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Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark ***
Dir: Andre Ovredal (15, 90 mins)
A literary phenomenon in the USA, writer Alvin Schwartz’s gleefully unsettling horror stories aimed at disturbing kids are given terrifying life via producer and co- writer Guillermo Del Toro and Trollhunters director Orvedal. Schwartz had written 82 shorts-soiling tales, which have been whittled down to a handful for the purposes of the film. Set in an Amblin-esque Americana of 1968, the film follows a group of youngsters, led by Zoe Margaret Colletti’s Stella, who discover a book in the abandoned Bellows house, the creepiest haunted mansion in the town. Here, allegedly, Sarah Bellows, a disturbed young girl, wrote stories with characters who have a nasty habit of coming to life. Of course, they take the book out of the mansion and are soon being petrified by the likes of the Toe Monster – a corpse missing a toe – Harold the scarecrow and the Pale Lady, all brought to gruesome life under the watchful eye of monster maestro Del Toro. This should deliver on the shiver. Opens Aug 23