July 1st, 2019. Olly Alexander and Elton John Sexed Up ‘It’s a Sin’ at the Brit Awards. All we know about the murderer (creature? In the book, Harold is an ordinary scarecrow who gets mistreated by his farmers, until he one day springs to life and starts seeking revenge. Her hair is wispy and thin, and her face is bisected by a long, flat mouth that betrays the slightest hint of a grin. Both can be highly recommended for different reasons. Tom turns up the next morning, traumatized and shaking and missing his hand. This one just kind of... makes your feet hot and then picks you up and drops you from a great height. No thanks! As were her sickly looking garments, which del Toro and his team chose to render as a kind of epidermal growth. This story, "The Dream," is light on plot and heavy on deeply upsetting imagery of a pale, wide-mouthed woman with stringy, black hair. But they don't cool it, and they're left with the new mother, and yes the source material for this story also inspired Coraline. But what's freakiest about the Thing is that it turns you into a Thing, too. Aug 13, 2019, 5:16 PM EDT (Updated) 48. No one's forgetting that melting, eyeless ghost face in a hurry. The list of potential suspects is growing. Most monsters in Scary Stories don’t actually kill their victims in the source material, but Harold does, and in pretty gruesome fashion. “While I understand and I love it, I have moved on.”, The Biggest Revelations From the Pop Smoke Murder Case Hearings, Huge Nerd Demi Lovato Will Investigate UFOs in a New Peacock Series, The Most Virtuosic of St. Vincent, According to Annie Clark, “With my guitar, I did what I always do, which is just kind of humbly make shit that I think is cool.”. Yes, the toe ghoul made the final cut. Even though Harold gets prime placement on the Scary Stories poster and the Jangly Man is the most active antagonist in the film, the Pale Lady is the creature most capable of searing a long-lasting image in your brain. The film version of the Pale Lady is a remarkably similar re-creation, and posed one of the biggest challenges for the filmmakers: How do you make images that are so dreamlike and translucent — drawn in “tendrils of ink” as del Toro puts it — feel substantial and threatening onscreen? This fine looking fellow seems to be called "The Jangly Man" in the movie, but in the book he is only ever referred to as a "great, gangling man." Fewer elaborate movements also meant less need for a CGI paintbrush to smooth out his action. Contortionist Troy “Twisty Troy” James acted out the parts of the horrifying Jangly Man. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark was a collection of short horror stories written by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by Stephen Gammell from 1981 to 1991. Jennifer Ouellette - Aug 11, 2019 1:00 pm UTC With Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, director André Øvredal and producer Guillermo del Toro illustrate why horror works better with practical monsters. In the final version of Scary Stories, he still has his classic splayed legs, doughy demeanor, and permanent grimace. Vulture spoke with del Toro and Øvredal about what the producer has dubbed a “young adult” horror movie, and dug into how they brought Gammell’s gossamer-thin sketches into its three-dimensional world. So if you grew up loving Alvin Schwartz's creepy tales and Stephen Gammell’s mind-melting illustrations, here are a few of the most upsetting monsters from the original series that you may or may not see in the film: If you've seen the trailer for the new Scary Stories movie, you already know that the scarecrow Harold finally gets his turn in the limelight. “It’s a very difficult balance because you have this wonderful creature, so you want to show off to the audience,” says Øvredal, who was frightened on set multiple times when he’d catch Harold’s creature actor walking around in full makeup. The older I get, the more sure I am that "High Beams" is the scariest story in the whole dang book. On Halloween 1968, Stella and her two friends meet a mysterious drifter, Ramón, and uncover a sinister notebook of stories. A ghost who walks around loudly looking for their toe may not sound overly scary, but the idea of eating a corpse toe and then later having to face that corpse, and explaining that you did, in fact, eat their big dead toe, is just viscerally and psychically unpleasant. So it’s keeping him at a distance and then every now and then letting him get his close-up when it really matters.” The elusiveness almost helps intensify the punch when Harold goes from stiff steps in and out of cornrows to running someone through with his pitchfork. While crawling, James’s vision was obscured because the eyes of the mask were placed on his chin. Is this reality? Despite some controversy, the series became a quintessential classic for kids craving an uncensored look into the world of the macabre. Also, the aforementioned Guillermo del Toro is part of the crew. First published in 1981, Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and its two sequels have become a famed rite of passage for many young readers. Share Richard Nixon and Vietnam are Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark's strangest monsters on Twitter. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. There’s a reason Harold’s signature gut is missing from the, This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google, Photo: CBS Films/2018 CBS Films Inc. and eOne Features LLC. