Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)

The small town of Mill Valley talks about the Bellow's legacy in whispers, of a successful family disappearing, deadly stories, imprisonment, and black magic. In 1968, Stella, her friends, and a stranger find themselves in the Bellow's supposedly haunted house where they dread up old memories and accidentally bring the stories to life. To survive, the teens have to delve into the past and dredge up the truth, which turns out to be much different than the rumors still told by the town.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark was one of my many childhood obsessions. I remember chasing my brother around and reading him The Red Spot story that scared him so much. The surreal, almost tactile illustrations by Stephen Gammell enhance the stories and make the books especially memorable. A film adaptation is a dream come true for me, even as an adult. These books are a big reason why I'm such a huge horror fan today and it's exciting for this film to introduce more people to such a formative work for many.

The film features a larger narrative of Stella, her friends Auggie and Chuck, and a kind stranger Ramon as they fall victim to Sarah Bellow's scary stories. The characters are well drawn enough to service the story and get the audience to care about them. Stella and Ramon are the most detailed characters. Stella is still dealing with the guilt and pain of her mom abandoning her and Ramon doesn't want to share his brother's fate, who died in the Vietnam War. Their backstories, rooted in trauma, provide emotion to the film and anchor the story in reality. The other characters aren't quite as detailed, but they don't really need to be. The stories and creatures are what people are most excited for.

The stories are pretty faithful to the books and so are the creature designs. Seeing Gammell's art literally come to life in such a creepy way is so amazing. The missing toe corpse (portrayed by Javier Botet), the pale woman, the jangly man, and Harold the scarecrow are all well designed, creepy, and just a little different from their drawn counterparts.  There isn't much blood or gore, but the alternatives are more chilling. For instance, Tommy, a racist jock, is stabbed with a pitchfork and sprouts hay, eventually transforming into the scarecrow in his family's field. The pale woman was the scariest of the monsters because of the oppressive red lighting and the inability to escape her. She didn't even seem outwardly malicious, simply walking toward her victim, but she appeared in every room and hall. Each one is produced by a mixture of practical effects and digital effects that work well together. I am pleased with how they turned out and I would love to see other creatures from the books replicated by the same team.

** spoilers **

The frame story takes place in 1968, during Nixon's election. Real world problems are present in the story even though they ultimately take a back seat to the horror and fantasy. Many of the social and political events in the film reflect things happening today, such as corrupt corporations poisoning locals and blaming someone else and the current president empowering racists. It's an interesting point of view that makes the events feel closer to home. The main message of the film is to not believe the accepted narrative and dig deeper to find and expose the truth. Sarah and Lou Lou, Sarah's only friend and a black servant, are blamed for killing children with scary stories and witchcraft when it was actually the Bellow's paper mill bleeding mercury into the water. Like The Autopsy of Jane Doe, Sarah transforms into an evil force after being blamed as an innocent and punishes the guilty. The kids make racist assumptions about Lou Lou when questioning her in the present and expose a harmful trope seen in many horror films of black people corrupting innocent white people. This film has surprising depth and feels relevant.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a fun, creepy film with fantastical and real world horror side by side. Being a PG-13 movie, the creatures can't be as horrific as some vocal adult fans would have liked, but I was impressed by the balance of scary and keeping the target audience in mind. The Scary Stories books are for children and I would have been disappointed if the original audience were excluded from the film. The ending is definitely open for a sequel and I hope to see another film with even more of the memorable creatures reproduced on the screen.

My rating: 8/10 fishmuffins

Breed

Alex and Leslie Twisden live in a gorgeous, humongous house in Manhattan and lead very privileged lives. Only one thing is missing: a child. Alex is significantly older than Leslie and they are having problems conceiving. They have tried every infertility treatment they can find no matter how ridiculous sounding or expensive it is, including in vitro fertilization, various medicines, homeopathic remedies, and various diets. Leslie wants to give up and just adopt, but Alex is persistent. After practically being robbed just to get the information, one of Alex's friends gives him the information for an Eastern European doctor with a revolutionary new treatment that has a huge success rate. Even with Leslie's misgivings, they travel to Slovenia and get the painful injections. Success! Conception follows swiftly and twins are born. Fast forward 10 years. The twins Adam and Alice are terrified of them. They are locked in their rooms at night and keep terrifying secrets for their parents. After they can't take any more, they run away and inadvertently discover the secret behind their parents' behavior and their own nature.

Breed is a fascinating and addictive read. The concepts are interesting, even if I have to suspend disbelief. The fertility injections Alex and Leslie received changed them and made them more savage and animalistic. They are starting to lose language, becoming more violent, and struggling against the urge to eat their children. Although the science behind this is shaky at best, these parents are frightening. I definitely feel the constant fear of their children and the undercurrent of uneasiness and hostility everywhere. They are terrified of telling anyone about their parents, but their inaction could also mean their deaths. Their will power is the only thing between their children and a horrible, gruesome death. It begs the question if having those children is really worth becoming cannibalistic monsters for. There are plenty of other options that can be explored before resorting to questionable, untested treatments that could contain anything. Even though they go through all this madness to make their lives complete, it ironically and utterly destroys their lives. They lose the ability to work in public, sell or destroy all their valuables, and allow their house and the surrounding property descend into disrepair. This is a new spin on the classic story of getting screwed over because of messing too much with nature.

