Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Director Offers Sequel Update

Director André Øvredal brought to life a number of creepy tales from the beloved books for his Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark movie in 2019, with the film’s successes resulting in a sequel being announced in 2020. Between the coronavirus pandemic and the current writers’ strike, Øvredal confirmed to IGN that plans are still in the works to move forward with a follow-up, but that progress on the sequel has stagnated. Additionally, the filmmaker has spent the last few years bringing his new film The Last Voyage of the Demeter to life, so it’s unclear when development will resume on his Scary Stories sequel.

“We have a story. We have a script. We’ve been working on the script as late as last year and even slightly into this year,” Øvredal detailed to the outlet. “The process obviously stopped with the strike — but it’s alive, for sure. COVID and then [The Last Voyage of the Demeter] eating up two years of my life certainly put a dent in the progress.”

In the original film, 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.  

The structure of that first film allowed its protagonists to become entwined in iconic stories from the original books, written by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by Stephen Gammell. While the film ended with a tease that the friends who fell victim to these supernatural events would be saved, it’s unknown if a follow-up will continue that narrative or find another way to adapt beloved stories.

Øvredal previously teased that one difference he was planning on embracing for the sequel was incorporating more visual nods to the artwork from Gammell than the first movie.

“I learned so much on Scary Stories, but also about Scary Stories and I do think that we’ll tap even more into Gammell’s visual world in the sequel than we did in the first movie,” Øvredal shared with Collider in 2020.  

Stay tuned for updates on the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark sequel. 

Are you looking forward to the sequel? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!