Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Movie TV Spots Are Here!

Screen Rant

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Movie TV Spots: Who Took My Big Toe?

By Sandy Schaefer

Published Feb 3, 2019

The Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark TV spots tease Guillermo del Toro's movie adaptation of the famously spooky children's horror book series.

The first TV spots for Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark are online. It's been almost a year since Guillermo del Toro's monster fantasy-romance The Shape of Water took home four Oscars, including wins for Best Director and Best Picture. Since then, the horror-loving filmmaker has used his newfound capital to move a number of his slower-developing projects off the back-burner. That includes his movie adaptation of author Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories books - which del Toro started working on in 2016 - and his stop-motion Pinocchio film adaptation, which he will be directing next for Netflix.

Scary Stories was directed by André Øvredal (The Autopsy of Jane Doe), from a script and screen story that del Toro wrote his with Trollhunters collaborators, Dan and Kevin Hageman. The film isn't strictly based on any one story from Schwartz's books; rather, it draws inspiration from several of them, similar to how the author reimagined folklore tales and urban myths for his original story collections. CBS Films kicked off its marketing last week by releasing a Scary Stories poster that recreates one of the more infamous illustrations from the books, in the form of the killer scarecrow Harold. Now, we have some teaser footage to go with it.

CBS Films released the Scary Stories TV spots online today, after teasing their arrival late last Friday. You can watch it for yourselves in the space below.

The first of these TV spots directly references a story from Schwartz's collections titled "The Big Toe". This particular story (which appeared in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark) tells the tale of a boy who digs up a big toe in his garden, only to discover that its owner wants it back. The second TV spot provides a quick glimpse at another monster called The Jangly Man, who doesn't appear to be lifted directly from Schwartz's books. They might not be all that long, but these TV spots are pretty creepy and atmospheric in their own right. Further, they suggest Øvredal, del Toro, and the Hagemans haven't shied away from the freakier aspects of Schwartz's source material with their film.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark will follow a group of young teenagers as they investigate a series of macabre murders in their hometown. The TV spots offer a quick glimpse at some of the film's young heroes and suggests they will come face to face with several creatures from Schwartz's original books, in addition to new threats like The Jangly Man. That sounds like a fun setup for a spooky young adult horror-adventure, especially with del Toro lending a hand on the creature designs. CBS Films also made the smart decision to get the movie's marketing started on Super Bowl Sunday, as a way of bringing it more attention well ahead of its summer release.

Update: two more Scary Stories TV spots are now online! Take a look, below.