Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark: The Walk

The Walk

Really, the art in this book works because it could be point of view shots. Before the right-handed story page even gives you any context, the reader first sees that gorgeous illustration. You look through a paper window into the misty forest and begin imagining.

For fun, I started brainstorming identities for the two figures before reading the actual story, and came up with both zombies or grave diggers before moving on. It’s just astounding how vague the picture is, and that’s a strength, not a criticism.

As opposed to the new version …



I read an opinion on the new version of the art for “The Walk” fails magnificently because it is dated. We look at it and assume the events are long past and harmless. The greatest master of the ghost story, M.R. James, said commented in “Ghosts: Treat Them Gently!” on the difficulty of scaring people with the archaic.

“Setting or environment, then, is to me a principal point, and the more readily appreciable the setting is to the ordinary reader the better.”
He notes that A Christmas Carol was intended as contemporary story as written, meaning that perhaps none of our continual cycle of Victorian adaptations may be as close to Dicken’s desired effect as Bill Murray’s Scrooged is.

If the world is wracked by a Fallout/Mad Max style apocalypse, some child centuries in the future whose found a nearly-disintegrated copy of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark will still feel a chill run up their spine at that original art. Well, they will if they're not Fury Road’s Nux, who can’t identify a tree. The new art? “Oh. Older-timing folk before the before days.”

This art could be anywhere, and where the terror comes in.

As to the story …

A regular review blog works best when you have highs and lows. Those brave gentlemen over at the Post Atomic Horror Podcast watch all of Star Trek, and they often say the best shows they make are the ones where they consider both a diamond and a turd.

I’m honestly not sure how well the average nine year-old would be able to scare other kids using this script. It reads like a horror story by someone who knows of the existence of horror stories but has no experience with them and doesn’t know how to end one.

As to the reading, I received something of a jump when my cat rubbed against me through the blanket I had over my head. Wife is still successfully unaware of the program. I had to use my cell phone, lying phone on my stomach and holding the flashlight over the pages as I did while pouring over Sherlock Holmes stories past my bedtime in the late eighties.

Let me say this. That moment where I click on the flashlight and see that picture of her face on the cover of my treasury edition is still a creeptastic moment that gives me pause.

Next up is “What Do You Come For?” I note for the record that this is a hard run early on due to this chapter’s format. I can’t wait until we get to more traditional scary stories.