Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark kept me up for hours on end when I was a kid. These folktales of horror were amazingly frightening. I still have that story about a big toe planted in a garden burnt in my brain… “Where is my big toe???” Eww… Just thinking about this gives me the creeps. What’s worse is the artwork by Stephen Gammel. Those black and white illustrations are the stuff that nightmares are made of.
I mean seriously…
At any rate, you can imagine how excited I am that creep-weirdo-horror-impresario Guillermo del Toro is helming the film “adaptation” of these literary horrors. Kinda.
Today it was announced that Michael Garza (Hunger Games), Austin Abrams (The Walking Dead), Gabriel Rush (The Grand Budapest Hotel), Austin Zajur (Fist Fight), and Natalie Ganzhorn (Make it Pop) will be staring in the film that centers around a group of teens who are tasked with solving the mystery of horrific deaths in their town. Those of us who grew up with these stories will be happy to hear that the Human Scarecrow and The Red Spot (remember the girl who has spiders crawling out of her face… ewwwwwww) will be featured in the film as well as other nods to Schwartz’s material.
It’s important to point out that del Toro is NOT directing this, he’s just producing. Andre Ovredal from Trollhunter and The Autopsy of Jane Doe will be taking the reigns as director. As creepy as Trollhunter and Jane Doe are, I’m sure we’re in for a treat.
A release date has not been set yet, but you can put money on the fact that I’ll be there opening night ready to get the crap scared out of me.
