Top 10 Movies
(Sept 21 - Sept 23) Now Showing @GSC
Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark
★★★✩✩
AS fright flicks go, Scary Stories TTITD – based on the bestselling children’s series of spooky anthologies by Alvin Schwartz – is not so much frightening as it is delightfully creepy, in the way that gets moviegoers squirming in their seats and yelling at the screen.
Produced by Guillermo Del Toro and directed by Norwegian filmmaker Andre Ovredal (Trollhunter), Scary Stories lies somewhere between an outright anthology and a single horrific tale.
Set in 1968 and spanning six days from Halloween to US presidential election night, the film has clear political underpinnings to its horror, though these are beyond the scope of this thumbnail review. (Homework for you then, kiddies. Tell Google that Cousin Eerie sent you.)
Some nerdy teenagers, fleeing the local bullies in their small town, sneak into a haunted house and commit the capital horror movie offence of removing something from the place.
Before you can say “Ju-on”, bad things start to happen – in the form of living stories that the protagonists suddenly become part of, stories lifted from Schwartz’s books.
Plus points include a nicely realised spooky atmosphere throughout, a moment that would give Dr Pimple Popper pause, cool creature design, and a heartfelt performance by Zoe Colletti as the principal teen in peril.
On the down side, most of the other teens are not well defined, or likeable enough, for us to care that much what happens to them. And while the eerie shenanigans and grotesque monsters are unsettling, Ovredal tends to milk the setup too much, delaying the payoff for his scares to the point that even some of the jump scares are telegraphed. –