Scarybased on the short story anthology of the same name by Alvin Schwartz. The stories that are often a few paragraphs long are centered on creepy encounters, mostly involving children, with paranormal entities, often concluding at open-ended interpretations.
While the film follows an original plot, it makes use of several iconic characters such as Harold, the Scarecrow, and Jangly Man. Three stories from the original collection are also read aloud by the protagonists; the very same stories affect the course of their actions as the film progresses. Schwartz's stories are mostly amusing and haunting for young audiences, for the picture of uncertainty and surrealism that he paints.
SPOILER ALERT: It's to be noted that the stories mentioned below do cover certain plot points from the film as well as the literary collection.
The Dream
The Pale Lady from the film is a direct takeaway from the story The Dream. The short story features an artist called Lucy Morgan who dreams of a specific bedroom. This room had a carpet that was made of large squares that looked like trapdoors. Then, a pale lady with black eyes arrives in her dream, snapping Morgan back to reality.
The next day, Morgan moves to a new city and shifts to a room that looks eerily similar to the bedroom that she had seen in her dream. The Pale Lady makes an appearance in this room too, scaring the living daylights out of the artist. She packs up and flees. Comparably, this is not as quite terrifying as the other stories for the sole fact that the protagonist escapes the nightmarish world and creature she's trapped with. Otherwise, Schwartz's characters are usually not that lucky.
What Do You Come For?
The lanky creature from What Do You Come For inspired the film's monster, Jangly Man. As per the story, a lonely old woman craves some company. One night, she says, "I wish I had some company." Suddenly, two feet jangle down a chimney, followed by arms, legs, and a head. The creepy-looking stranger starts dancing around the room claiming that he has come for the woman.
The ending is left uncertain as the purpose behind the stranger's visit is unclear. An atmosphere of mystery is built as one can wonder what he would up doing with the woman. Would he kill her, eat her, or haunt her for the rest of her life?
The Haunted House
The Haunted House plays with several familiar tropes like the titular haunted house, with a priest as its protagonist. The priest encounters a disfigured lady in the house who says how her tormented soul wanders to find the man who murdered her and dumped her body. The illustration by Stephen Gammell is definitely one of his most haunting ones, describing a woman with no eyes and rotten flesh.
The ending is still slightly optimistic as fate brings the killer to justice and the priest gives the woman a proper burial. Unlike most of the other stories in the series, the central character is left unharmed. The film takes slight inspiration from this story, as Sarah Bellows looks very much like the aforementioned woman's corpse. She, too, wants the world to know her real story, just like the woman's pursuit in finding her murderer.
Me Tie Doughty Walker
'Me Tie Doughty Walker' is the phrase that the film's villain Jangly Man says, making for some disturbing scenes. The story, of the same name, however, doesn't feature a character like that. It puts a spin on a common folktale about a bloody head falling down a particular house's chimney every night. The story involves a rich man asking the townsfolk to survive one night at the house, agreeing to give 200 dollars to the ones who managed to survive.
A young boy agrees to test his fears, along with his dog. In the end, the head does fall, and the kid does realize his folly as he turns pale with fear. However, the haunting element of the story lies in the descriptive nature of how the head arrives in the first place. An unseen being starts shouting "Me Tie Doughty Walker," upon which the protagonist's pet canine also responds with 'Lynchee kinchy colly molly dingo dingo." The phrases keep on repeating over and over, louder and louder till the blood-covered head drops.
Harold
Harold is a frightening scarecrow who kills one of the bullies in the film. He's also mentioned in a story of his own in Sarah Bellow's book. Unlike most of the other characters in the Scary Stories collection, the humans in Harold are quite mean, even though their mean behavior is towards an inanimate object. Two farmers name their scarecrow Harold after a farmer whom they don't like. They end up teasing and harassing the scarecrow in many ways, until, one day, Harold comes to life.
The most terrifying part is the third act. The scarecrow doesn't offer any jump scares or chases any of the farmers. In the end, he's just shown to be standing next to the carcass of one of the farmers. The ripped-off, bloodied skin is left to dry on a roof under the sun. The suddenness of the moment is too wild to behold.
The Big Toe
The book in the film also features a retelling of The Big Toe. Schwartz's original story in itself was a retelling of a popular American folktale. In it, a boy chances upon what he thinks is a chunk of meat. The family makes a hearty meal out of it and serve it for supper. But, when the boy sleeps at night, a creature comes knocking at his door demanding back his toe. It turns out what the boy had found in his garden was the toe of the zombie-like creature who slept underground.
The ending is left to be open-ended, but it's highly likely that the monster eats up the child. An alternate ending has the creature claim that he would swallow the boy whole and then chomp his bones. Any child can chance upon something fascinating on the ground outside. But, this story shows that it's better if one is to leave those outside objects the way they were.
The Red Spot
Be it Gammell's illustration or the scene from the film, The Red Spot is easily an extremely frightening story for its scenario that can very much happen in real-life. A girl seems to have an ordinary spider bite, which her mother claims would fade away in a few days. But, it keeps on itching until the girl finally takes a shower. As the shower splashes, the so-called 'red spot' explodes. The aftermath can be perfectly described by the story's ending lines, "a swarm of tiny spiders from the eggs their mother had laid in her cheek."
There are certain actual cases, insects can lay eggs inside a person's body, be it in their skin or even inside the ears. Here's hoping that nobody gets to have spider eggs inside them.
