THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT
THERE MAY ONLY HAVE BEEN three books in the series, released over a decade from 1981, but the lasting impact of Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark cannot be denied. Spanning 82 stories in total, Alvin Schwartz’s collections took folklore and urban legend, creating tales – accompanied by the artwork of Stephen Gammell – that often came under fire for being too frightening or too violent for children. So who better to tackle the movie than Guillermo del Toro – a fan of the books since his teens? He’s created an on-screen world with no blood or gratuitous violence, and a PG-13 rating, but which still manage to scare the hell out of you…
When did you first discover the iconic book series?
In a little bookstore in San Antonio, Texas. I was browsing when I saw the cover, which was an incredibly creepy drawing. The title was absolutely irresistible: . I started to look through the book and I basically read it sitting on my considerable butt on the floor. I read it from cover. Back then, I was really broke, but I bought them. That’s how important these stories were to me.
