YMMV / Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Was The Pale Lady actually trying to kill Chuck, or was she trying to help him and inadvertenly killed him? Unlike the other monsters, who were rather straight forward with their approach, The Pale Lady actually seems to be having fun with Chuck, almost as if she's playing a game. And unlike the other monsters, the only thing she actually does to him is give him a hug, and the absorption may have been unintentional. Her counterpart in the books is also Creepy Good, and trying to save the story's main character from some unspecified greater evil.
• And You Thought It Would Fail: Doug Norrie of Cinema Blend predicted that the film would get a 30% score on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. When the film was first released and its review embargo was lifted, the film received generally positive reviews and is currently sitting at a respectable 77%. It has also more than made back its relatively low $25 million budget, both domestically and worldwide.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Sarah Bellows is built up throughout the movie, being the one who is responsible for the stories coming to life and who created all the supernatural creatures who terrorize people. At the end of the film, her ghost finally makes an appearance and is about to finish to Stella off. Stella defeats her... by giving her a "The Reason You Suck" Speech that makes her decide to not be evil anymore. Sarah does at least make a deal that Stella has to tell her story to the world, and has her write it in her own blood.
• Awesome Music: Lana Del Rey's cover of "Season of the Witch" recorded for the film meshes surprisingly well with the final trailer's Gammell-like imagery and has a real "Halloween-y" atmosphere to it.
• Complete Monster: Dr. Ephraim Bellows is one of the seemingly benevolent Bellows family that founded the town and opposed the "Wicked Witch", Ephraim's sister Sarah. In truth, Ephraim was a cruel sociopath who helped run the family's paper mill despite the fact that it poisoned the local water supply, killing multiple children while sickening others. The head of the local sanitarium, Ephraim oversaw the torture of the innocent Sarah to frame her for the deaths, brutally subjecting her to endless electroshock therapy.
• Crowning Moment of Awesome: Chuck tries to save his sister from the spiders and succeeds making him the only character to defeat a supernatural manifestation without having to talk them into a Heel–Face Turn.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Chuck has quickly become a fan favorite due to his lovable, goofy personality and memorable death scene.
  • Dr. Ephraim Bellows, whom some fans have praised as the most terrifying antagonist in a film full of monsters and ghosts. He isn't in the movie much, but his cold, apathetic torture of his own sister stands out as one of the most unsettling moments in the entire film.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Back in their heyday, the books this film was based on were considered a scarier alternative to Goosebumps in a way. Now, it looks like the Scary Stories film will use the same basic "group of kids finds weird book and releases monsters from it" premise as the Goosebumps movie!
  • An original adaptation of a series of horror books for younger readers, featuring original characters as the protagonists encountering monsters from the various books. And it's all caused by a curse from a malevolent ghost called Sarah who turns out to have been innocent. It's hard not to think of the Fear Street adaptations as Spiritual Successors (although the tone differs).
• Jerkass Woobie: Tommy. One can't deny that he's a bully to the main group but it's hard not to feel a bit sorry for him after seeing him call out for his mom before his painful transformation into a scarecrow.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • #HaroldDidNothingWrong^Explanation Jerk Jock Tommy Milner enjoys beating the tar out of Harold when he's an inanimate scarecrow, meaning there's little sympathy when Harold comes to life to make Tommy pay the piper.
  • "The scariest thing in this movie is real life" and variations thereof.^Explanation The film makes a point of contrasting the supernatural threat of Sarah Bellows and her monsters with the real-life social ills of the late '60s, such as racism, the draft, and the election of notoriously corrupt US President Richard Nixon. In the end the mystical conflicts are resolved, while the realistic ones, as per history, continue.
• Narm:
  • Stella's "You don't read the book. The book reads you." line brings Russian Reversal to mind and overall sounds like a line specifically written to be put into a trailer. Although in the movie, It Makes Sense in Context, but doesn't sound any less silly.
  • That it only took Stella Talking the Monster to Death to convince Sarah to cease being evil. You'd think with all the time she spent being vengeful ghost would have made it much less easy than that.
  • The word "toe" is just inherently funny sounding and no matter how much creepy buildup the zombie gets or how seriously the characters say it, it's hard not to at least crack a smirk.
• Nausea Fuel:
  • The prank the protagonists play on Tommy involves Chuck's shit, which he fishes out of a toilet on-screen.
    • In addition, Chuck reveals that in high school Tommy farted in his milk carton and made him drink it.
  • The big toe scene features a pot of stew with a rotting severed toe floating in it. Made even worse when Auggie unwittingly eats and then regurgitates said toe.
