Directed by Andre Ovredal. Written by Don and Kevin Hageman, based on the very popular books by Alvin Schwartz. Starring Zoe Colletti, Michael Garza, Austin Zajur, Gabriel Rush, Natalie Ganzhorn, Gil Bellows and Javier Botet.
Plot: after some teens take a trip to a haunted house, they must spend the next few days fighting for their lives.
On Halloween night, in 1968, three teenagers escape a bully by hiding in another teenager’s car. After all the weird, humorous introduction, they invite him to go with him to see a real haunted house. The Bellows family used to live in this house and their daughter Sarah was apparently a sick individual who killed children in the town. And even after she hung herself, if teenagers would come by the house and ask her to tell them a story, she would. And then they’d go missing themselves. For some reason, while still in the house, Stella (Colletti) asks Sarah to tell them a story. It goes very wrong.
If you’ve read the books and seen the trailers, you know some creepy goodness is coming your way in the form of Harold, the Big Toe Woman, the Pale Lady and the Me Tie Doughty Walker thing. For us personally, Harold was always our favorite story, but in the movie the Big Toe woman got us. Thanks in large part to Javier Botet who always plays creepy so well.
Altogether, the movie wasn’t as creepy as we thought it’d be, but it is rated PG-13. We’re still so happy it came to life on the big screen though and we’re looking forward to the sequel that they’re obviously planning on making. Nostalgia rocks!! As for the rest, the teenagers were actually likable, the movie followed rules, it had a satisfying and funny script, a great cast, awesome specials, and good direction, too. It was even a little sad in parts. It was a complete story with a good beginning, middle and end and we don’t often see that in horror these days.
And one more thing, the message was a good one. “Stories can hurt. Stories can heal.”
My score: 84. DJ’s score: 74.
I think it could have been better with some campy blood. These PG-13 films have clean horror and it gets a little depressing.
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We really liked it, but we agree. Horror movies are generally better with R ratings. We didn’t realize this one was catering so much to a younger demographic.
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