History YMMV / ScaryStoriesToTellInTheDark2019

* {{Narm}}: Stella's "You don't read the book. The book reads you." line brings RussianReversal to mind and overall sounds like a line specifically written to be put into a trailer. Although in the movie, ItMakesSenseInContext, but doesn't sound any less silly.

* SpiritualAdaptation:

** The film is also the closest we'd get to a ''Film/MonsterSquad'' remake, with the film set in the [=1960s=].

* SpiritualLicensee:

** The film is also the closest we'd get to a Monster Squad remake, with the film set in the [=1960s=].

* ToughActToFollow: Both of the director's previous movies, ''Film/TheTrollHunter'' and ''Film/TheAutopsyOfJaneDoe'', received critical acclaim, so there was quite the pressure to release a third hit. Fortunately, critics mostly embraced the film, considering it a well-made, if flawed, gateway horror flick.

* TearJerker:
** [[spoiler:While the group does manage to save Ruth's life, she still goes through an ''incredibly'' traumatic experience, with thousands of spiders bursting out of her wound. The poor girl is cowering in a corner and sobbing by the time the others get to her.]]
** Stella [[spoiler:calling her dad in the police station. She's in tears, and tries to explain that, if she vanishes in the near future, she didn't abandon him like her mother did. Her father tries to soothe her, assuring her it wasn't her fault her mother left, but Stella's so distressed that all she can do is sob -- and soon, he's crying, too, begging her to tell him what's wrong.]]
** Also, Stella [[spoiler:locked in Sarah's room as she screams that she is not Sarah and is left sobbing alone in the dark, likely thinking she's going to die there.]] Zoe Colletti's cry-acting is a little too convincing.

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Given that it's a Creator/GuillermoDelToro film, it's to be expected that the makeup looks great. Special note goes to the Pale Woman from "The Dream", who looks ''exactly'' like Stephen Gammell's illustration of her from the book.

* SpiritualLicensee: The majority of the film deals with the vengeful ghost of a girl [[spoiler: 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 ''WesternAnimation/ParaNorman'' ?
** The film is also the closest we'd get to a Monster Squad remake, with the film set in the 1950's.

* [[spoiler:While the group does manage to save Ruth's life, she still goes through an ''incredibly'' traumatic experience, with thousands of spiders bursting out of her wound. The poor girl is cowering in a corner and sobbing by the time the others get to her.]]

* FridgeLogic: Stella, Ramon, and Chuck are found breaking into the backrooms of a hospital, with people they know having mysterious gone missing in the past few days (at the time of the arrest, [[spoiler:now including Chuck]], and one of whom had been known to antagonize them), another person they know having been wounded and committed to a mental institution, and with a book in their possession that's filled with stories of those same people being terrorized and killed. They get locked overnight in a jail cell, [[spoiler:only for an officer to be killed, his body left in front of their jail cells, Stella and Ramon escaped, and Ramon having stolen and crashed a police car to boot. Despite how ''obscenely suspicious'' this would look to the police the next day, the film ends without even trying to address how they dodged the charges, with Ramon going into the military and Stella free to publish stories and go road-tripping with her dad and Ruth.]]

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: Doug Norrie of ''Cinema Blend'' predicted that [[https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2477556/this-rotten-week-predicting-dora-the-kitchen-scary-stories-to-tell-in-the-dark-reviews-and-more 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 80%.

* SugarWiki/CrowningMomentOfAwesome: Chuck tries to save his sister from the spiders [[spoiler: and succeads making him the only character to defeat a supernatural manifestation without having to talk them into a HeelFaceTurn.]]

* {{Narm}}: Zoe Colletti's "You don't read the book. The book reads you." line brings RussianReversal to mind and overall sounds like a line specifically written to be put into a trailer. Although in the movie, ItMakesSenseInContext, but doesn't sound any less silly.

** The prank the protagonists play on Tommy involves [[spoiler:Chuck's shit, which he fishes out of a toilet on-screen.]]
*** In addition, Chuck reveals that in high school Tommy [[spoiler:''farted in his milk carton and made him drink it.'']]

** The scene where Ruth's boil explodes and countless baby spiders crawl out of it is shown in full detail.

* TearJerker: [[spoiler:Stella calling her dad in the police station. She's in tears, and tries to explain that, if she vanishes in the near future, she didn't abandon him like her mother did. Her father tries to soothe her, assuring her it wasn't her fault her mother left, but Stella's so distressed that all she can do is sob -- and soon, he's crying, too, begging her to tell him what's wrong.]]

*** In addition, Chuck reveals that in elementary school Tommy [[spoiler:''farted in his milk carton and made him drink it.'']]

* ShipTease: Ramon and Stella are clearly attracted to each other and form a close bond [[FireForgedFriends over the course of the movie]]. Despite some hints, however, they never do more than hug and Ramon is [[spoiler: drafted into the Vietnam War before their relationship can develop more. Stella promises to write him as much as she can, however.]]

* SignatureScene: The Pale Lady sequence has been noted as a highlight of the film by many critics.

* {{Narm}}: Zoe Colletti's "You don't read the book. The book reads you." line brings RussianReversal to mind and overall sounds like a line specifically written to be put into a trailer.

* UglyCute: Some fans see the Pale Lady as this.

** The big toe scene features a pot of stew with a rotting severed toe floating in it.

** 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.