Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark officially rated PG-13

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Guillermo del Toro and André Øvredal's adaptation of Alvin Schwartz and Stephen Gammell's SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK will be upon us later this year and today we have word the film has officially snagged a PG-13 rating from the MPAA for terror/violence, disturbing images, thematic elements, language including racial epithets, and brief sexual references. 

Since we're here and all, let me all put out there that Universal and director Floria Sigismondi's big screen adaptation of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw aka THE TURNING starring Mackenzie Davis (TERMINATOR: DARK FATE) and Finn Wolfhard (STEPHEN KING'S IT, STRANGER THINGS) has also snagged a PG-13 rating for "terror, violence, disturbing images, brief strong language, and some suggestive content." 

 What do you think? Let us know below! Meanwhile, here's the movie's updated synopsis:

It’s 1968 in America. Change is blowing in the wind…but seemingly far removed from the unrest in the cities is the small town of Mill Valley where for generations, the shadow of the Bellows family has loomed large. It is in their mansion on the edge of town that Sarah, a young girl with horrible secrets, turned her tortured life into a series of scary stories, written in a book that has transcended time—stories that have a way of becoming all too real for a group of teenagers who discover Sarah’s terrifying home.

SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK is directed by André Øvredal from a screenplay written by Dan Hageman & Kevin Hageman based on a screen story by Del Toro and Patrick Melton & Marcus Dunstan based on the series by Alvin Schwartz. Del Toro, Sean Daniel, Jason F. Brown, J. Miles Dal, and Elizabeth Grave produce. The film stars Zoe Colletti, Michael Garza, Gabriel Rush, Austin Abrams, Dean Norris, Gil Bellows, Lorraine Toussaint, Austin Zajur, and Natalie Ganzhorn. CBS Films, Lionsgate and eOne will release the movie in theaters everywhere August 9, 2019.