Some flaws mar this otherwise addicting novel. The science behind the treatment and its effects are dubious and I had to force myself to suspend disbelief. If it were just explained as magic, it would have been much less annoying. The other thing that bothers me is the weird, unneeded subplots. A third baby was born, but pronounced dead and a nurse adopted him, raising him as her own. This subplot just didn't really go anywhere, became confusing as it went on, and made the book less focused. This space in the book could have been used to further develop the meaningful characters or the plot.

Breed is a thought provoking, creepy novel. There are some really memorable scenes that would look awesome on a movie screen. I would love to read a sequel to Breed focusing on how the treatment affected the children (of all the parents who used it) and how they will shape the future.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

SDCC 2011: Panels

I finally feel human again! Yay! I've been fighting off my Comic-con cough and I feel so much better. I feel kinda bad that I haven't been posting that much, but there's a giveaway in the extremely near future to make up for it! On to the panels...

On Thursday, I unfortunately did not go to any panels at all. :( I didn't get into the Con until 10:30, so the Deadliest Warrior: Vampires vs. Zombies panel was almost over by then. I went an hour early to see the Game of Thrones panel. The line didn't seem to long until I realized it went outside and looped on itself about 5 times. The volunteer said if we weren't in line for 4 hours, we weren't getting in. So we were about 2 hours early for the Dr. Horrible screening which was nearby, but that line was also ridiculously long. *sigh* We still had a lot of fun that first day. I'm glad we didn't choose to spend hours and hours standing in line instead of finding free stuff, shopping, and playing Magic.

So the next day, we were resolved to see the Magic: the Gathering panel. So much so that my boyfriend DJ decided to sit in the room it was in for 5 hours and seeing 2 other panels.

The first panel was about Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. I had seen it in the bookstores and magazine racks next to my preferred horror magazines Fangoria, Horrorhound, and Rue Morgue, but the covers always seemed to feature old horror films. I was interested in what was new and little known. I didn't know the magazine actually shows you how to get the effects and monsters that are in those films. They also cover interviews, reviews, and retrospectives. The magazine is more for the whole family whereas the other magazines would definitely not be for children. I left halfway through the panel to get a galley from PenguinTeen of Cornelia Funke, but I actually misread it and it was the Relic Hunter by Catherine Fisher. It still looks good anyway. I went back to the room and saw the second panel. On the way, I passed a huge crowd of people that were waiting for the Magic panel.

The second panel was about being a successful comic book retailer. My boyfriend really wanted to see this because one of his dreams is to have a comic book/hobby store with an adjacent cafe/restaurant. I walked in when someone asked how to get more female customers in the store. Being a female customer, I was instantly interested in how this question would be answered. One woman on the panel recommended a "for girlfriends" shelf and having a girls' night where women can come and meet other women and play games together. Another female comic book store owner advocated assuming that everyone who walks into the store is a client. So many times, I've been dismissed as this customer's girlfriend when I actually read more comic books than he does. Other people had questions that were very interesting. A store owner from Mexico wanted to know how to get product from the US. Another retailer wanted to know if he should keep back issues in his store or not. The discussion was surprisingly interesting and I learned a lot about what to do in order to have a successful comic book store.

Finally, it's time for the Magic Panel!!! First, the flood of people outside took a while to fill in every available seat. The ballroom was fairly small, only seating 200-300 people, so quite a few were turned away. (Hopefully it will be in a bigger venue next year.) Every seat had a t-shirt with a mana symbol on it, which was awesome except that they were all extra larges. (Yay, nightshirt for me!) Anyway, everyone settled down and they started to reveal things to come in the future of Magic. On the panel were the people behind the card game: Mark Rosewater (head Magic designer), Aaron Forsythe (research and development), Matt Cavotta (head creative Magic art director), and Mark Purvis (manager).

First, some cards for From the Vaults: Legends were revealed. These are small groups of cards put out in limited edition box set of 15 cards in premium foil (meaning they are pretty and shiny). This set goes with the Commander decks that were just released because you can use all of these legendary creatures as a general in that format. 7 of these cards are going to have alternate art and there will be one preview card from the next set Innistrad, which will come out in October. Here are some of the legends:

Kresh the Bloodbraided*

Doran, the Siege Tower

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Sun Quan, Lord of Wu

Next, they revealed the art of the 2 planeswalkers from the new duel deck, Nicol Bolas vs. Ajani

Ajani Vengeant

Nicol Bolas

Next was what I was really excited about: Innistrad! This is the next set in Magic and the start of a new block. According to Mike Rosewater, the set is going to be based on classic horror films with creature types such as:

Unlike other sets, these creatures won't only be seen in black. Vampires will be black and red. Zombies will be black and blue. Werewolves will be green and red. I'm really looking forward to the new set!!

There are 2 other art from cards that are released, but no word on what they do. This art is just gorgeous. The panel said if you play zombies, you will use this card, so I can't wait!

I really hope this picture is for a new Sorin Markov planeswalker that is actually usable in standard, but we won't see until the set after Innistrad, Dark Ascension.

Next came the Q&A, which included such questions as "Why did you take so long to realize Jace, the Mind Sculptor was broken?" The really awesome part of the Q&A was the random prizes given out. One person got a box of Legends in Italian. Another got a pack of Arabian Nights and got a Library of Alexandria, which is a card worth about $300. One unlucky fellow got a pack of Beta, the second set of Magic ever, and got a basic land for a rare. :( A little boy received an original painting of a card called Creepy Dolls that will be in Innistrad.

Even though this is the only panel that I got to see that was planned, it was totally worth it.

* Sorry about the quality! The lights were on up until the vampire picture, so the projections look really crappy before then.