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Nonetheless, Gammell's artwork is chilling as ever, and the unseen monster is beyond scary. Don't go playing in bogs at night, kids! The Gammell illustration is what really made this one. by Matt Bell. Many kids, as it turns out, want to be scared. Share This Page. Of all the streets in all the towns in all the world …. Big Toe Monster • Gangling Man • Bloody Head • The Thing • Jim • White Wolf • The Haunt • Alligators • Wendigo • Basket Woman • Slithery-Dee • Aaron Kelly • Cats • Bloody-Fingered Ghost: More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark The first time I read "The Wolf Girl," I remember thinking that it wasn't that scary. He may be an absolute terror dredged up from the deepest pits of hell... but at least Harold kind of has a motivation? But it seems like the ghost from the story "Haunted House" will also be making her way into the movie as a sort of framing device. The pair have been together for two years. We wanted to be very elaborate with the storytelling, but she was going to be the calming, creepy thing that just keeps going.”, Already a subscriber? "The Dead Hand" is one of those classic we-don't-really-see-the-monster tales. Low: P!nk … on video. Be kind to your scarecrows, folks. His dismembered body parts tumble out of the fireplace (as you do), and then he reassembles himself and dances around the room. “Originally we thought he would have eight legs,” del Toro explained. To bring their patchwork of torment to life, del Toro hired a dream team of creature creators — Mike Hill, Mike Elizalde, and Norman Cabrera — and instead of building the monsters via assembly line, each person was given a ghoul to oversee from the beginning of production to the end, including supervising and modifying the live actors and their costumes on set. And don't miss More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and Scary Stories … And good news, our friend the pale lady is for sure in the movie, where she appears to have found a new calling standing silently at the end of a long, creepy hallway. A girl gets raised by wolves and then she turns into a wolf. The movie takes place in 1969, giving the sense that the latex had a few decades to artificially age into something that looked like human skin. To create him, the filmmakers pulled from a few of Schwartz’s stories to make what del Toro calls “an amalgam” of various specters. “At the same time, you know the Alien idea that the less you show, the scarier it is. The filmic version might have a new name, but he looks every bit as limber and nauseating as his literary counterpart. I mean sure, technically "the spiders" aren't a singular monster but, the idea of spider living in your face is so deeply disturbing that they collectively deserve a spot on this list. Scary Stories to Tell in The Dark, around a campfire, at sleepovers or read online. In the story, two boys are bumming around when they come across a figure with rotting flesh (i.e. Their mom keeps warning them to cool it, or she'll send them a new mother, who will have glass eyes and a wooden tail. The director of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is Norwegian director André Øvredal. She appears to a woman in a dream, and then rolls up in real life just to be extra. This is big-screen horror for kids, after all, and while the cinematic Scary Stories monsters are frightening, it’s still PG-13 fare — that runs less than two hours long. 61. Some of the most skin-crawling creatures from the book just didn't make the cut. The Monsters in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Ranked by How Scary They Actually Are August 15, 2019 by Quinn Keaney What is real here?”. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark grossed $68.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $35.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $104.5 million. But when I tried to go to sleep that night, all I could see was the uncanny valley nightmare shape of Wolf Girl crouched in the corner of my room, growling her half human growls and staring directly into my soul with her mutant wolf eyes... and yeah, she's not my favorite. His creature master, Cabrera, experimented with burlap for the face, but didn’t like the look, settling instead on re-creating the withered appearance of an old latex Halloween mask, with a decomposition pattern that made it look like Harold wore a face made around the 1940s. Top 10 Scariest Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark - YouTube The comedian’s first post-rehab show serves as a reminder that he, like all of us, is coming out of the pandemic differently than he went in. It's well made and fun for horror fans, but it's too scary and edgy for younger viewers. Meet the Monsters of Scary Stories. In Schwartz's story “The Dream,” the wide-mouthed Pale Lady serves to warn the protagonist (and the... Sarah Bellows. But once the chunks of body assemble into a whole man, del Toro says his complete form was inspired by the limber dancing corpse from the tale “Aaron Kelly’s Bones,” which was meant to evoke the trauma Ramón experienced after losing his older brother to the war in Vietnam. Or at least, the design of the ghostly Sarah Bellows, who wrote the haunted book in the universe of the film, looks an awful lot like our good ol' haunted house ghost. The first time I read "The Wolf Girl," I remember thinking that it wasn't that … Taylor Swift Becomes the First Woman to Win Brits’ Global Icon Award, Little Mix Is the First Girl Group to Win the Brit Award for British Group, “This award isn’t just for us. To make the most of Harold’s camera time, the filmmakers chose not to have him pace about, as he does in the books, but instead dismount from his pole and advance in specific halting movements. The popular children’s books “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” have hit the big screen, thanks to Guillermo del Toro. All of the other monsters on this list are at least potentially non-human or undead in some way. And they especially like to sneak around behind grown-up's backs, swapping tales about corpse brides and slavering wolf girls when such behavior is expressly forbidden. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a series of three collections of short horror stories for children, written by Alvin Schwartz and originally illustrated by Stephen Gammell. Del Toro had previously cast James as a demon hound in the series The Strain, and he’s also stolen scenes with his Gumby-like body as Pretzel Jack in Channel Zero: Dream Door and this year’s reboot of Hellboy, in which he played the child-eating Baba Yaga. How Scary Is the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Movie? Narrated by Patton Oswalt, Melissa McBride, and Alex Brightman, this collection includes all three of Alvin Schwartz's classic story collections: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and Scary Stories 3. Shared. