Like most people, I was very disappointed with the 2019 loose adaptation of the book series Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. The three books published over a 10-year period from Oct. 14, 1981 to Sept. 1, 1991 were some of the true terrifying stories for young people.
Most of them were retellings of folk tales or urban legends rewritten by Alvin Schwartz as very short stories of about three-four pages average. Some of the stories are comical in nature such as “Wait Till Martin Comes” in which a man seeking shelter in an dilapidated house finds himself being preyed on by cats of increasing size that keep saying “Wait till Martin comes” to which he runs from the house.
Others are very dark and disturbing such as “Wonderful Sausage” about a butcher who murders people, even kids, and uses them to make sausage that is popular among the community. Stories about cannibalism and murder may not have been the type of books parents wanted children to read, but we did love them. And remember this was the same generation that watched Artax the horse drown in The Neverending Story, Littlefoot’s mother say dying words to him in The Land Before Time and Anna Clumsky cry “He can’t see without his glasses!” as she sees dead Macaulay Culkin’s character dead in a coffin in My Girl.
I even remember them showing us Watership Down, the 1978 animated movie when we were in elementary school. You’re never too young to see dogs chase cute rabbits and tear them apart. And there was a Hansel and Gretel movie where many kids were cooked in ovens.
The title of the book series was meant to tell them to other people with instructions on how to scare someone near you. For decades and even centuries, people have been telling scary stories. I remember one of our school librarians saying a lot of them were told more as warnings to young children. One of my English teachers told me the original story of Cinderella was worse as the wicked stepmother cuts off her daughters toes and slices fat off their heels so the slipper will fit.
Writers Kevin Christopher McFadden (writing as Christopher Pike) and R.L. Stine pretty much owe a debt to Schwartz as they would go on to have huge success beginning in the mid-1980s with their novels of mystery-thrillers and supernatural horror. Even more freaky to Schwartz’s stories were the accompanying illustrations by Stephen Gammell who made charcoal drawings to the stories. This gave it more of an eerie, haunting vibe. And some of his illustrations are scarier than the stories.
When HarperCollins, the successor to Harper & Row, which published the original editions, printed a 20th anniversary edition in 1981, the illustrations by Gammell were left out. Instead, newer illustrations by Brett Helquist were used in the 2011 edition, much to the anger of fans and literary critics. While Helquist kept the same macabre style to the illustrations, he added more dimensions to them making them more cartoonish.
Gammell gave the illustrations a haunting dream-like quality. It was just like something you would see in your nightmares. He made the illustrations so vague and hollow, but it went with the concept that less is more. But more importantly, there was some maturity to the illustrations. You don’t feel like you’re reading a book that’s intended for kids. With all due respect to Helquist, but it’s obviously a decision by the publishing house, not the artist. And if you want a paycheck, you do what the publishing house wants.
However, there has been pushback from parental groups, most notably Concerned Women for America. The American Library Association and The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books have defended the series as stating the books are intended for young adults of the middle-school age. Funny most people I knew in middle school were reading Stephen King and Dean Koontz. The Scholastic Book Fair in 1990 had King’s The Eyes of the Dragon on sale for us to purchase. Even the library carried Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s Slaughterhouse-Five, which had scenes of sex and use of the F-word.
Obviously, this is the same generation that sat through the original Poltergeist and watched a guy think he’s tearing the flesh off his face. And some people would say the original Ghostbusters is too dark at some times for some people. And I had just started kindergarten when that came out.
But just like most things that are “banned” or groups try to get banned, the publicity brings more attention to it. People want to see what the big deal is. I’d never want to read The Catcher in the Rye again. But I don’t understand what the big deal was.
Yet, these books have been out there for decades. A lot of children today have a lot more worse things a click away online. And the books are available online so even if a library doesn’t have it on the shelves, it can still be found.
What’s your favorite story from these books? Please comment.
Zane Says 