Guillermo del Toro Offers New Details on His ‘Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark’ Adaptation

The Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series of books launched in 1984 and consisted of three entries, ultimately delivering readers dozens of terrifying tales. Each book was aimed at younger audiences, but the effective writing of Alvin Schwartz and eerie illustrations from Stephen Gammell left a major impact on its readers. With the books lacking an overall narrative that tied the tales together, audiences have been wondering how the upcoming feature film adaptation would draw inspiration from its source material, with Guillermo del Toro recently opening up about the process of selecting which stories to bring to life for the film.

“We did an American Idol with the stories in the writers’ room,” del Toro shared at an event debuting the film’s first teaser [H/T Entertainment Weekly]. “We were saying, ‘Which are your favorite?’ We distilled it to the five or six that we like the most. Some of them are told in their entirety, some others are referenced. Those that know the books will see more than people that haven’t read the book.… But we basically distilled it to the ones that everybody seems to remember the most. The books obviously have many many more stories, so this could go on and on. But we said, ‘Let’s do greatest hits.’”

The movie’s synopsis reads, “It’s 1968 in America. Change is blowing in the wind…but seemingly far removed from the unrest in the cities is the small town of Mill Valley where for generations, the shadow of the Bellows family has loomed large. It is in their mansion on the edge of town that Sarah, a young girl with horrible secrets, turned her tortured life into a series of scary stories, written in a book that has transcended time—stories that have a way of becoming all too real for a group of teenagers who discover Sarah’s terrifying home.”

Del Toro was previously attached to direct the film, though he handed those duties over to André Øvredal (TrollHunter, The Autopsy of Jane Doe) with del Toro serving as a producer. The filmmaker also revealed his first experience with the stories and how they stuck with him for decades.

“I basically was roaming through a bookstore, in San Antonio, Texas,” del Toro confessed. “I was in my early teens, and I came upon this volume that had an irresistible title: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. The cover illustration was so creepy, and I started browsing it, and the illustrations got me first, but Alvin Schwartz’s retelling of the tales was incredibly efficient and lean and mean. It really was like having a campfire between those two covers.”

Fans can check out Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark when it lands in theaters on August 9th.

Are you looking forward to checking out the film? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!

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