Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark 2 Director, Writer, Development Details And More
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When it was announced that Guillermo del Toro was producing an adaptation of the chilling children's horror anthology "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" — written by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by Stephen Gammell — fans of the books were equal parts elated and apprehensive. Fortunately, the movie managed to weave together many of the series' most viscerally haunting tales in an engaging story, and it also featured some truly frightening set pieces. Plus, it was a box office success and received a solid critical reception.
Given that, it should come as no surprise that Paramount and Entertainment One officially announced a sequel to the 2019 horror movie is in the works. While the studios haven't released many details about the upcoming film, now that it's been announced, there are some interesting tidbits of info about the creatives involved, as well as some things we can surmise about the release date and plot. Let's dive in and see what we can piece together about this spooky second effort.
When will Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark 2 be released?
"Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" hit theaters in August 2019, and a part two was officially confirmed in April 2020. Unfortunately, that's right around the time that Hollywood started shutting down due to the COVID pandemic. And since then, there haven't been many updates on the progress of the "Scary Stories" sequel.
In October 2020, Zoe Colletti (the lead of the original film who's since gone on to star in "Only Murders in the Building," "Fear the Walking Dead," and "A Boy Called Christmas") spoke with Decider about the film's status, saying, "Honestly, I'm in the dark a little bit, as much as everybody else is. I know it's been cleared to be written and is in pre-production. But other than that, I don't really know that much about it."
Then in November 2020, director André Øvredal told Collider, "Production-wise, we're in a holding pattern, but not really because we're just developing the story and the script, which is a time-consuming process because there's no point in making a sequel to that movie unless it's elevated and it's great and it's ideally better than the first movie." After that, it was radio silence for quite some time — until Øvredal's "The Last Voyage of the Demeter" hit theaters in August 2023.
In the lead-up to the vampire flick's release, IGN asked Øvredal for an update on "Scary Stories 2," and the filmmaker responded, "We have a story. We have a script. We've been working on the script as late as last year and even slightly into this year. The process obviously stopped with the [WGA] strike — but it's alive, for sure."
What is the plot of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark 2?
Usually, when a film is announced, the studio gives a little tease of what viewers can expect from the plot. Sadly, that was not the case for the sequel to "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark." As noted by The Hollywood Reporter, the logline for the film was purposefully not released along with the announcement. Even all this time later, we still haven't gotten any info about the plot. There are, however, a few speculations we can make about where the story for the follow-up is likely to go. Warning: There are spoilers ahead if you haven't seen the original.
At the end of the first movie, Stella (Zoe Colletti) frees the vengeful spirit of Sarah Bellows by writing the true story of what happened to her, which also causes the monsters from the dead woman's stories to disappear. Auggie (Gabriel Rush) and Chuck (Austin Zajur) are still missing, however, after being taken by the monsters, and the film ends with Stella promising that she and Chuck's sister, Ruth (Natalie Ganzhorn), will find a way to rescue them.
Given that Sarah Bellows' story got tied up pretty nicely, it seems unlikely that she will be involved in the plot of the second film, but the question of where the monsters she conjured with her stories came from — and where Auggie and Chuck ended up — still remains. If we had to guess, Stella and company's search for their two missing friends seems like the most obvious plot for the sequel. Here's hoping we get some more grisly, gruesome lore in the process.
Who is directing Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark 2?
The first "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" was helmed by Norwegian filmmaker André Øvredal, who was a great choice to make a horror film. His big breakout movie was the horror-comedy "Trollhunter," which followed a group of documentarians as they encountered massive, flesh-hungry trolls. Øvredal followed that up with a much scarier offering in 2016's "The Autopsy of Jane Doe."
In other words, Øvredal knows a thing or two about freaking audiences out, so it makes sense that he'd come back for the sequel. In April 2020, it was reported that Øvredal would be directing the second "Scary Stories," and in November 2020, he spoke with Collider, explaining, "I learned so much on 'Scary Stories' but also about 'Scary Stories,' and I do think that we'll tap even more into [illustrator Stephen] Gammell's visual world in the sequel than we did in the first movie."
Of course, a lot has happened since the first "Scary Stories" — including a pandemic, two major Hollywood strikes, and Øvredal being busy with a movie based on Bram Stoker's Dracula. Speaking with IGN about what it's taking so long to get a "Scary Stories" sequel off the ground, the director said, "COVID and then ['The Last Voyage of the Demeter'] eating up two years of my life certainly put a dent in the progress."
Who is writing Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark 2?
The first "Scary Stories" film was penned by the talented duo of Dan and Kevin Hageman, and in April 2020, The Hollywood Reporter announced these screenwriting siblings would be returning for the sequel. While the Hagemans might not be household names, you've definitely seen a lot of their work.
In addition to "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark," the two scribes have received story credits for animated comedies such as "Hotel Transylvania" and "The Lego Movie," and they penned the script for "The Croods: A New Age." They've also done plenty of work in the world of TV, writing for "Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia" and creating the series "Star Trek: Prodigy."
Of course, they aren't the only ones involved in the writing process. While they've been tapped to write the screenplay, they'll be working from a story crafted by the one and only Guillermo del Toro. The maestro of monsters and imagination needs no introduction, as he's responsible for such beautifully terrifying movies as "Pan's Labyrinth," "The Shape of Water," and "Nightmare Alley."
Where to watch the first Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
It's been quite a while since the news broke that "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark 2" was official. As of right now, we don't have any solid information about when we'll see the sequel — so we might as well rewatch the original and revisit all our horrifying friends, like Harold the Scarecrow, the Jangly Man, and the Pale Lady.
If you're ready to dip your big toe (see what we did there?) back into the world of Sarah Bellows and all her monstrous creations, then you can rent the first "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" for $3.99 on Redbox, Apple iTunes, Amazon Video, Google Play, and YouTube. You can also stream it on Prime Video, Freevee, or Hulu. In other words, you're totally surrounded by places you can watch the film ... and there's no way to escape.