Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (PG-13)
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This is based on a series of children's books that I've never read. But from what I'd read about the movie, I assumed I'd put my review under "family horror". Upon watching it, however, I decided to go with "supernatural horror", because I think it's too scary for pre-teens. Maybe it is less scary than most adult horror movies, but I would say not much less. Certainly I don't think there's any reason for adults not to enjoy the movie. I did. I've also read that the books had some very creepy drawings, which made them notorious. And that some of those drawings are faithfully adapted in the movie. So that's good. I certainly thought all the monsters were scary. Though there were also some real world horrors, including, in the background, Nixon's election, and somewhat more in the foreground, the Vietnam War, and some racism against one of the characters. All that, and ultimately a secret we learn about the family of the main antagonist in the movie.

Well. It all starts on Halloween night in 1968. Three friends, Stella, Auggie, and Chuck, prank a bully named Tommy and his friends, presumably to get back at them for torment they'd inflicted throughout high school. Unexpectedly, Chuck's sister Ruth was on a date with Tommy at the time. The bullies start chasing the three teenagers to get back at them for the prank. They end up hiding out in the car of a stranger named Ramon, at a drive-in movie. Later, Stella invites Ramon to go with them to a haunted house. It used to be the home of a woman named Sarah Bellows, in the late 19th century. Her family kept her locked inside, because of some supposed deformity. And apparently she would tell scary stories she wrote to children who could hear her through the wall of the house. But later she was blamed for poisoning and killing some children. (Stella eventually learns that Sarah was innocent, and what was actually responsible for the children's deaths, but I won't get into that other than to say it was scary on a couple of non-supernatural levels.)

The supernatural stuff starts happening after Stella finds Sarah's book of scary stories, and new stories start writing themselves on blank pages. Each story was about someone who had been in her house on Halloween, and over the next few days, those people start meeting with dark fates. Anyway, I don't want to spoil exactly which characters survived, nor do I wan to even try to describe the various monsters. But it's all damned creepy. And... I guess I don't know what else to say without spoiling things I don't want to spoil. But I definitely thought it was a good movie.