Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Producers Offer Sequel Update

Filmmaker André Øvredal brought to life Alvin Schwartz and Stephen Gammell’s beloved Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books for a Halloween-themed adventure, with the nature of the books and their collections of short stories allowing for dozens more tales of terror to be adapted for the big screen, with the producers of the original film offering a tepid response about the franchise’s future. Dan and Kevin Hageman shared with Collider that they weren’t “giving up hope” on the project, which would imply that there have been some significant obstacles that could diminish those hopes. The pair did admit, however, that the development of the sequel was delayed due to this year’s writers’ strike, though with that strike having since been resolved, it’s possible progress could resume.

Speaking with the outlet, the duo confessed that they can’t “speak definitively on it” and that there had been “hiccups,” and while Dan noted that they “can’t say anything,” Kevin concluded, “All I’m saying is we’re in conversations talking about how to keep this franchise alive. We’re fighting a good fight for it so that hopefully someday we’ll see it.”

Just earlier this year, Øvredal similarly mentioned that he had enthusiasm for the project and detailed how not only had development been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, but also that his focus on the vampire film The Last Voyage of the Demeter had seen the sequel be put on the backburner.

“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 IGN back in August. “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.  

While the original books were collections of short stories, the film was somewhat of an anthology, though its narrative subjected its protagonists to the events of those adventures, with its conclusion teasing that the journey was far from over. Whether we’ll see those characters again is yet to be revealed.  

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

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