Review:

Why didn't they just make an anthology movie? You could use the frame of "kids find creepy book of horror stories", but then get through six or seven of the stories from the book instead of just doing a PG-13 version of that disappointing Goosebumps movie. Scary Stories is only produced by del Toro, so we get little flashes of his style, but that's about it. The creature design is a mixture of costumes, light saturation, and some CGI. As production stills, they look fine, but they don't look nearly as great in action. The entire appeal of the movie is seeing bits from the books come to life, so I won't spoil any of the creatures in the film, but I will say that most of them don't look life-like. There is a huge difference between the practical effects of The Thing, which look inhuman, and the ones in Scary Stories, that just look like costumes. They are well made and though out costumes, but none of them feel real or like anything other than an actor in costume. The story is clearly inspired by the 2015 Goosebumps movie, as it's story is very similar. Again, this would have worked so much better as a series of short stories (you know, like the book is) rather than a generic PG-13 horror movie in the two-thousand-somethings that runs of jump scares and a vaguely attractive cast that clearly weren't hired for their acting abilities. None of the actors are terrible, but none of them are are good. The lead actress is particularly lackluster, but it wouldn't have been as glaring had they not had her character cry so much, because that is here worst performance. I also really didn't like the shoe-horned politics in the film. There is no real reason for the story to take place furring the '68 election other than for the writers to take cheap shots at the Republican Party. I understand setting it in a pre-digital era can eliminate a lot of the "Why don't they just use their cell phones?" kind of issues, but a generic time zone would have worked fine, there is no story line reason for the politics other than that Hollywood seems to think they need some political bullshit or ham-fisted social commentary in all of their films. The only real enjoyment I got were the "Hey, I remember that!" and "Oh! That's the lady from the story in Book 1!". The Chuck character does have a few funny lines, but his character is so inconsistent that I never knew what to expect from him. Really, every character is about half developed and then they just act however the movies needs them to act for the "story" to progress. I hate for any movie to fail, but a part of me wishes this one did so that Netflix or HBO or whoever to reboot Scary Stories as a miniseries or so a major studio could do the books justice. Scary Stories is better than absolute garbage horror like Friend Request, Judas Ghost, and Hangover 2, but it's not good. There are no noteworthy things this film does right. Had del Toro directed and produced the film, his flair and talent could have fixed is, but what we got feels like a cheap cash-grab.