Entertainment
The ‘Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark’ Movie Has All The Books’ Creepiest Monsters
In case you couldn't tell from its title, the new movie Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is going to be pretty scary. It's an adaptation of the book series from the same name, and though these books were made for children, the monsters in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark were the stuff of nightmares (in one case, literally). But with the three book series containing literally dozens of spooky tales and the movie only having a one hour and 51 minute runtime, most of the book's content isn't going to make its way onto the big screen. So which monsters from the books will make the jump?
Though odds are a few monsters are still lurking in the shadows waiting for the film's release, a number have been revealed ahead of time. Six, to be exact. Four of them are pulled directly from the books (with the design to match), one of them is an original character whose design was also pulled from the books, and the last is a brand new monster who combines features from several different entries in the Stephen Gammell-illustrated book series. So take a look below at all the monsters in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark that have been revealed so far — if you dare.
Sarah Bellows
One of the stories in the books is "The Haunted House." It's about a preacher who visits a haunted house and meets an eyeless female specter. She tells him she was murdered, and he helps find her killer. The story was accompanied by a ghastly image, one which was recreated for the film character Sarah Bellows. In the movie, Sarah is the originator of the titular stories, having penned them in a magical book. Her ghost haunts the mansion on the edge of town of Mill Valley, and she uses her stories — which come to life — to exact revenge on the town for some past transgressions.
Harold
One story from the books that's being directly adapted is "Harold." This story is about a scarecrow named Harold that comes to life and becomes a murderer. The film adaptation looks almost exactly like the book's illustration, meaning you'll likely never willingly set foot in a cornfield again.
The Big Toe Corpse
One of the books' weirdest stories, "The Big Toe," will also appear. In it, a boy finds a toe and brings it home, and his mother cooks it into a stew. The boy then unwittingly eats some of the stew, only to have a corpse show up at his house looking for its missing toe. The corpse can be seen above, and you can expect an even more grisly-looking toe to appear in the film.
The Spiders
In one of the books' most memorable stories, "The Red Spot," a spider lays its eggs in a girl's face while she sleeps. When she awakes the next morning, she discovers a massive boil on her cheek, and when it bursts, hundreds of tiny spiders spill out of it. The film definitely looks like it's doing this story justice, as the spider-filled bump looks horrifying.
The Pale Lady
The story "The Dream" describes a terrifying pale woman with long black hair and black eyes who haunts a girl in her dreams, only to show up in real life with a warning. Again, the film's interpretation of the books' illustration of this monster is spot on.
The Jangly Man
An original creation for the film, producer Guillermo del Toro said the Jangly Man is a composite of several different monsters from the books. He's a living corpse who's stitched together from various bodies, giving him a contorted appearance. "The difficulty with this was to not do a normal decomposing corpse that you’ve seen a million times, but to truly try to give it evil," del Toro said at Comic-Con, according to Polygon. Mission accomplished.
The monsters in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark definitely live up to their terrifying artistic heritage, and ought to scare the living daylights out of a whole new generation.
