While The Scary Stories Documentary seems like it would be the perfect special feature to the upcoming film being
produced by Del Toro. I have been looking forward to this flick for quite
sometime.
First let me
explain for those of you that are not aware. Scary Stories is a trilogy of
books published in the 80s and marketed to children. The books the stories in
the books were greatly researched by author Alvin Schwartz who took stories
from folklore around the world and retold them for children all while
instructing the reader how to tell the stories to receive the best
reactions.
These stories
were accompanied by the morbid and dark artwork by Stephen Grammel.
While keeping the
drawings black and white the artwork features a surprisingly large amount of
gore and creative framing to particularly shock the reader. It is this fact
that many claim brought in the controversy.
Scary Stories to
tell in the Dark was banned in school libraries across the country, which
effectively added to the desire for children to want to read them and many
believe paved the way for other children’s books like Goosebumps among
others.
Those of you that
have followed my work know when I was growing up I was a rather large fan
of the literary trilogy and they were a great influence in my works, as well as the works of other artists of my generation and the ones to follow.
In watching this
documentary that followed the controversy that was generated by the frightening
images and stories that made it the most challenged book for the past 20 years
I was reminded of my own childhood and when I was introduced to Scary Stories
to tell in the Dark and how fast it was removed from the shelves.
The funny thing
about this ban in my school was that it was thwarted a few months later when
the school had a book fair and Scary Stories to tell in the Dark was the number
one seller at the fair.
Years later I
would reflect in one of my films on the amount of us that were reading the book
on the playground at recess, I would also think of it when I was watching The
Ring and Stay Alive as if Scary Stories was some kind of cursed literature that
was now out in the mainstream.
I would not view
this as a bad thing rather than a victory over the censorship of the concerned
parents that believed we would all become serial killers or would be scared to
death of our own shadows. None of that happened.
While focusing on
the controversy the film also explains the history of the making of the books
and the research that Schwartz put into the history and folklore of the regions
where the stories originated from.
The Documentary
also follows the influence that the trilogy had in the artistic communities as
well as the loyal fandom that includes tattoo artists and photographers that
seek to recreate the Grammel artistary.
I enjoyed
the sequences in the film where in the recollections of the subjects cut
to flashbacks of animated sequences where the characters were drawn to resemble
characters form the artwork from the book.
I would have
loved to have been interviewed for this documentary but I am sure that the
filmmakers weren’t aware of my history with this series.
For fans of Scary
Stories and folklore I would love to recommend this documentary. While short it
still cuts to the point while also making us reminisce of our own experiences
with the books and is also a great reminder about the evils and censorship and that we can't be silenced...Especially when the ones in power don't even read the books that they are protesting.
I say Check it
out.
