Horror films tend to get a bad rap! In the last few ten or twenty years, the genre has gained a reputation for being gratuitously bloody, sexual, and unrealistic. Thankfully, there are plenty that are guaranteed to give you a good scare!
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, based on the short stories by Alvin Schwartz, follows the four young teenagers in a small town as they deal with monsters coming to life from a haunted book. One of the monsters is 'The Pale Lady" from the short story "The Dream". If you've seen the movie, she gives a new meaning to the term "bear hug"!
The Costume Was The Biggest Challenge
If a character looks awesome in a film, then a costuming team has worked tirelessly to create them. For something as terrifying as "The Pale Lady", it was one of their biggest challenges! The character was created by using a latex foam suit with "microspheres of padding [...] used to create the look of cellulite in motion".
The other challenging aspect of the costume was "The Pale Lady"'s signature smile. It is meant to be "cute and shy [yet] inexorable", which was made it difficult to sculpt.
A Walking Nightmare
"The Pale Lady" makes the biggest impact because her scene is something directly out of a nightmare. As Chuck runs through the halls of the mental institution, no matter which way he turns, she is there, closing in on him.
Not only is this achieved by strobing red lights, but through the character's movements. The actor's movements are described as "coy" and, to give this scene a nightmarish dizziness, director André Ovredal uses multiple fast cuts and angles.
Not A Hero
In many book-to-movie adaptations, changes are made for various reasons. In the case of "The Pale Lady", she has a much bigger role in the original short story. In the story, she comes to artist Lucy Martin in the form of a dream to warn her of evils to come should she stay in a particular house.
In the movie, she is an antagonist who gives Chuck quite the bear hug when she catches him! Nonetheless, her role in the movie still manages to take center stage!
Represents Chuck's Worst Fear
Producer Guillermo Del Toro has stated that each monster that appears in the film is meant to represent the fears of the main characters. In Chuck's case, it's physical touch. "The Pale Lady's" deadly hug is meant to parallel an earlier scene when Chuck admonishes his mother for hugging him too tightly.
These juxtapositions are used to represent what occurs in the short story. According to Ovredal, "The original story is about repetition". The Pale Lady" appears twice to Lucy Martin and, unfortunately for Chuck, appears multiple times.
Played By Mark Steger
Finding actors to play anthropomorphic or "non-human" characters can be a challenge. Thankfully, "The Pale Lady" is portrayed by Mark Steger, an actor who has played many monsters in his career. He is credited as "Quadriped Alien" in Men in Black II, "Chupacabra" in the film Indigenous and "The Creature" in the short film Paralyzed.
He has had more prominent monster roles playing the demon, Tobi, in Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension and "The Monster" in Stranger Things.
Only Made By The Best
Stephen Gammell, the illustrator of the originally Scary Stories books, has a very specific drawing style that Del Toro describes as "ephemeral.". To fill such a tall order for the screen, the experts had to be brought in!
Mike Hill and Norman Cabrera are long time sculptors with more than enough capabilities to bring the creature to life. For the practical effects, makeup company, Spectral Motion is brought in. They ensured that each monster is looked and felt like the character on the page.
Very Good Likeness Of The Illustration
"The Pale Lady" accomplishes the daunting task of bringing Stephen Gammell's unsettling and gothic illustrations to life. In the book, she is described as being chubby with long black hair, black eyes, and having pale skin. Del Toro describes her drawing as "tendrils of ink".
Translating that wispiness to the screen and making it unsettling is quite a daunting task. "The Pale Lady" thankfully, graces the screen as a formless entity, a rotting nightgown that acts as a skin and her signature creepy smile!
Metaphor for Déja-Vu
You would be hard-pressed to find a creepier feeling than that of "deja-vu". To experience something in a dream and then relive it in real life is the definition of disorienting. And "The Pale Lady" acts as the perfect metaphor!
Lucy Martin, in her initial dream, goes through a house before being visited by "The Pale Lady" warning her to leave. Her idyllic trip in real-time takes her to the same house...where she also meets "The Pale Lady"! It makes the reader wonder if premonitions might not have some legitimacy after all.
Theories About The Lodger's Fate
While "The Pale Lady" is a terrifying specter, ultimately, she is the hero of the short story, as she warns Lucy away from a house where potential harm could come to her. But just what harm was she facing?
Syfy.com presents an interesting theory: that lodgers of this house faced kidnapping, death, or slavery. In the movie, "The Pale Lady" corners Chuck and then absorbs him into her. This could very well be interpreted as both kidnapping and killing!
Important Lessons To Learn
Horror, as a genre, has never been afraid to get political. And Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark is no exception. When it came out, it was argued that it was too gruesome for children to be reading. And the film doesn't help that argument with brilliantly nightmarish costume design and filming.
There are lessons to be learned in these short stories, despite their unsettling nature. In the case of Lucy Martin, she learns to follow her gut instinct and leave a situation wherein she felt unsafe. Children must be exposed to these themes and life lessons, no matter how uncomfortably or scary they may be.