Staci Layne Wilson’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark review says it delivers chills and thrills and is the perfect springboard into Halloween season.

Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark book series is the stuff of legend. Urban legend, that is. Let’s face it: if you read the books all you need to hear is “the red spot” or “big toe” and your skin is already crawling – and as such, these YA spine-tinglers manage to appeal to horror lovers of all ages. Think of it as the O.G. “Stranger Things.”

Set in smartphone-free 1968, the macabre yarn follows a group of misfit teens on a fateful Halloween night only a few of them will survive. The costumed kids decide that trick-or-treating isn’t nearly as fun as exploring the local haunted house – a spooky, abandoned gothic-revival mansion that’s said to contain the scariest stories in the world. The tales of terror emanate from the otherwise unassuming small town of Mill Valley and they come from the blood-soaked quill pen of the long-dead Sarah Bellows… unfortunately for our young friends, her dark fantasies have a way of coming true.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark blends multiple standalone tales into one film, making for an interesting narrative/anthology hybrid. There are jump-scares aplenty and edgy, PG-13 pushing nightmare fuel as well as mystery and thrills. This should please both the new, younger audience and as well as the 90s “goth” children who are now all grown up and feeling nostalgic.

The Academy Award-winning “monster kid” Guillermo del Toro brings the iconic tales to the big screen as a writer and producer (Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is directed by André Øvredal, whose previous horror films have been Rated-R adult fare) and he’s clearly the right person for the job. As an aficionado of the original illustrations for Schwartz’s books (by Stephen Gammell), del Toro’s legendary attention to detail is very much in evidence here.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark does what it’s supposed to do: it delivers chills and thrills and is the perfect springboard into Halloween season.

If reading this Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark review gives you the heebie-jeebies, get times and tickets at Fandango.com.

Rated PG-13

2 Hours

Staci Layne Wilson’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark review says it delivers chills and thrills and is the perfect springboard into Halloween season.