I’ll pick up right where I left off, so if you haven’t read the first part of this deep dive, you’re gonna be a bit confused. Anyways, all the main characters are in the basement of the Bellows haunted house and Stella has founded the rumored book of Sarah Bellows’ stories. Allegedly, these stories were written in the blood of children, or some spooky BS like that. Stella doesn’t seem worried at all and immediately wants to read it, but Chuck is insistent that they get the hell out of there. Suddenly the candles in the basement go out, everyone freaks out, then they run to the door and try to leave. Turns out, evil bully Tommy has trapped them there. Ruth is there with him, begging him to let her brother and his friends out. She ends up getting shoved into the basement as well and Tommy leaves them all locked down there.
They end up getting out pretty easily, but I wanna take this time to talk more about Chuck and Auggie’s relationship. As previously stated, Chuck and Ruth are brother and sister and have a pretty average, bickering sibling relationship. Auggie has some degree of feelings for Ruth and gets flustered when he’s around her, and this really bothers Chuck. My first thought is he’s just defensive of his sister and he doesn’t like the idea of his best friend dating his sister. However, he hates when Auggie flirts with anyone. There was a moment earlier in the movie where it was clear Auggie either has or did at one point have a crush on Stella, something Chuck also didn’t approve of. Chuck doesn’t show interest in anyone, except Auggie. More on that later, but, at this point in the movie, it became clear to me that these guys have something going on.
When they get out of the house, they get back to Ramon’s car and find it’s been vandalized by Tommy and his goons. They wrote a slur on his hood and slashed his tires. Ramon had been living out of his car, so this is a huge issue for him. Stella, for some reason, suggests he come home with her and sleep in her basement. Girl, that man is an adult and a stranger… Anyways, he agrees because he has feelings for her. When he gets to her house, this is when he starts going through her room and reading her journals and stuff. Genuinely, my rage for this man grows the more I think about the crazy stuff they just let him get away with. Anyways, he does end up sleeping in the basement and not in Stella’s room, thank GOD.
Alone in her room, Stella takes out Sarah Bellows book of stories that she stole from the Bellows’ house. Like an idiot, she took the cursed book from the haunted house and now everyone is gonna die. She starts flipping through the stories and then finds some blank pages. She’s about to close the book when red text starts appearing on the blank pages. When she touches it, the red “ink” smears. She watches the story appear on the page and starts reading it and then Tommy’s name appears in the story. The camera cuts to Tommy at his family farm, doing chores for his mom. Long story short, he gets lost in the cornfield and then gets attacked by a living scarecrow that turns him into a scarecrow.
The next day at school, there are cops everywhere because Tommy is missing and he’s on the football team so, of course, everyone is worried. Stella is trying to show the book to Chuck and Auggie and convince them that Tommy is somehow missing because of the book. Chuck seems to believe her, given that he saw that old lady at the house and generally he seems more open to the idea of the supernatural. Auggie, on the other hand, is a skeptic. He thinks his friends are just stressed and somewhat crazy and that the book is just making things worse. This, of course, means he’s gonna die next.
Stella ends up throwing Sarah Bellows’ book in the trash and trying to separate herself from it. She tries to convince Ramon that the book took Tommy, and they even go to see the scarecrow on Tommy’s family farm. The scarecrow is wearing Tommy’s letterman jacket. Ramon isn’t convinced, but is more worried about a run in with the cops and insists they leave. They get back to Stella’s house and Ramon is right back to snooping through her stuff. He ends up finding Sarah Bellows’ book, which has magically reappeared in Stella’s room, and he starts reading it. Stella is terrified and wants to get rid of it. They fight over it, but then a new story starts being written and it’s about Auggie. Stella tries to contact Auggie on their walkie talkies, and she gets a hold of him but he’s still dismissive and doesn’t believe her. Eventually his story starts coming true and he freaks out. Stella and Ramon try to get to Auggie’s house and save him, but they’re too late. Auggie’s story is the story about the corpse’s toe that ends up in someone’s stew, and then the corpse comes back for their toe. Auggie ends up hiding under his bed but then gets dragged away by the corpse. It’s not clear where he goes, given he gets dragged through his wall and out of time and space.
This is where another big question presents itself to me. Are people dying? Are they being transported to the book universe? Is that like limbo? Where are they going and can they come back? I have answered those questions on my own, but obviously none of those answers are canon.
