Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is an efficient, attractive and well put together film. It didn't scare me at all, but in this most predictable and prescriptive of genres, that's hardly unusual. If horrors are your thing, I reckon you'll still find plenty to enjoy here.

The stories that made it to the big screen range from the overtly horrific - an abused scarecrow stalks a bully in a cornfield - to the ickier side of things: a germ-phobic finds a toe in his soup. Indeed, there is a surfeit of gross-out moments here, no surprise considering Del Toro's involvement.

...drab and listless spookshow.

The plot takes many twists with an ingeniously designed set of monsters creating havoc at regular intervals.

If you're not in the mood for messages or social commentary, however, "Scary Stories" is still fertile enough with its accessible gross-outs and giggle shocks to serviceably add to a legacy of kid-centric mainstream mayhem Del Toro clearly loves.

There's a sincere fondness for the power of imagination, one that makes the film more than a nostalgia-delivery device. If only it were scarier.

There is absolutely nothing original in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, which just goes to show that you don't need originality to be effective.

Terrifyingly mediocre.

The emotions of the stories have been lost. We could be watching the standard ghoulish CGI effects that take place in any horror movie of the week.

If Alvin Schwartz's popular "Scary Stories" children's books condensed folklore into an accessible anthology form, "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark," an agreeable bit of fan service, performs a similar gateway function for movies.