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a timeless collection of chillingly scary tales and legends, in which folklorist Alvin Schwartz offers up some of the most alarming tales of horror, dark revenge, and supernatural events of all time. In an earlier iteration of the movie, Harold was indeed bearing the belly, but the filmmakers eventually decided it looked too friendly to keep onscreen. All we see is a rotting, dead hand, which drags some guy named Tom into the darkness of the bog. But the fact that we never see this Wendigo, we just hear its victim shrieking in pain, makes this one of the rare Scary Stories monsters who's scarier without an accompanying illustration. She hears her roommate humming the tune "Oh, Susannah!" Log in or link your magazine subscription, “I wanted it to be like a relentless machine coming toward you,” André Øvredal says of the Pale Lady, “and confusing to the character. “One of the early decisions was that her nightgown would emerge directly from her skin,” del Toro explained. Expect moments of terror, a little blood, jump scares, and creepy monsters. The original book series by Alvin Schwartz is most famous for Stephen Gammell’s grotesque illustrations, visions of creatures that seem to have materialized out of evil mist, straight from a whirlpool of nightmares and onto the page. The Oscar-winning Mexican filmmaker has built his career on making impossibly hellish creatures feel possible (Pan’s Labyrinth, Mimic, Hellboy), and Øvredal, who is Norwegian, broke out with his documentary-style chronicle of a Nordic myth, Trollhunter. Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark is gateway horror that treats intended audiences to many a scream, pulling no punches nor watering down nightmarish conjurings that remind how healthy fearful emotions can be at any age. “I wanted it to be like a relentless machine coming toward you, and confusing to the character. The Highs, Lows, and Whoas of the 2021 Brit Awards. The Thing looks freaky, as monsters are wont to do. Wolf Girl. The Jangly Man enters the film by falling down a chimney in pieces, his waxy head arriving first, followed by his severed limbs, and finally, with a thump, his torso, echoing the original sequence from the book. What is real here?” says Øvredal, who had to meticulously map out the scene’s dizzying cuts — switching back and forth from one direction to another in a uniformly bright-red series of hallways — before he actually started to roll film. And, yes, when you see the Jangly Man crawling up some prison bars, that was indeed James hoisting himself up using his own strength. Community Contributor. This week’s Friday Night Movie Club pick celebrates the small things when it comes to courtship, such as holding hands and brushing past one another. Don't Be A Chicken And Take This Quiz To See Which "Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark" Monster You Are. Here’s everything you need to know about SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK. THE THING) —  and soon enough one of the boys finds himself afflicted by a very similar "illness." And yet — for '90s kids at least — the elementary school library was for one thing, and one thing alone: Huddling with all your friends in the darkest possible corner and reading about severed toes and freaking yourself out over the creepiest monsters in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. With Foo Fighters, Todd Rundgren, and Carole King rounding out the others. He previously made the fantastic The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016) along with the horror fairytale Troll Hunter (2010). monster wins for the whopping combo of "least description of all" and "weirdest, least relevant illustration." The actor underneath was told to make the creature seem “coy” in her movements — all while fighting the sweat of wearing thick foam. With its roots in Algonquian folklore, the Wendigo is hardly unique to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. *Sorry, there was a problem signing you up. “It was extremely carefully planned out how every edit and every in point and out point of every shot had to work. “The Big Toe” was the very first short story in the very first Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark book, centered on a young boy who digs a human toe up from his backyard. The story’s accompanying illustration is also one of Gammell’s most famous, featuring a grayish-white heap of a woman whose round head emerges from a formless body with high shoulders. One of James’s most famous moves is his ability to quickly and fluidly crabwalk while twisting his shoulders and hips into unfathomable positions, as though his body were double-jointed at every nexus. Don't look behind you. Ok! Directed by André Øvredal. When we think of chilling children's stories, two book series tend to come to mind: Goosebumps or, for mature readers, Alvin Schwartz’s "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark." Narrator: What makes "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" so, well, scary are the monsters. Is this a dream? But when she finally turns on the light, she's met with the gruesome sight of her roommate's dead, decapitated body. Elementary school libraries are supposed to be welcoming spaces, filled with literature and learning and inside voices. Is this a dream? Del Toro says her scene was the closest of all the vignettes to feeling like a dream. Parents need to know that Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a horror movie based on a popular series of books by Alvin Schwartz from the early 1980s. LL Cool J and Kraftwerk can get a special award, as a treat. serial killer?) It was one of the most frequently challenged series of the '90s, widely hated by parents for giving children nightmares and "making light of death." The Go-Go’s, Tina Turner, and Jay-Z Among 2021 Rock Hall of Fame Inductees. Produced and co-written by Oscar®-winner Guillermo del Toro (THE SHAPE OF WATER) and directed by horror master André Øvredal, SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK will hit theatres on August 9. The Wendigo of Scary Stories isn't even a flesh-eating cannibal, which is the more traditional move. They delight in the macabre. This made rehearsal time crucial. Alvin Schwartz put together a collection of spooky tales for kids based on ghost stories and urban legends. 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