Part 3 of My “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” Review/Ramble

So let’s hop right back in. Chuck has just disappeared into thin air, and the whole time he was being chased down by this water-logged, black haired, glob of a creature, Ramon and Stella have been reading. They watched Chuck’s story actively being written, knowing that meant he was being killed (?), and yet they didn’t show up until right after he disappeared.

Now it’s just Ramon and Stella and everything looks pretty bleak. However, while Chuck was going through it, Ramon and Stella were doing research about Sarah Bellows (aka, reading through her medical records) and they found out about the abuse she had faced from her entire family. Sarah had a relative who worked at the mental hospital where she was institutionalized and would use his position of power to manipulate and gaslight her. It’s believed she killed him, and many other of her family members, though Stella believes that means that Sarah wrote stories about them and then the bad things happened (rather than Sarah commiting the violent acts herself). 

Ramon and Stella end up getting arrested for breaking into the hospital. Stella calls her dad from jail, and it’s actually a really emotional and sweet scene. She basically tells him that she’s afraid she’s going to die or go missing and that if she does, she wants him to know that she loves him. Then the evil police officer shows up to harass Ramon for skipping the draft and tell Stella she’s free to leave. Stella tries to explain that everything going on is because of Sarah Bellows and her magic book, but the evil cop couldn’t care less. He locks Ramon and Stella in separate cells for the night. Ramon and Stella have a sweet moment, but I don’t care to harp on that arc too much. 

Anyways, Stella left Sarah Bellows’ book on the cop’s desk and he (the cop) notices that a new story starts being written in it. He asks if Ramon and Stella are somehow writing it, but of course they aren’t. When they hear a new story is being written, they freak out and insist they’re gonna die, but the cop is too dumb to care. This story is about Ramon, and he recognizes that pretty quickly because he recognizes the monster that’s coming after them. This is the Jangly man, easily one of the most terrifying monsters in this whole movie in my opinion. The cop thinks he can just shoot it, but obviously it’s not that easy. Ramon and Stella manage to get free from the cells while the evil cop battles the Jangly man. This next part is blurry but I believe Ramon hijacks a police car to try and drive away from the Jangly man, while Stella takes the book and runs back to the Bellows house. 

Once at the Bellows house, it’s almost like Stella enters a time loop (similar to what happened to Chuck in the closet scene) because everything is restored to its original condition from all those years ago. There are ghosts/visions (??) of the Bellows family running around the house- The mother is yelling about how Sarah got out and the boys need to go find her and bring her back. Except, they find Stella and believe she is Sarah, so they take her and lock her down in the basement. This is where Stella and Sarah finally meet, and Stella confronts her about how she’s becoming the monster that everyone accuses her of being. Then Stella gets Sarah’s magic pen that writes with blood (her own blood) and Stella rewrites Sarah’s history so that she can be remembered in a more honest and forgiving way, rather than blamed to be a monster as most people choose to view her as. Then the house rumbles and shifts and Stella’s back in the present timeline. She finds Ramon and they rejoice, even though their friends are dead/missing.

The movie ends with the reveal that Stella has been writing all of this as a memoir of sorts- another one of her stories, though it is a true one. She mentions that Auggie and Chuck are still missing, but implies a sequel by hinting that she plans on getting them back. The very end of the movie, which is my favorite scene by far, reveals that Stella and her dad broke Ruth out of the mental hospital and they all drive off into the sunset. Also Ramon goes to Vietnam, but that felt like an afterthought. Anyways, roll credits. 

OKAY. So let’s get into how I think the sequel should be handled. I think the ending of the movie itself sets up some pretty concrete ideas for a second movie. We have a new magical object; a pen that writes with blood and can write or rewrite history. We have the same main character, Stella, but she’s grown as a person and has a new side character, Ruth. We still have the social/political side plot of the war and everything else going on in the late 60s, early 70s, and with two female leads, we could have a lot of interesting conversations about feminism in the B-plot. 

The main conflict is pretty obvious; we gotta get Chuck and Auggie back. I imagine they’re gonna be pretty traumatized from their stories and this second movie would have a perfect opportunity to tackle themes of PTSD and trauma. Auggie’s story had a lot to do with food and then he ended up getting pulled away from under his bed, so I could imagine him developing disordered eating habits and possibly a fear of something being under his bed. Chuck clearly developed a fear of red, specifically red rooms, but I could also see him becoming afraid of being alone, considering his story only happened when he separated from Ramon and Stella. 

On top of that, I could imagine a conflict of the characters arguing about whether or not they should bring Tommy back. If they do, maybe he’s even more evil and he becomes the new villian. Maybe he will become their friend. Probably not, but who knows. What about all the other people written into Sarah’s stories? Should they unwrite them, and if they do, what does that mean for them and their town? What about the monsters in the book? Could they get free, now that Sarah is gone?

Now what about the magical item, what’s the give back? All magic has an equal and opposite reaction, or whatever the laws of magic are. You can’t use magic without paying a price. Well, considering this pen writes with her literal blood, I imagine Stella having many fainting spells and becoming ill from blood loss/low blood pressure. She could be risking her life to save her friends. That is another huge piece of tension that could affect all of the characters. I also wonder if there could be another element of Stella becoming power hungry to some extent. In the first movie, she, Chuck, and Auggie are portrayed as the outcast weird kids of their school, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Stella became somewhat obsessed with having the ability to control history with a pen and paper. I also wonder if there is some element of darkness to the pen, which is what made Sarah Bellows evil in the first place. I’m not sure, but this would be an interesting plot point and way to build more tension between the main characters.

As for Ramon, I don’t really care what happens to him. I don’t know why they wrote him off to the war. I imagine that we’ll get scenes of Stella writing letters to him. Maybe we’ll get a subplot about him not writing back and everyone being worried he died. Maybe they’ll actually kill him off. I don’t care too much about him. 

As for NEW characters, I hope we get some more actors of color in this film. I’d love to have more scenes with Lou Lou and her daughter- Maybe they have more family members that are closer in age to Stella and her friends. Maybe Lou Lou’s daughter and Stella’s dad have a fling- I don’t know, I’m just spitballing ideas here. On the topic of new couples in the second  movie though, I want Chuck and Auggie to finally confess their love for each other or I swear to god I’ll lose it. I don’t care that it’s the 60s, gay people are everywhere. I can imagine (aka I’ve already written the fanfiction) the two of them growing from their trauma, bonding further over their shared trauma, and healing/coping together (because they’re the only people who can truly understand what they both went through). 

For the big finish of the movie, it depends on the route taken, but I figure it’ll be a cacophony of Sarah Bellows’ undead family members coming back with a vengeance, Stella battling any ailments brought on by the blood-ink pen as well as any evil curses that might be trying to control her, and the big question will be how do we rewrite the undead Bellows’ stories so they don’t kill us, while also not rewriting Chuck, Auggie, Ruth, and Ramon’s stories? Or maybe it’ll tie back to The Night of the Living Dead (which they were watching at the drive-in theater in the first movie) and they’ll have to fight the undead off like zombies. I’m not sure about how I think this second movie should end, but that’s something we’d figure out more and more as the writing process goes along. And maybe one day I’ll have a full script for this second movie and I’ll force you guys to read that too. We shall see.

Anyways, thank you for reading this ramble. This movie is so dumb, but genuinely one of my favorite things ever. Even if it’s to hate watching the plot, I highly suggest checking it out. It’s scary, but it’s also beautiful, visually, and it has some amazing CGI, costuming, and special effects.