Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark Teaser Trailer Explained

CBS have just dropped the trailer for their upcoming horror: Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark and throughout this video we’ll be breaking down everything that you need to know about the film.

This is full spoilers ahead here so if you want to go into the movie as blind as possible then I highly recommend that you turn off now.

For everyone else, sit back, relax and let’s dive into my break down of Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark.

Trailer Breakdown

The trailer opens with the haunting voice of ‘Sarah Bellows‘ who says ‘This Town Has Told Stories About Me’ referring to the town of Mill Valley, a picturesque 1950s American town which is the setting for the film. However, she rebuts it by stating that she has some stories of her own.

Which is when the children who are the protagonists of the film discover her book.

The film centres around these kids who have been brought together to solve the mystery of a bunch of horrific murders that have happened in the town and this is the main thrust of the plot.

We are then given glimpses at the monsters as they slowly begin to track down and terrorise the children.

It seems to be pretty closely playing to the original source material and for those who don’t know, Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark is a series of children’s horror books written by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by Stephen Gammell.

Guillermo del Toro is really going back to his childhood with this one and from the tone of the trailer it seems that this is going to be more than just a kids movie.

The film itself appears to be adopting certain aspects of the books and putting them together into one single narrative which ill now go into.

The Big Toe

The first story that appears to have made it’s way to the big screen is: The Big Toe.

This short tale is arguably one of the source material’s most famous and it follows the tale of a young boy who due to starvation eats a toe that he finds on the ground. This puts the toes owner, a decrepid old woman on the quest for revenge, cos hey, who wants their big toe eaten, as she tracks him down to make she that she gets it back in more ways than one.

Whilst it’s unlikely that the cannibal elements will make it to the movie, it does appear that the story will still derive heavily from the original.

The Pale Lady

Another character that is definitely hitting cinemas is The Pale Lady. This grotesque, bloated and monsterous woman can be seen stalking our characters one night in an empty School.

Don’t let her weight make you feel like she will be easy to get away from though as The Pale Lady is able to teleport and this makes her a pretty hard to escape foe.

The Pale Lady comes from a story in which she haunts a girls dreams, stalking her throughout it and then grabbing her arm in real life and waking her up.

The Red Spot

Next up is The Red spot which in the trailer seems to be taking place in the same location as the Pink Lady. In that story, after a girl is bitten on the cheek by a spider, she comes to realise that one has infact impregnated her and at the end of the story a group of spiders come crawling out of her face.

Harold

Harold is arguably the trailers biggest selling point. This gruesome scarecrow is currently making up a lot of the marketing material and seems to be the film’s main focus right now so it’s fair to say that he will play a big part.

Harold in the books comes alive and skins one of the farmers that owns him. This could potentially kick start the murders in the town and will probably be how the film opens.

The Jangly Man

And last but not least is The Jangly Man. This is a completely new creation for the film and he seems to be attacking the children in some sort of Barn.

This could link to the farm that the murders by Harold happened on and it would make sense for the teens to visit this location. Harold also has huge spider like arms and he could even be a fully grown version of the spiders that crawl out of the girls face in The Red Spot which would interweave the stories for an overall narrative.

The Last Shot

The last shot of the trailer appears to show the ghost of Sarah Bellows and it makes sense to have her in the film as this ultimately seems like her quest for revenge against the town that hated her. Whilst I don’t think she will kill the kids, the adults are fair game and it would be awesome if she laid the town to ruins in the films final moments.