There are few horror franchises capable of appealing to my nostalgia more than Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Granted, I haven’t read the books since the 1990s, but they were among my favorites as a child. Truth be told, they served as a jumping point for generating my interest in the horror genre, urban myths and the macabre in general.
For those unfamiliar, the series was made up of anthology-style books that were the closest thing you’d get to putting H.P. Lovecraft into the hands of children. In fact, my friends and I remain amazed at how youngsters were given the green light to read such spooky material to this day – and we were the generation that’d been treated to the original, more graphic artwork that’s since been replaced.
Now that it’s been adapted to a major motion picture, we’re thrilled to present an official synopsis hot on the heels of those terrifying teasers that dropped yesterday:
“A group of young teens must solve the mystery surrounding sudden and macabre deaths in their small town.
“It’s l968 in America. Change is blowing in the wind…but seemingly far removed from the unrest in the cities is the small town of Mill Valley where for generations, the shadow of the Bellows family has loomed large. It is in their mansion on the edge of town that Sarah, a young girl with horrible secrets, turned her tortured life into a series of scary stories, written in a book that has transcended time—stories that have a way of becoming all too real for a group of teenagers who discover Sarah’s terrifying tome.”
Of course, knowing that Guillermo Del Toro produced this bad boy and co-wrote the screenplay is probably the last added incentive needed for those on the fence. In fact, I imagine folks who also love horror gaming may leave the theater further contemplating what it’d been like if Silent Hills had seen the light of day.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark arrives in cinemas on August 9th. As always, it’s recommended that you keep watching this space because there’ll likely be much more to share before opening weekend.
