Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark - #31DayHorrorChallenge - Day 2: In a Cornfield

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark - André Øvredal -  2019

★★★-I loved these books as a kid. Read them in third grade and every knock off I could get my hands on for the next several years before turning to Stephen King in sixth grade. Originally saw the film on opening day. It was minimally disappointing. So time for a rewatch. Fine, and likeable, but still slightly disappointing. Only slightly though.

Horror flick directed by Norwegian filmmaker André Øvredal who has some talent but is a bit inconsistent. He also did Trollhunter, The Autopsy of Jane, both of which were great, and most recently The Last Voyage of the Demeter, which was not. Based on the children's book series by Alvin Schwartz. The screenplay from the Hageman bros, Dan and Kevin, adapted from what the internet calls a "screen story" by Guillermo del Toro, the director, and Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan. 

Gist of it is a group of naive teens ignore rule numero uno and read from creepy books you find in abandoned houses, and things get real. Kids, don’t fuck with creepy books you find in known haunted mansions. The home belonged to the infamous Bellows family, the rich folk that poisoned the town's drinking water decades before with their industrial bullshit. When young Sarah grows a conscience and threatens to tell the au-thor-it-ays, they lock her away and learns some curse or something and finds a way to pen terrifying tales that come alive. After being long abandoned, the kids show up and start unlocking evil willy-nilly in the year of our lord 1968. 

Cast is what I was led to believe were rising stars. The main kids are Zoe Colletti (the lead), Michael Garza (the love interest, draft dodger), Gabriel Rush (the tall geeky one), Austin Zajur (the short geeky one), Natalie Ganzhorn (the sister that's agraid of spiders), and Austin Abrams (the bully). Crazy to think there was a time not so long ago that you were a fugitive if you didn’t go to war. As a nonreligious pacifist, this is the scariest part about the movie for me.  

Only person I really recognized was Dean Norris, who played Hank Schrader on Breaking Bad. He's the lead's dad. The main girl reminds me of my favorite intern at the newspaper. She had some talent as a writer and photographer but had similar barriers in her way. Ended up alright though, is a commercial photographer for Sketchers. Had the same look, but more goth.  

Still waiting on that sequel. Supposedly in development still. Got about one or two years, and then they are going to have to start over or make the characters much older or whatever. Pushing it now even.  

Usually not one to stick up for cops in movies, but this guy is a real professional. Head comes bouncing down the chimney, says some crazy shit, drops his shit, says “are you shitting me,” and shoots the head in the brain. Doesn’t do any good, but he’s got the right idea. Still not the scariest thing to happen that night though. Nixon got elected and so started the decline of liberal democracy in the United States. That’s the realest horror story you are ever gonna hear.  

Overall, the film is pretty good to alright. Excellent use of the song “Season of the Witch.” Liked that it stayed consistent with the art, though I wasn’t crazy about that the first time around.  Brutal deaths for a movie sort of marketed at young people. Puking up hay as you turn into a scarecrow looks pretty awful. One poor bastard has a reoccurring nightmare he is afraid the evil is going to use against him. She does. Then there is the brutal stuff between Stella and her dad. No abuse or anything, just pain and regret. Also pretty real.