious how this movie is going to end, as its status as the adaptation of a single chapter midway from Stoker’s novel guarantees Dracula won’t die.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter arrives in port on Aug. 11.