“Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” Movie Review

    It is getting around the time of year when studios start releasing spooky films in hopes they might have legs until Halloween, however some studios release their films around summer in time for a Halloween release on home video.  “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” decided to gamble on a late summer release so it will be interesting to see if the film does better on DVD and Blu-ray than it did at the multiplex.  The film is based on the book series by Alvin Schwartz and the illustrations by Stephen Gammell.

    The film tells the story of friends Stella, Auggie and Chuck as they get their revenge on bully Tommy on Halloween night only to have Tommy chase them to a local drive in theater where the trio hide in the vehicle of Ramón.  The group decides to check out the Bellows haunted house after and they discover a secret room where Sarah Bellows was supposedly locked away.  The group get locked away in the room when Tommy finds them.  Upon discovering the diary of Sarah Bellows, they are eerily set free and each go home.  The diary begins to add a scary story by itself about the bully Tommy and a scarecrow.  Once Tommy goes missing, the group realize that maybe something is going on with the diary and they are write, for the book begins to write scary stories about them all.  Now they must race to figure out how to stop the diary before it is too late.

    Let me start by saying this is an enjoyable horror film geared towards the pre teen demographic.  The film contains plenty of jump scares and twisted visuals but nothing too graphic either.  The creepy visuals might by too much for some younger visuals but young adults will no doubt enjoy the frights.  It’s amazing how the drawings of the book seem to come alive and the visual flair of Guillermo del Toro is easy to see in the movie.  It is definitely a creepy experience.

    The story plays out with plenty of scares but not much character development.  The four main characters aren’t given a lot to do except seem scared.  Gabriel Rush reminds me of a young Jason Sudeikis but that was about all I took away from his performance, while Austin Zajur seemed to channel Shia LaBeouf throughout the film.

    One aspect that I thought took something away from the movie slightly was that the film shared a plot that was very similar to the recent “Goosebumps” adaptation.  Seeing as how both films were also based on popular young adult horror books, it slightly took away from an overall enjoyable film going experience.  They just needed to change up the plot device a bit more in my opinion.

    “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” will probably never be considered a classic but it has such a unique style that it shouldn’t fade away completely either.  It is an overall enjoyable popcorn flick and I have a feeling the film will be destined to cult classic status at the very least.

Grade: B-

“Hellboy” (2009) Movie Review

    I really enjoyed Guillermo del Toro’s “Hellboy” film years ago and actually enjoyed the sequel, “Hellboy II: The Golden Army”, even more.  I was always holding out hope that perhaps with time, a third movie to round out the envisioned trilogy would materialize.  There seemed to be some hope a few years back but del Toro began to accept the fact that most studios had no interest in a third Hellboy film.  Well, I guess they ‘did’ have interest in a reboot however, and Lionsgate moves forward with the remake without any of the original core players.

    The movie retells the origin of Hellboy but also focuses on the story of the Blood Queen Nimue and how the two interconnect.  Nimue was a powerful witch in the dark ages and was unable to be killed due to her dark powers.  The only person able to stop her was King Arthur due to his holy weapon Excalibur.  King Arthur chopped her into pieces and sent those pieces far away from each in hopes she would never be reunited with them.  The movie then shifts back to focusing primarily on Hellboy and in this movie, he is already an established agent of the B.P.R.D. and is sent on a mission to help kill three giants in Britain following a mishap in Mexico.  While on the mission, the hunters try to kill Hellboy before he manages to escape.  Hellboy is rescued by a friend named Alice.  While this is happening, a creature known as Gruagach has managed to recapture all of the Blood Queen’s pieces and now that she is whole again, it is up to Hellboy to stop her.

    Well, as you could probably guess from the description, there is a lot going on in this movie.  While some movies manage to handle complicated plots with a tightly paced script, this is just sadly a hot mess.  That is really sad because I like the character of Hellboy and enjoyed the other films Guillermo del Toro made featuring the character, this remake misses the mark though.  I am not completely sure why the filmmakers didn’t notice the film was all over the place during editing.  I feel like this movie could have been salvaged some in the editing room but perhaps the filmmakers felt the world building for a possible sequel was too important.

    Now, I did enjoy the cast for the most part.  David Harbour was enjoyable as Hellboy though I think Ron Perlman was better in the role.  I am not even sure why they felt the need to replace Perlman since the character is heavily in makeup.  Perhaps it is because of Harbour’s fame in “Stranger Things” but that seems odd since most people don’t know him by name and they put him in makeup which heavily resembled Ron Perlman’s Hellboy.  I like Ian McShane as well and he was fine in the role of Hellboy’s father but doesn’t quite fit the role.  McShane is gruff and doesn’t have the warmth that John Hurt had in the role before him.  Milla Jovovich was very over the top in this movie and I personally did not enjoy her in the film.

    This movie’s biggest fault however was that it almost felt like it couldn’t figure out if it wanted to be a complete reboot or a lose sequel and lacked it’s own voice.  The parts that were Neil Marshall inspired didn’t work, I thought Thomas Haden Church as the Lobster was terrible and took me out of the film.  The best parts of the film were the parts that felt lifted directly from Guillermo del Toro.  A lot of the creature designs and makeup effects were incredible.

    I wanted to enjoy this film but the movie was just a hot mess.  There were things you might enjoy about the film and it isn’t quite as bad as some critics made it out to be, but it wasn’t good either.  It’s a shame since the character deserves better.

Grade: D