Spooktastic Collab: Book Vs. Movie – Scary Stories To Tell in The Dark
Hello everyone! As a part of the Spooktastic-themed posts I’m sharing throughout the month of October I decided to ask my friend Justine to collaborate with me for another seasonal post! Nothing screams spooky than the classic children’s horror series Scary Stories to Tell in The Dark during Halloween. Join us as we revisit these nostalgic horror novels and chat about the series movie adaptation.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a series of three collections of short horror stories for children, written by Alvin Schwartz and originally illustrated by Stephen Gammell (published in 1983-1991). This series is one of many notable horror series for children that has launched a cultural touchstone for children’s literature. Most people including Justine and I remember all the beautiful yet haunting illustrations that brought the story to life.
Rachel: Though the stories for me are chilling due to urban legends and folktales being told what really got me as a child is the drawings. I can’t forget them and adding these pictures to each story only made it more terrifying to read. Though they were scary tales I couldn’t stop reading them and devouring each book. The visuals even scare me as a grown adult, but I still loved each book. Each story was simple yet very effective with varying levels of spookiness. As a 90s kid, these books hold so much nostalgia for me.
Justine: I remember right around the same time I began reading Goosebumps books, I was introduced to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. While both series are responsible for my love of all things spooky, Scary Stories was what would keep me up at night after my cousin and I would read aloud from them in our grandmother’s basement or up in his bedroom at his family’s farmhouse. Where Goosebumps books kept things a bit lighthearted and humorous with their zany twist-endings, Stephen Gammell’s illustrations in Scary Stories would haunt my imagination whenever the lights went out.
Adapted from the novels of the same name the 2019 movie directed by André Øvredal is set on Halloween 1968, where Stella and her two friends meet a mysterious drifter, Ramón, and uncover a sinister notebook of stories. It’s also worth notating that Guillermo del Toro worked on the screen story for this adaptation and is known for his horror films.
Justine: The Scary Stories to tell in the Dark movie did an excellent job setting up the story, and having the monsters still originate from a book that contains horror stories. I was also pleasantly surprised at how they stayed true to the source material and went with a PG-13 rating despite it being based on children’s books.
Rachel: I was very excited to see the adaptation come to life because the series has such a large collection of source material to pull from. I was wondering which stories would be adapted and how they would bring the monsters/ghosts of each story to life. Plus, with Del Toro working on the project and knowing his extensive horror film background I had high hopes. For me personally, the movie wasn’t too scary as it has a PG-13 rating and caters to younger audiences. It does however stick close to its source material very closely while adding some new elements. I liked the setting of the 1960s and the overall autumnal October Halloween setting. The plot of a sinister book was an excellent way to tie very different stories all together to make the movie cohesive in a sense.
Justine: The monster designs for this movie did not disappoint. Nearly each monster was a spitting image of the illustrations in the books. What impressed me the most was the Pale Lady. I always thought the illustration was one of the sillier-looking ones in the book, but when she was brought to life in the film, I found her to be much more settling, and honestly probably one of the more disturbing scenes overall.
Rachel: I can definitely tell that most of the budget was spent on the special effects, FX makeup, and monsters. They brought these drawings to life as they would look to the readers familiar with the story.
What is our final verdict? The book or the movie?
Rachel: The movie manages to stay faithful to the source material while also making sure it isn’t copying directly from the book. I would recommend the movie as much as the books, but my takeaway is still that the book is the winner! The book is still scarier to me than the film was (as it goes for most horror books). Plus the nostalgic factor of the books too!
Justine: I agree with everything Rachel said! The movie was a great adaptation, but nothing can beat the books. Ultimately, stories you imagine are almost always more terrifying than what they are shown in movies and television.
Overall, I found this adaptation to be well done. They blended all the stories into a single, coherent storyline. It is definitely worth a rewatch.
A big thank you goes out to Justine for joining me in this collaboration! It was so much fun! Did you read Scary Stories as a kid? Have you watched the movie? Let us know in the comment section below.
I never read this as a kid because I was much too much of a scaredycat (also never read the Goosebumps books!), but I kinda want to read it now and see how it hits me. It sounds fun!
It’s definitely a thrill ride of a read as an adult too. The illustrations alone still haunt me. But I totally understand, as a child these books were very intese. Goosebumps is a little easier a read.