Without Gammell's drawings, this collection loses its bloody, beating heart and is barely worth the paper it's printed on. You don't mess with perfection and genius. The reason the original 1981 edition became an instant classic and a frequently challenged book in schools and libraries was for Stephen Gammell's ghoulish and nightmarish artwork. To say that it's been sanitized for safe consumption is an understatement. My edition is the 2010 "updated" version published by Harper Collins with new illustrations by Brett Helquist. I'm not giving any stars here, only a warning: beware which edition of this collection you choose, for if you choose unwisely, you will be sorely ripped off in more ways than one. The reason the original 1981 edition became an instant classic and a frequently challenged book in schools and libra
#Stories to tell in the dark movie#
To understand why the adaptation doesn’t deliver scares quite like its terrifying source material, let’s break down how the six stories featured in the movie differ from their counterparts in the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books.I'm not giving any stars here, only a warning: beware which edition of this collection you choose, for if you choose unwisely, you will be sorely ripped off in more ways than one. Stella and her friends must then race against a ticking clock to find a way to end Sarah’s rampage of revenge. After that, everyone who was in the house with her begins to disappear, but not before a horrifying story detailing their final moments appears on the book’s pages scrawled in blood.
#Stories to tell in the dark series#
In the movie, teenage protagonist Stella (Zoe Margaret Colletti) steals the haunted notebook of the long-dead Sarah Bellows (Kathleen Pollard) - a young girl who, according to town legend, turned her tortured life into a series of scary stories - from the basement of the Bellows’ old mansion on Halloween night. The film, on the other hand, unites six of the original stories within an overarching plot that ends on a somewhat resolved note. In the books, many of these stories end on a cliffhanger, leaving readers to decide on their own what horrors befall the characters after the words on the page stop. The three Scary Stories books are comprised of folk tales and urban legends retold by Schwartz. That’s not to say that the movie won’t scare younger viewers who have never read the three Scary Stories books: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (1981), More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (1984) and Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones (1991). But the most likely reason seems to be that our own imaginations often conjure up much more frightening imagery than anything that could be depicted on a screen. Maybe it’s that the movie is targeted toward a young audience and its filmmakers don’t want to inflict permanent trauma. Maybe it’s the fact that the generation that originally devoured this nightmare fuel is now fully grown and not as affected by ghost stories. But while the original series - written by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by Stephen Gammell - has been traumatizing kids for decades, the movie adaptation leaves a scare factor to be desired.
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