Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

A closer look at the story

It is 1968 in the small town of Mill Valley, Pennsylvania, and the winds of change are blowing across America. On Halloween night, Stella and her friends pull a prank on the school bully and then decide to slip into an old mansion on the edge of town that is said to be haunted. The house once belonged to the Bellows family, the most powerful in town, whose shadow still hangs over the place. According to local legend, Sarah, the family's secretive young member, is at the heart of terrifying tales. When the teenagers find a book in which those tales are written, the nightmare begins: the stories in the book come true one after another, unleashing dark forces they cannot control. Directed by André Øvredal, this 108-minute 2019 horror film stars Zoe Colletti, Michael Garza, Gabriel Rush and Dean Norris.