Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark ★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2

The elements of danger adds to the suspense of these stories over the course of the film. The creatures that appeared onscreen were absolutely terrifying and just sitting there watching them was creepy in and of itself. What this movie does fairly well is tell these stories in a parabolic way by keeping the theme of “teaching lessons” to children similar to the nature of the book; racism, draft dodging, bullying, etc…. The use of threading these short stories around a cohesive narrative turns this into a “quest” movie with the main characters. I think it was pretty well executed. The writing was engaging and effective. Downsides- most of the jump scares were predictable but there were like TWO that really got me. This film is definitely worth a watch.

Reviewed by Jonny Summers. Full review on FHC 137