This PG-13 Horror Movie From 2019 Might Be One of the Best Gateway Horror Films of All Time

Every horror fan remembers when they discovered the joys of the genre. "Joy" is not a word we often associate with horror, but for the fans who really grasp everything it has to offer, it's the right word. Horror can make you forget about your real-world troubles, can help you confront your real-world fears, and can even make you a braver, more empathetic person in the long run. In the right circumstances, it's a genuinely comforting bit of controlled darkness.

Any horror movie could be your first horror movie, but there's a reason horror fandom has adopted "gateway horror" as a term for films that could be a great introduction for younger, more frightened, or simply uninitiated fans-in-the-making. The right story can serve not just as an entertaining ride, but a sort of all-encompassing statement on what horror is and does. When it's done right, it's downright magical, and it's rarely been done quite as well as Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

Based on Alvin Schwartz's legendary series of children's books of the same, Andre Øvredal's 2019 film draws from the same set of primal fears that made the books so iconic decades ago, adds a layer of historical menace, and packs in lots of heart for an exploration not just of the scary stories, but of the kids who must face them and, eventually, overcome them. It's one of the best gateway horror movies of this century, and it's streaming right now on Peacock for the new horror fan in your life.

Why Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is great gateway horror

Because Schwartz's original books are compendiums of very short horror stories with no through-line, the Scary Stories script by Dan and  Kevin Hagerman has to weave a framing story into classics like "The Big Toe" and "The Red Spot" to give them emotional resonance and, just as important, a reason for existing within this horror universe. To do that, the film takes things back to 1968 America, and a small town in Pennsylvania preparing for Halloween. It's here that we meet Stella (Zoe Colletti), a young horror fan who writes stories in her spare time, and Ramon (Michael Garza), a kid just passing through town who meets up with Stella and her friends Auggie (Gabriel Rush) and Chuck (Austin Zajur) by chance. 

Together, they stumble upon an old book in the town's legendary haunted house, and unleash a decades-old legend about a local witch, mysterious deaths, and the scary stories the witch wrote alone in her room... just like Stella writes scary stories of her own with her typewriter, surrounded by posters of monster movies. But it's not just an ordinary old book. This book, the book that belonged to the legendary town monster Sarah Bellows, is magic, and writes out stories in blood before the teens' eyes, stories that come to life with vivid, deadly consequences.

Jangly Man (Andrew Jackson) appears in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019). Photo: CBS Films / courtesy Everett Collection

The town's local legends, and Stella and Ramon's shared love of horror movies, make for a wonderful framework to throw in classic iconography from Schwartz's stories, and longtime readers of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark will definitely find plenty of Easter eggs. But it's not just about paying homage to a great series of books. This film does two things especially well that not only root it in solid emotional stakes, but make it a wonderful piece of gateway horror. 

The first is the way it integrates the Sarah Bellows stories (all of which play on Schwartz's originals) in the real world, in the lives of four kids who are experiencing them in real time. This could have been an anthology film, a series of shorts strung together by a much looser narrative frame, but instead the script allows Stella, Ramon, Auggie, and Chuck to be real people who are, quite literally, facing their fears. Sarah Bellows' old storybook doesn't just spin new tales, but it spins tales directly inspired by what the kids are afraid of. It's a simple device, but it makes a great metaphor for exactly what gateway horror is meant to do: teach young people to face their fears in a clear, healthy way. 

Then there's the 1960s setting. For all the power of the Sarah Bellows stories as they unfold, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is also steeped in much more everyday horror, from an impending presidential election to the Vietnam War to local bullies of all shapes and sizes to, most powerfully, broken families trying to piece themselves back together. Horror stories work great as metaphors for these kinds of real-life challenges, but Scary Stories doesn't stop at the metaphor. It pushes these things, the fictional and the very real, together into one tremendously effective juxtaposition, giving young horror fans the chance to see them side-by-side and understand that life is about facing them both. Throw in a great sense of humor, wonderful production design, and truly vivid monsters, and you've got somebody's perfect first horror movie.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is now streaming on Peacock.