The first full trailer for upcoming film Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark is here and its one you should watch with the lights on. The film, which adapts several memorable tales from Alvin Schwartzs book of short stories, is out August 9th.
The trailer reveals a solid look at how the film, which was produced and developed by Guillermo del Toro and directed by Trollhunters Andr vredal, will combine several stories into one narrative. The clip includes a few characters familiar to book readers, including Harold the murderous scarecrow, the Pale Lady and Mr. Jangly. The story seems to involve a group of teens who realize the stories are coming to life and become haunted by each scary tale.
Del Toro told journalists recently that he discovered the infamous story collection a few decades ago and was inspired by their illustrations, which were done by Stephen Gammell. We tried to re-create the exact drawings that Stephen did, three-dimensionally, Del Toro said. We went to huge lengths. We did it like an animation, sculpted it, dressed it. We didnt do a [CGI] approach. That counts for a lot.
He also explained that the film is not an anthology of separate stories, but one longer story. [Anthology] is something I love, but theyre always as bad as the worst story, he said. Its a YA movie about childhood around a time when things were changing forever, around 1968 and 1969. Its the end of childhood in many ways a crucial time for America We didnt retrofit the characters to the stories. We adapted the characters to the story.