7/10
Starring
Zoe Colletti
Michael Garza
Gabriel Rush
Austin Zajur
Directed by André Øvredal
I’m not a fan of horror movies because death doesn’t seem to be a form of thrill to me. But Guillermo del Toro is a masterful story teller and when his name is attached to a project, I can be rest assured that it will be a fun ride. This movie was a great ride, fun, engaging and the plot was well written and easy to follow.
It did not waste valuable time like the many horror movies leaving behind loose ends so as to refer to it later, all in the name of suspense. It was so written that it seems like many things are happening at the same time at all corners, but there is a string that just holds it all together and that is the actors (many thumbs up to the writers and director too). They were able to deliver their roles in ways that made it easy to keep up and not get lost.
This horror movie is based on a set of children’s books named Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz. The books are filled with more than eighty short horror stories and this movie kind of adds an origin to where the stories come from.
Here in this movie (as I have not read the book) the story follows the life of a young girl and her friends, the girl’s name is Stella.
Stella has a sad past as her mother left when she was young leaving her alone with her dad. Stella was mocked and picked on by the school kids and the school bully Tommy was the chief of it all.
Stella has two friends who have always stood by her, Auggie and Chuck – these three live in a town which has its own dark past. Some many years ago in a home belonging to the Bellows, a young lady Sarah was said to have died there. The story is that Sarah hung herself and killed children. The home of the Bellows where Sarah lived is now tagged a haunted house for the locals.
In the present day, in the 1960s, the three friends were plotting a comeback at the chief bully Tommy. The plot was simple, they knew he would drive pass a road and snatch candy from kids so they stood waiting with a bag stretched out, he snatched it and found a stinky surprise waiting for him. The three were not done, they egged the car and almost ruined Tommy’s junk in his pants.
Angry Tommy chased the three who end up in the car of a young man named Ramon. He told Tommy off and the three took him with them to the haunted house to just chill out.
Tommy who was tailing them locks them in the house. While the men were trying to get out, Stella notices a book, she sees it belongs to Sarah Bellows and she takes it reading the stories within.
The door of the house mysteriously opens and the lot went to their homes.
When Stella was at home, she was flipping through the book when she notices a fresh story whose ink had not dried. It told a tale of how Tommy was going to die. The next day Tommy was missing. She tells the others, but they did not believe her until the next tale was about Auggie. This time the writing was being done right in front of her and Ramon.
Auggie goes missing and this time the remaining three Stella, Chuck and Ramon decided to investigate the life of Sarah and see what really happened to her so they can stop another one of them vanishing or getting hurt.
Here is a great movie, and one you will enjoy very much when you take the time to see it.
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