Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark: Ending Explained Breakdown

Those looking for some scary stories to tell in the dark are in for a real treat as the horror adaptation makes it’s way across cinemas.

Throughout this video I’ll be breaking down everything that you need to know about the movie and discussing how we may see the series return to our screens with a whole new host of characters.

There will be heavy spoilers here, so if you haven’t seen the movie yet and don’t want to know what happens then I highly suggest that you turn off now.

With that out the way, I just wanna give a huge thank you for clicking this video now let’s get into my ending explained breakdown of Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark.

Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark Plot Recap

The film picks up in the town of Mill Valley, America, during the late sixties. In it, we follow a small group of youngsters who come across the journal of Sarah Bellows after going into her mansion on Halloween.

Sarah is notorious in the area as are the Bellows who have a reputation in the town for murdering children there, so yeah, 1 star review, avoid avoid avoid. Anyway, as the kids didn’t have trip advisor back then they mistakingly disturb Sarah’s old room and because of this, the journal begins to fill with stories about how the children will die after being tormented by a dark creature.

The movie expertly crafts it’s setting and even though this is primarily being labeled a kids movie, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t disturbing throughout. Each creature has it’s own unique and disgusting feature that really makes all of their appearances on screen memorable and pure nightmare fuel. The film does an expert job of adapting the source material by Alvin Schwartz whilst also introducing its own creatures such as the Jangly Man who will probably stick with you long after you leave the cinema. In addition to this, there is Harold, who is in a field of his own, The Red Spot that turns out to be more than a bad case of Angry Acne, the dream that is anything but and the big toe that will have anyone with a foot fetish climbing the walls. Each one really captures your attention and as the children are slowly picked off one by one we are left with a handful of survivors, most notably Stella.

Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark Ending Explained

Stella wants to become a writer and during the movie, she realises that in order to free themselves from the curse that she has to expose the truth about the Bellows to the town. After returning to the house she comes face to face with Sarah and after seeing first hand what she went through at the hands of her family promises to bring light to it and write about it.

This seemingly allows Sarah to rest who takes the creatures with her that she unleashed, mainly the Jangly man who was getting eerily close to taking Ramon, Stella’s close friend. The curse is lifted and Stella exposes the truth about the Bellows to the town though we get the impression that not everyone believes it. Ramon is drafted into the Vietnam war which is a pretty heartwrenching moment especially as Stella pens him a letter that reveals her feelings for him and overall it’s an ending that sets up a lot down the line.

Most notably because the final scene in the film reveals that Stella didn’t return Sarah’s Journal to the haunted mansion. Instead, Stella along with her father and friend Ruthie who’s probably going to be scarred for the rest of her life with arachnophobia, believe that there is a way that they can bring back their fallen friends. Both of these were absorbed by the creatures and thus Stella thinks that there is hope that they can come back.

Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark Sequel

During the film, Sarah received a pen from Sarah that when dipped in blood could add to the journal and this could allow her to craft her own creatures and stories that could potentially bring back her lost friends.

We follow the three as they drive off on their mission to discover the truth behind the book and how the magic in it works. We get the feeling that though they were able to quell Sarah’s rage and therefore lift the curse, they haven’t actually discovered what allowed her to get revenge from beyond the grave and this is one of the movie’s biggest mysteries.

I think going forward the group will trace the route of the power behind the book as well as where the stories themselves actually originate from. With this power still being out somewhere in the world that means that there could be more dangers those who’ve read the original Scary Stories will know that each tale has it’s own long and dark history.

The Big Toe And More Explained

For example, The Big Toe comes from a story in which a boy saw a big toe sticking out of the ground in his garden and he yanked on it really hard and pulled it out the ground. This caused the body that it was attached to it to track him down and there’s a lot that you could do with this sort of tale in terms of discussing how the body got there and so on. Whilst I don’t think that that story necessarily would be adapted just because it’s already featured in this film and we have had some hints towards what happened, Schwartz has written over 80 stories, each with its own unique and evil creature and there’s a vast wealth of material to pull from in terms of plot devices going forward.

I think that the next movie has the potential to be even darker than this one with the three perhaps being chased across America after unwittingly unearthing more monsters from the other side.

Either way, there’s a lot of things that could happen going forward and I’m really excited to see which scary stories we have coming down the line.

Movie Review

I think Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark is a brilliant film and one that definitely feels like a really good example of how children’s horror can work and still be very menacing. I was born in the 80s and grew up in the 90s where kids cartoons and so on all had a dark side to them that seemed to disappear around the turn of the Millenium, only to be replaced by rather soft and overly friendly shows so it’s great to see something in the genre that feels like a call back to those days as I think it’s sorely missed.

This movie is designed to give children nightmares and I genuinely think that it’s gonna succeed in that goal and I don’t have any doubt that in twenty years when they’ve grown up, many people will refer to this as the thing that kept them up at night when they were little.

It’s a really enjoyable film that creates some brilliant new horror icons that will no doubt stick with many and though the film isn’t perfect it still does way more good than bad.

I had a great time with scary stories to tell in the dark and that’s why it gets an…