CBS Films has unleashed a trailer for Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark that highlights a brand-new monster: The Jangly Man. Having already scarred the generation of kids that grew up reading them back in the '80s and '90s, Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories collections are making their way to the big screen in August. Written by Guillermo del Toro and brothers Dan and Kevin Hageman (Trollhunters, Tales of Arcadia), the film adaptation re-imagines several of the more memorably horrific tales in Schwartz's books as part of a single, original narrative instead.
However, in addition to adapting monsters like Harold the scarecrow and The Pale Lady from Schwartz's literature, the Scary Stories movie also features an original creature in the (unnvering) shape of The Jangly Man. Speaking at San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend, del Toro and his collaborators revealed that the character's general design was inspired by a number of illustrations by Stephen Gammell (whose nightmarish artwork was used in the original run of Schwartz's books). Now, there's a brand-new trailer that gives The Jangly Man his time in the spotlight.
The Jangly Man trailer for Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is now online, ahead of its premiere in theaters this upcoming weekend. You can check it out in the space below, followed by the film's official synopsis and the related one-sheet that was released during SDCC.
It’s 1968 in America. Change is blowing in the wind...but seemingly far removed from the unrest in the cities is the small town of Mill Valley where for generations, the shadow of the Bellows family has loomed large. It is in their mansion on the edge of town that Sarah, a young girl with horrible secrets, turned her tortured life into a series of scary stories, written in a book that has transcended time—stories that have a way of becoming all too real for a group of teenagers who discover Sarah’s terrifying home.
Interestingly, it turns out The Jangly Man was largely brought to life through practical means. The character is played by Troy James, a contortionist whose other bendy roles of late include Pretzel Jack on Channel Zero, Baba Yaga in this year's Hellboy reboot, and the aptly-named metahuman Rag Doll on The Flash season 5. As a result, the monster looks all the more convincing - and, in turn, otherwise freaky - whenever he shows up onscreen in the latest Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark trailer.
Between its creatures (which, like The Jangly Man, are generally faithful to Gammell's darkly surreal drawings) and overall creepy production design, the Scary Stories movie certainly looks like it will by and large honor the spirit of the source material. And while del Toro's projects are sometimes - and, to be fair, reasonably - criticized for not having equal narrative substance to match their visuals, the hope is that the humans here will ultimately be as compelling as the monsters. At the very least, del Toro and director André Øvredal (The Autopsy of Jane Doe) are clearly trying their best to terrorize children with their movie, much like the original Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark have done so well in the past.
Source: CBS Films
