History Film / ScaryStoriesToTellInTheDark2019

%% * AlbinosAreFreaks: Sarah Bellows was persecuted by her own family and locked away from the world because she was born albino. However, in life she was actually a hero who tried to save the town from her family, as their mill operations were poisoning the water supply. Sarah's family successfully convinced the townspeople that Sarah was a witch who was responsible for the deaths of several children, making them see her as evil. As a spirit, Sarah [[ThenLetMeBeEvil embraces her dark side]] and becomes evil for real. However, she does still have a heart and repents at the end of the movie.

%% * AlbinosAreFreaks: Sarah Bellows was persecuted by her own family and locked away from the world because she was born albino. However, in life she was actually a hero who tried to save the town from her family, as their mill operations were poisoning the water supply. Sarah's family successfully convinced the townspeople that Sarah was a witch who was responsible for the deaths of several children, making them see her as an EvilAlbino. As a spirit, Sarah [[ThenLetMeBeEvil embraces her dark side]] and becomes evil for real. However, she does still have a heart and repents at the end of the movie.

* EvilAlbino: A complicated example. [[spoiler: Sarah Bellows was persecuted by her own family and locked away from the world because she was born albino. However, in life she was actually a hero who tried to save the town from her family, as their mill operations were poisoning the water supply. Sarah's family successfully convinced the townspeople that Sarah was a witch who was responsible for the deaths of several children, making them see her as an EvilAlbino. As a spirit, Sarah [[ThenLetMeBeEvil embraces her dark side]] and becomes evil for real. However, she does still have a heart and repents at the end of the movie.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Stella manages to save herself and Ramón by promising to tell the world about how Sarah Bellows was not the monster that the stories about her painted her as, but rather a victim of her own family, with Sarah then stopping the stories from coming true. However, Ramón is drafted to Vietnam, but Stella promises to write him letters every day, and Auggie, Chuck, and presumably Tommy are still missing. The final scene has Stella, her father, and Ruth, who has since recovered from her attack, setting out to find a way to save them from their stories, with Stella still being in possession of Sarah’s book.]]

* MenAreTheExpendableGender: [[spoiler:All four of the characters who get killed onscreen are male, with Sarah Bellows having died offscreen years ago and her female victims only referenced as names in the book. Ruth survives with a scarred face and Stella survives with minor injury, with Ramon as the only male targeted by the book to survive.]]

* GreatestHitsAlbum: In a non-musical way, the film is something of a "best hits" of the ''Scary Stories'' books, with the characters each getting subjected to some of the most famous stories. Specifically, [[spoiler:"Harold", "The Big Toe", "The Red Spot", "The Dream", ""Me Tie Dough-ty Walker!" and "The Haunted House" are represented visually; lesser stories are briefly glimpsed in Sarah and Stella's works, such as "Sam's New Pet" and "The Wendigo".]]

* KickTheSonOfABitch: While the book targets sympathetic characters for victims as well, [[spoiler: Tommy and Chief Turner are both racist and antagonistic to the teenagers, and Tommy is particularly loathsome. Both get more violent (at least onscreen) deaths than Auggie or Chuck, with Tommy stabbed in the chest with a pitchfork before he is transformed by Harold and Chief Turner being the only victim who is straight-up ''murdered'', via NeckSnap.]]

* DraftDodging: [[spoiler:Ramon is actively avoiding being sent to Vietnam, considering it a death trap with no hope of victory. He finally embraces his duty at the end of the movie.]]

* WouldHurtAChild: It is implied that [[spoiler: the Bellows family blinded Claire Baptiste when she was a child beacuse she helped Sarah hide from them while they were hunting her.]]

** [[spoiler:Chuck's parents also have a daughter who has to be institutionalized after a traumatic, unexplainable incident.]]

* ArtisticLicenceBiology: Ruth has spider eggs laid under her skin despite that no species of spider lays eggs in humans. This is justified though since the parasitic spiders are supernatural monsters summoned by a ghost not real ones.

* BalefulPolymorph: Almost literally, in this case, when [[spoiler:Tommy is forcibly turned into a scarecrow after being stabbed by Harold. Being stuffed with straw, he is literally a "bale"ful polymorph.]]

* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:Auggie, Chuck, Tommy, and Chief Turner are all still dead by the end of the film. However, the film ends with Stella, her dad, and Ruth [[SequelHook teaming up to find a way]] to bring Chuck and Auggie back.]]

* WouldHurtAChild: It is implied that [[spoiler: the Bellows family had blinded Claire Baptiste when she was a child when they hunted down Sarah.]]

* AnkleDrag: [[spoiler:Big Toe sneaks underneath Auggie's bed and drags him into what appears to be a pocket dimension in the wall, ostensibly killing him.]]

* TheBadGuyWins: Chief Turner [[spoiler: successfully forces Ramon to join the draft.]]

* BatterUp: In one of the trailers, Harold the Scarecrow gets beaten with a bat by a teen (who we later learn is named Tommy) who dismissively utters "Eat it, Harold!" first. This turns out to be a bad idea after the Book of Scary Stories, stolen by the protagonists, awakens him first, and Harold is then seen confronting Tommy as he walked through the field at night. In the next scene, kids talk about how Tommy went missing.

** The Jangly Man is stated as being from "Me Tie Dought-ty Walker!" but has the rest of his body parts fall down the chimney and form together like the corpse from "What Do You Come For?" His name also appears to be inspired by "What Do You Come For?" which describes the corpse as "a great, gangling man."

* ExactWords: In the 3rd June trailer, one of the teens asks the other "Do you want to see a haunted house?" In the next scene, they, plus two of their friends gather in front of it at night, and one of the friends asks "All right, we saw it, can we go now?" Obviously, he gets laughed at for being a "chicken", and so they go inside and end up taking the book.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Tommy calls the Hispanic Ramon a "wetback."

[[caption-width-right:350: "Sarah Bellows... Tell me a story..."]]

* ArtisticLicenceBiology: Ruth has spider eggs layed under her skin despite that no species of spider lays eggs in humans. This is justified though since the parasitic spiders are supernatural monsters summoned by a ghost not real ones.

* ArtisticLicenceBiology: Ruth has spider eggs played under her skin despite that no species of spider lays eggs in humans. This is justified though since the parasitic spiders are supernatural monsters summoned by a ghost not real ones.

* Rustproof Blood: Even after decades, the blood that is used to write the stories in Sarah Bellows' book remains bright red.

* EvilAlbino: A complicated example. [[spoiler: Sarah Bellows was persecuted by her own family and locked away from the world because she was born albino. However, in life she was actually a HeroicAlbino who tried to save the town from her family, as their mill operations were poisoning the water supply. Sarah's family successfully convinced the townspeople that Sarah was a witch who was responsible for the deaths of several children, making them see her as an EvilAlbino. As a spirit, Sarah [[ThenLetMeBeEvil embraces her dark side]] and becomes evil for real. However, she does still have a heart and repents at the end of the movie.]]

* NamedInTheAdaptation: The creature in "Me Tie Dough-ty Walker!" is given the epithet of the Jangly Man.

** The Jangly Man is stated as being from "Mie Tie Dought-ty Walker," but has the rest of his body parts fall down the chimney and form together like the corpse from "What Do You Come For?" His name also appears to be inspired by "What Do You Come For?" which describes the corpse as "a great, gangling man."

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Tommy calls the Hispanic Ramon a "wetback"