Movielogr
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)
Directed by André Øvredal
Twitter Facebook Google+Most recently watched by CaptainBigTime, sensoria
Overview
Mill Valley, Pennsylvania, Halloween night, 1968. After playing a joke on a school bully, Stella and her friends decide to sneak into a supposedly haunted house that once belonged to the powerful Bellows family, unleashing dark forces that they will be unable to control.
Rated PG-13 | Length 108 minutes
Actors
Zoe Colletti | Dean Norris | Michael Garza | Gabriel Rush | Gil Bellows | Natalie Ganzhorn | Austin Abrams | Austin Zajur | Kathleen Pollard | Lorraine Toussaint | Deborah Pollitt | Victoria Fodor | Marie Ward | Mark Steger | Javier Botet | Troy James | Will Corno | Kyle Labine | David Tompa | Karen Glave | Stephanie Belding | Hume Baugh | Jane Moffat | Will Carr | Amanda Smith | Brandon Knox | Rodrigo Fernandez- Stoll | Anna Fraser | Alex Spencer | Matthew Smith | Daniel Gravelle | Colton Gobbo | Ajanae Stephenson | Divan Meyer | Lyndon Johnson | Richard Nixon | Walter Cronkite
Viewing History (seen 1 time)
| Date Viewed | Device | Format | Source | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 08/09/2019 | Movie Screen | Digital | Theater | 7 stars |
| (Average) 7 stars |
Viewing Notes
Giving this a soft 7/10 bc it has a lot of cool shit for a gateway horror flick. However, it’s too long to be that effective (as a gateway). Thinking back to the films that get me into horror they were all 90min or less, usually a lot less but stretched when aired on broadcast TV. Think Universal Monsters, Godzilla, and a plethora of B-movies. Easy to consume. This Scary Stories film is almost 2hrs! Kids want shorter lengths and this is asking a lot to remain engaged.
Nitpicky stuff: the timeline seems really weird… like I was trying to figure out the year all of this was taking place. Initially thought 70s b/c of a few cues but the fashion and cars look 50s (I just assumed that NOTLD playing at the drive-in was a special screening years after it’s release bc Halloween). But then there is the Nixon / Wallace election results on the TV so 1968! But still weird to see the mix of fashion/vehicles from a previous decade. Not saying it couldn’t be that way just looks odd given everything else happening.
The drive-in, which is a real drive-in in Ontario, Canada, has widescreen screens. This is normal for today but back in the day, drive-ins had those big square screens. You know if you were around back then. They really stood out here b/c there’s two screens at this drive-in. Also wild to see so many cars at the drive-in on Halloween night! Instead of trick or treating or being at a party they’re at the drive-in! That’s why I thought the NOTLD screening might be a special event not bc it was released then.
Lastly, this is another one of those movies that I want to see the story after the story…. how does all of this get explained. The missing people, the murdered people, etc. That’s a lot for a small town to deal with in a short period of time.
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