Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

On Halloween night in 1968, in the fictional Pennsylvania town of Mill Valley, teenagers Stella, Auggie and Chuck visit the supposedly haunted home of the Bellows family, accompanied by newcomer Ramón. Inside a secret room, they find a book of horror stories written by Sarah Bellows, the family's daughter. Ostracized for her albinism and accused of witchcraft when the town's children began to die mysteriously, she allegedly committed suicide in 1898. The local bully, Tommy, locks the group inside Sarah's room along with Ruth, Chuck's sister. After Tommy leaves, the lock is mysteriously opened, and Stella takes Sarah's storybook home. Back home, Stella finds a new story called "Harold," written in blood, on previously blank pages. In a nearby cornfield, an inebriated Tommy is stalked by the titular Harold—his family's scarecrow. Harold stabs Tommy in the back with a pitchfork, causing him to vomit hay and undergo a violent transformation. The next day, Tommy is reported missing. Stella and Ramon find Harold dressed in Tommy's clothes. Stella and Ramón watch in shock as a story titled "The Big Toe" writes itself in the storybook. Auggie, the protagonist of the story, unknowingly eats stew containing the big toe of a corpse. Auggie is then dragged under his bed by the corpse and disappears. Alarmed, the remaining friends try fruitlessly to destroy the book. Researching the Bellows, they learn that the live-in maid Sylvia Baptiste was fired after teaching Sarah witchcraft, and the rest of the family all disappeared after Sarah's suicide. However, all their names can be found in the stories, suggesting the book—or Sarah—killed them. Another new story called "The Red Spot" appears with Ruth as the protagonist. Ruth is getting her makeup ready for the play, and starts poking at a swollen spider bite on her cheek. The bite explodes into hundreds of tiny spiders. Ruth is rescued but is traumatized and institutionalized. The group's investigation takes them to the elderly Lou-Lou Baptiste, Sylvia Baptiste's daughter. They learn that Sarah did not die in the Bellows' house. Instead, she hanged herself in the hospital where her older brother, Dr. Ephraim Bellows, was her supervising doctor. At the hospital, the group discover recordings that reveal Sarah's brother had ruthlessly performed electroshock therapy on her to get her to confess to killing the children. Their deaths were actually caused by the family's paper mill poisoning the town's water with mercury, so they framed Sarah when the town got suspicious. Chuck, while trying to evade hospital security, accidentally triggers an alarm which floods the hallways in the same red light from his nightmares. In the recording, Sarah begins to narrate a new story called "The Dream", with Chuck as the main character. Chuck is then attacked and cornered by the Pale Lady, a phantom from his nightmares, who absorbs him. Stella and Ramón are arrested for trespassing by Police Chief Turner, who reveals that Ramón is a Vietnam War draft dodger. Ramón reveals his brother enlisted and his dead body was returned to them in pieces. The book starts a new story called "Me Tie Dough-ty Walker". A head falls down the chimney and more body parts follow. Ramón realizes that the next creature is called the Jangly Man, a monster that frightened him as a child. The Jangly Man kills Turner while Ramón and Stella flee to the Bellows' house for answers. Stella is taken back in time while Ramón tries to evade the Jangly Man. Living out Sarah's experience of abuse, Stella promises Sarah that she will tell the truth of her innocence if she stops harming people. Stella writes down the true story with her blood, and Sarah and all of her monsters vanish. Stella writes the truth about Sarah's life in the papers, keeping her promise. While Stella receives acclaim for the story, not everyone believes her. Ramón accepts his enlistment and shares an emotional goodbye with Stella before he leaves for the war. With Ruth having recovered, Stella starts looking for a way to rescue Chuck and Auggie.