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I never read these books as a kid so I had no hype for this movie whatsoever. In fact, I was probably going in wanting to hate it because they shot in my hometown and rented gear from my work, so I was constantly pulling electrical equipment for this production. I remember THAT being a pain in the ass.
I put off watching this movie because the tone of it felt off to me. This is supposedly a kids book, but the horror on display seemed too scary for kids. So how was this movie going to pull this off? The "scary stories" segments are indeed scary and feel like they could have been taken out of some R-rated grotesque horror show. The rest of the movie feels like a Goosebumps kids adventure. There lies the dilemma. How to merge these two into a cohesive film.
I have NO IDEA what age range this movie is for, but I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected I would. The horror elements really worked for me. and André Řvredal (Troll Hunter, Autopsy of Jane Doe) really knows how to shoot suspenseful horror sequences. Seeing body parts fall down a chimney, then reattach itself only to spider crawl away was something I didn't expect to see in a PG-13 flick.
I can forgive the elements that don't really work (draft-dodging storyline, or the mother leaving backstory) because those horror elements work so well. This is a horror movie I watched in October, it's SPOOKY-MONTH. I highly expect I will watch worse things than a PG-13 horror flick for the YA crowd.
October 1st
Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark
Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark
I never read these books as a kid so I had no hype for this movie whatsoever. In fact, I was probably going in wanting to hate it because they shot in my hometown and rented gear from my work, so I was constantly pulling electrical equipment for this production. I remember THAT being a pain in the ass.
I put off watching this movie because the tone of it felt off to me. This is supposedly a kids book, but the horror on display seemed too scary for kids. So how was this movie going to pull this off? The "scary stories" segments are indeed scary and feel like they could have been taken out of some R-rated grotesque horror show. The rest of the movie feels like a Goosebumps kids adventure. There lies the dilemma. How to merge these two into a cohesive film.
I have NO IDEA what age range this movie is for, but I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected I would. The horror elements really worked for me. and André Řvredal (Troll Hunter, Autopsy of Jane Doe) really knows how to shoot suspenseful horror sequences. Seeing body parts fall down a chimney, then reattach itself only to spider crawl away was something I didn't expect to see in a PG-13 flick.
I can forgive the elements that don't really work (draft-dodging storyline, or the mother leaving backstory) because those horror elements work so well. This is a horror movie I watched in October, it's SPOOKY-MONTH. I highly expect I will watch worse things than a PG-13 horror flick for the YA crowd.