Movies
Guillermo del Toro Confirms That Creatures in ‘Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark’ Will Be True to Book Illustrations
Perhaps even more iconic than the actual stories found inside of Alvin Schwartz’s three Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books are the illustrations, which came courtesy of Stephen Gammell. The terrifying artwork is largely what made the books so scary, and we’re very glad to hear that those drawings will be brought to life in André Øvredal‘s film adaptation.
Answering a question from Birth.Movies.Death’s Scott Wampler, producer Guillermo del Toro promises that the creatures in the movie will be faithful to Gammell’s drawings…
Yes.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) August 27, 2018
From what we’ve recently heard, early drafts of the script featured the scarecrow from Harold and the girl with spiders coming out of her face from The Red Spot.
“Inspired by one of the most terrifying book series of all time, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark follows a group of teens who must solve the mystery surrounding a wave of spectacularly horrific deaths in their small town.”
Young actress Zoe Colletti (Annie) was the first name to be announced from the ensemble, with the full cast now including Michael Garza (Wayward Pines, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1), Austin Abrams (Brad’s Status, The Americans), Gabriel Rush (Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel), Austin Zajur (Fist Fight, Kidding), and Natalie Ganzhorn (Make it Pop, Wet Bum).
Kevin Hageman and Dan Hageman (LEGO Movie, Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia) co-wrote the screenplay with Academy Award-winner Guillermo del Toro and Patrick Melton & Marcus Dunstan (The Collector, Saw IV-VII, Feast, Piranha 3D) from the bestselling trilogy of books by Alvin Schwartz.
The film is being produced by Guillermo del Toro as well as Sean Daniel and Jason Brown of Hivemind along with Academy Award-winner J. Miles Dale and Elizabeth Grave.
Scary Stories is expected to release in 2019.
Movies
‘Abigail’ on Track for a Better Opening Weekend Than Universal’s Previous Two Vampire Attempts
In the wake of Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man back in 2020, Universal has been struggling to achieve further box office success with their Universal Monsters brand. Even in the early days of the pandemic, Invisible Man scared up $144 million at the worldwide box office, while last year’s Universal Monsters: Dracula movies The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Renfield didn’t even approach that number when you COMBINE their individual box office hauls.
The horror-comedy Renfield came along first in April 2023, ending its run with just $26 million. The period piece Last Voyage of the Demeter ended its own run with a mere $21 million.
But Universal is trying again with their ballerina vampire movie Abigail this weekend, the latest bloodbath directed by the filmmakers known as Radio Silence (Ready or Not, Scream).
Unlike Demeter and Renfield, the early reviews for Abigail are incredibly strong, with our own Meagan Navarro calling the film “savagely inventive in terms of its vampiric gore,” ultimately “offering a thrill ride with sharp, pointy teeth.” Read her full review here.
That early buzz – coupled with some excellent trailers – should drive Abigail to moderate box office success, the film already scaring up $1 million in Thursday previews last night. Variety notes that Abigail is currently on track to enjoy a $12 million – $15 million opening weekend, which would smash Renfield ($8 million) and Demeter’s ($6 million) opening weekends.
Working to Abigail‘s advantage is the film’s reported $28 million production budget, making it a more affordable box office bet for Universal than the two aforementioned movies.
Stay tuned for more box office reporting in the coming days.
In Abigail, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
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