Anna Daniels
If you liked seeing the controversial children’s horror collection Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark adapted on the big screen last year, we have good news. Paramount Pictures is developing a sequel with Entertainment One that will bring back the primary creative team behind the camera and on the page.
The Hollywood Reporter has word on a Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark sequel after the first movie raked in nearly $106 million at the worldwide box office on an estimated budget of about $25 million. Director André Øvredal is slated to return behind the camera while writers Dan Hageman and Kevin Hageman will again have scripting duties. However, CBS Films, the distributor of the original movie, is now defunct after the Viacom merger with CBS, so Paramount Pictures is now in charge.
However, it’s not clear if Guillermo del Toro will be involved in the sequel this time. The Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy filmmaker produced the film and also wrote the screen story, which clearly gave him a lot of influence on the movie. If he’s only going to be involved tangentially as an executive producer, then there’s the risk of a follow-up not being as satisfying as the first film.
Despite only being PG-13, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark was quite the horrifying movie. Even though it had some on-the-nose political commentary courtesy of its late 1960s setting, our review by Chris Evangelista accurately paints the movie as a gateway for young horror fans to become obsessed with the genre and find even more terrifying films as they get older.
The first Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark movie told the tales of The Haunted House, Me Tie Dough-ty Walker, Harold, The Big Toe, The Red Spot, and The Pale Lady. But there are plenty of other stories left in the first book by Alvin Schwartz, not to mention the sequels More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and Scary Stories 3, that could be utilized for the movie sequel. Each book contains rough 25 stories, so there’s plenty of inspiration available. Perhaps there’s even a chance that some of the stories could be original creations by the writers.
As for when we might see the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark sequel, it depends on how things move forward at Hollywood in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Lots of analysts are predicting sweeping changes in the industry that could drastically shake up the studio system, possibly permanently. It’s early in development, but there’s a chance the movie could come together in time for a Halloween release next year. But the first movie came out in August, so maybe it won’t be quite as timely to the spooky season. Stay tuned as more information becomes available.
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