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10-21-2019 Several months ago, I heard Guillermo del Toro was making a film out of Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series. And, it prompted me to get out my old books and flip through them. As a writer myself, I couldn't help but feel like Schwartz's stories left a lot to be desired. His stories have the making of something horrifying. But, they barely scratch the surface of what is possible. So before I knew it, I was re-writing "The Window"-- a short story about a strange encounter with a mythical being with glowing eyes. The details Alvin Schwartz gave the story are adequate to seriously frighten any reader. But, the scares are not *delivered* like they could be. Whether this is a fault of Alvin Schwartz, I'm not sure. For all I know, he was trying to make the story less scary so that younger readers (Schwartz's target audience) wouldn't be traumatized. I finally finished my own version of "The Window." It's called "What Lives in a Cemetery?" It's archivally written-- similar to the way Stanley Kubrick re-wrote The Shining. I took all the details of the original story. And, I wrote my own story that contains all the original details. However, it presents them to a reader in a way that is freakishly terrifying. D: I also added plenty of details that I really wanted to know-- like what things look like, how things smell, etc. Any reader of my fiction knows I tend to go hog wild (probably too much at times) when it comes to descriptive writing. "What Lives in a Cemetery?" can be found here. I got it ready just in time for Halloween. As for del Toro's film based on the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark franchise, can't say I can recommend it. As it turns out, Guillermo del Toro (visionary mind behind Pan's Labyrinth, Mama, Crimson Peak, The Shape of Water, and the original Hellboy films) *is* capable of creating a bad film. I didn't like it at all. Not sure how much of the film is del Toro's. Hopefully, not much. Because, it really wasn't very good. I think a series of short films made from a few of Alvin Schwartz's short stories would've been adequate for the job. The film presents a scenario in which the stories are ghost-written (literally). And then, the stories come to life. And-- not sure why?? The film sucks, though. I have to be honest. There is a lot of crying (a lottt). And, some of Schwartz's characters are in the film. But, the story is completely lame. And, it makes little sense. And, it's not the least bit scary. And then, there's some clips of Richard Nixon here and there. And, again-- not sure why?? Stay home and read "What Lives in a Cemetery?", instead. ;) |
| Random Fact: The name "Insanely Witty Stupidity" is a sarcastic homage to William Shakespeare's pretentious (and completely confusing) application of poetic literature in character dialog. After all-- the lack of realism portrayed by Shakespeare character interactions makes it difficult for people to take the work seriously. |
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html revised 2024-04-23 by Michael Atkins. The maintainer of insanely |