Maybe it’s because I just saw Stranger Things and coming down from an IT high, but this film just seemed to miss the mark for me.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark follows the old folk tales we have heard before but great to see it get a filmic depiction of the cartoon series I remember as a kid called Freaky Stories, which I heard from a friend of a friend of mine was very enjoyable with little twisted tales like the woman had spiders in her beehive hair doo.
This movie emulates these old folk tales with the fantastical contribution of monsters designed by Guillermo del Toro.

It felt as though this style would work better as a Netflix or Stan episodic series as elements didn’t know where they wanted to be. It definitely felt half-baked like they were still mixing the ingredients together.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark follows a group of kids living in the suburbs of USA in the mid 1960’s, while breaking and entering an old mansion they steal a book from a dead girl that causes all manner of spookiness to ensue.

Scary stories are written in the book as they appear to devour those who were there when the book was taken. Mischievous hijinks abound.

The Diagnosis:

The monsters were great but with a half-baked ensemble from the get go. It was difficult to get hooked.
Take two episodes of Stranger Things with a glass of IT twice a day to wash out the taste.

• Dr. Richard Lovegrove and Anesthesiologist Kelsi Williams