Anyways, Auggie is gone, and Stella has to break the news to Chuck and Ruth. Chuck loses his absolute mind over this. Like Achilles after the death of Patroclus, Chuck is angry, confused, and crying about how they have to get Auggie back. Chuck suggests they go to the police, but Ramon immediately shuts that idea down because he doesn’t want to talk to the cops. While I don’t think the cops could help them in this situation, I’m still pissed at how dismissive Ramon is. Like no one said you had to go?? We’ll go talk to the cops and you stay here!!!! Jesus… Anyways, Ruth still doesn’t believe that anything is going wrong- She thinks it’s some Halloween prank. She leaves in a huff because she is in the school play and has to go get ready. So, naturally, she’ll be attacked next.
In the meantime, Chuck, Stella, and Ramon try to do more research. They try to burn the book- doesn’t work. They go to the library to learn more about the Bellows family and Sarah Bellows as a person. While at the library, a new story starts being written and it’s clearly about Ruth. This leads to one of the more popular scenes in the movie, and one I still close my eyes during, despite having seen this movie multiple times. So, Ruth has had this pimple on her cheek from the beginning of the movie and it’s only gotten worse. Now, mere minutes before she’s supposed to go on stage for her performance, her pimple is swelling and pulsing. She runs to the bathroom to try and cover it up with more powder, but it ends up exploding into millions of spiders. I’m recoiling in my skin just thinking about it. However, Ruth doesn’t die. Stella and the gang are able to get to her in time. Chuck comforts his sister and protects her from the spiders while Stella and Ramon kinda just stare on in shock and horror.
Ruth ends up being sent to a mental hospital, but at least she’s alive. She will be important later, so don’t forget her. Anyways, Stella and Chuck have a conversation after Ruth gets driven off; Chuck is crying because he just lost his best friend and his sister, and Stella is like “It’s all ok though because we’re a team and we’ll figure it out” or whatever. Then the cops confront them and are like “Why are you guys always around or friends with the people being taken?” and they’re like “I don’t know, that’s so weird… Maybe you guys should do your job better”. There was also a scene after Tommy’s death where the main evil cop tried to accuse Ramon of killing or kidnapping Tommy, so it’s clear that all the cops in this town have it out for them.
After Ruth is taken to the mental hospital, Stella, Chuck, and Ramon decide to do more research into Sarah Bellows in hopes of figuring out how to break this curse/get rid of the book. They visit an older black woman named Lou Lou, who’s mother had worked for the Bellows as a maid or servant. Lou Lou’s mother was fired as it was believed she taught black magic to Sarah Bellows. Lou Lou blind and generally unstable, both with her physical and mental health. Regardless, she remembers Sarah Bellows and tells the three main characters that Sarah was a misunderstood young girl who was abused by her family. When she sees the book, she gets upset and tells them they shouldn’t have messed with it. She begins spiraling and rambling about Sarah’s suicide after she was forced into a mental hospital by her family. The main three are quickly rushed out by Lou Lou’s daughter.
This new clue leads the main three to break into the mental hospital that Sarah had been placed in. The security on this place is so insanely lax- I understand it was the sixties, but the scene of them sneaking in behind some other doctors genuinely felt like a slap in the face. Some parts of this movie are not taken nearly as seriously as they warrant, and this moment is definitely one of those.
Anyways, they’re trying to find the records room where all the patient information is stored. Illegal, but who cares. The records room is dubbed the “red room” for some wack reason, but this really bothers Chuck as the mysterious room from the past that he saw while hiding at the Bellows’ house was a red room. He refuses to go with them, and they split up. Stupid, but I love Chuck so I’m defending him on this one. He was protecting his peace. Stella and Ramon go to the red room, and Chuck goes up to the top floor.
This is where we get, arguable, the most popular and recognizable scenes in the whole movie. Chuck gets lost on the top floor and starts hyperventilating, then the security alarms start blaring because they finally realized three kids just broke in and red lights start flashing. Chuck is freaking out, running through the halls and trying to find his way out, when suddenly he sees this extremely pale, extremely bloated creature with long black hair slowly walking toward him. No matter what door he opens or what hallway he turns on, she’s there. I could go on and on about Chuck’s character and the possible metaphors behind this scene, but I’ll save that for later. Anyways, he ends up being consumed by this creature? It’s hard to explain- There are multiple versions of this creature and two of them get him in the middle and kinda merge together, around him? And he disappears into thin air. Crazy way to die.
We’re almost at the end! Gonna call this here but the final part of this review will wrap up the general storyline, as well as my thoughts on how a second movie should go. I may even write an entirely different blog about the implications of the character’s and their deaths/stories, because this is something very important to me and I think about it often. Even little details, like the character’s halloween costumes, their house designs, their names- I love over-analysing stuff guys. Thanks for letting me ramble. I’ll see you again next week!