Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is the mind-altering movie based off the book of the same name by Alvin Schwartz. In October of 1981, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark was published. It took 38 years to become a movie, but it finally got it’s time in the spotlight. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark has six stories from the first and third books of the trilogy. It also references a song Schwartz added to the first book, “The Hearse Song.” The movie took some of the most iconic stories and connected them to form a plot.

   Seeing this movie, I had instant nostalgia from a Scholastic Book Fair when I bought the original book. It made me want to go back and revisit all of the books he had published since. However, it had a slight twist. Walking into the theater, I thought that it would be a children’s scary movie. I was very wrong. This movie, though not the scariest movie yet, had adults jumping out of their seats, teens yelling at the screen and a collective breath of relief at the end.

   Sarah Bellows was locked away so nobody could see her. Legend says that kids would come by her family’s mansion every night just to hear her tell stories through a wall. Sarah Bellow’s storybook was a myth. Until Stella Nicholls stumbles upon it with her friends. Once she asks Sarah to tell her a story, the trouble starts. One by one, each member of the group gets their own scary story based off their fears and thoughts. It is up to the gang to figure out how to stop Sarah before their story is written. 

   This movie had me thinking the whole time. Each time the group found a piece of evidence showing who Sarah was, it changed my viewpoint. It will have you thinking the worst and best of the same person. It shows that you can’t believe everything you hear. The saying,”Stories hurt, stories heal,” was repeated three times throughout the entire film. Once in the beginning, middle and end. Stories hurt when they are based off false facts and publicized to make somebody look good. Stories heal when you get the truth out. Stories hurt, stories heal.