  • The scene where Ruth's boil explodes and countless baby spiders crawl out of it is shown in full detail.
• Signature Scene:
  • The Pale Lady sequence has been noted as a highlight of the film by many critics.
  • Another standout scene noted by many critics and audience members is the scene where Harold comes to life and terrorizes Tommy, turning him into a scarecrow. It's rather graphic for being in a PG-13 movie.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • The majority of the film deals with the vengeful ghost of a girl who was wrongfully punished for something she didn't do, is referred to as a witch, and whose spirit awakened to serve vengeance to those who wronged her in life. Now, is that the plot of Scary Stories or ParaNorman ?
  • The film is also the closest we'd get to a The Monster Squad remake, with the film set in the 1960s.
• Squick:
  • Chuck fishes his own poo out of the toilet, and pranks Tommy with it.
  • Ruth getting spider eggs laid in her cheek is bound to make one shudder, especially when a leg starts poking out.
  • Auggie unknowingly eating a corpse's toe in the stew is every bit as revolting as it sounds.
• Tainted by the Preview: Some were not pleased by the March 28th trailer, due to the Narmy "The book reads you" line and "This summer will be scary" tagline, and overall being advertised as a standard cliched horror movie that relies on nostalgia. On the other hand, others think the film looks great aside from the aforementioned lines and think that the creature design is top-notch.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Even fans of the film lamented how some of the monsters, particularly Big Toe, didn't get very much screentime. Harold is a downplayed example, as even though he doesn't get much time to shine, what he does get is absolutely nightmarish.
  • While Auggie is one of the main cast, he becomes the shocking second victim. While it does establish that the protagonists aren't safe, his persona as The Finicky One and also a Deadpan Snarker makes it a little sad that he has so little screen time. What's more is the Ship Tease between himself and Ruth, which never gets to be explored further thanks to him being the second victim. Thankfully he's hinted to be Not Quite Dead, with a Sequel Hook suggesting he'll be seen again.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Many were disappointed when Del Toro said in an interview that only four or five stories would make it into the film, the problem being that there are so many iconic stories that a lot of good ones are inevitably going to be left out. Del Toro hinted that other stories might be used in potential sequels, but some feel that it's unwise to save stories for future installments when the first film's success is not guaranteed.
  • Some felt that the movie would have worked better as an anthology with multiple self-contained stories rather than trying to integrate numerous stories into one plot. Guillermo del Toro said the reason they didn't go that direction is because "Anthology films are always as bad as the worst story in them — they're never as good as the best story".
• Ugly Cute: Like her book counterpart, some fans see the Pale Lady as this.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Given that it's a Guillermo del Toro film, it's to be expected that the makeup looks great. Most of the monsters that appear look exactly like Stephen Gammell's original illustrations.
  • At the film's panel at Comic-Con 2019, the crew showed behind-the-scenes footage of the monster design and the practical effects and it is glorious.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The movie is rated PG-13, however it's a very scary film that's reminiscent of a R-Rated horror film, only there's no blood or gratuitous violence. Several movie critics warned parents in their critques not to bring small children or even tweens to see the movie.
• Win Back the Crowd: After the teaser trailer received a middling response due to some narmy lines and a cheesy tagline, the official trailer received much better reviews for actually showing off what the plot of the film would be and for showcasing the monsters better.
• The Woobie:
  • Stella. Her mother abandoned her and her father when she was young, leading to many rumors around town that she was to blame for it.
  • On that note, her poor father. He obviously still misses his wife, and has to work a lot to care for Stella. It gets worse when Stella calls him to say goodbye, and assure him that she did not abandon him. Imagine getting a phone call from your obviously-terrified little girl, hearing her sob on the other end and explain that she might disappear soon — but refuse to explain what's going on.
  • Ramon. His brother was sent to Vietnam and came back in pieces, causing Ramon to panic and dodge the draft.
  • Ruth. She's dragged — or rather, shoved and locked — into a horror story by her jackass boyfriend getting back at a group of teenagers. Watching her sob as she tries to cope with the large boil on her cheek is heartbreaking, especially knowing that her story is "The Red Spot". She manages to survive it when the group finds her in time, but the police chief tells them later that she was taken to a mental institution after her ordeal.
  • Sarah Bellows. She was abused emotionally and physically by her family and called a deformed freak just because she was born albino. When water pollution from her family's paper mill resulted in the deaths of several children, her family blamed her to cover up their shoddy business practices and the townspeople began to label her as a witch. It becomes even worse when it's revealed that her own brother subjected her to electroshock therapy and isolation therapy.

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