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Interview: ‘Scary Stories’ Documentary Director Cody Meirick

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Scary Stories Cody Meirick

One of the first things that Cody Meirick would like you to know is that he, in fact, did not direct the big screen adaptation of Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

That film is produced by Guillermo del Toro and directed by André Øvredal.

Meirick, on the other hand, spent the last five years of his life creating a documentary called Scary Stories about the the trilogy of books that opened doors for an entire generation to the world of things that go bump in the night.

When he first decided to begin work on Scary Stories, his first full-length documentary, he admits he wasn’t entirely sure how to get from point A to point B. He only knew that it was going to be a lot of work and he was ready to commit.

“I had a background in producing web content that had to do with children’s literature,” he said. “I could see that this [Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark] was a title that had a huge following. People talk a lot about the books, but I could see they didn’t know a lot about how they were created. They also didn’t know how much the books were challenged in the 90s. When you juxtapose those things, that’s a great story!”

How to go about telling that story was the real task, and he admits one of the challenges was to not over-simplify it. He also freely admits that it’s not a totally balanced film.

“A percentage of the documentary is a celebration of the books,” Meirick pointed out. “I also wanted to point out that books, in general, are still being challenged. It’s something that’s still going on and we should be talking about that.”

To spotlight the challenges that this particular set of books faced, Meirick went back to the 90s and one particular case that made national news.

As a final element, he also began to reach out to artists, musicians, and other creatives whose work had been inspired by the books and who continue to create based on Scwartz’s storytelling and Stephen Gammell’s illustrations, and he says that this was one way that stretching the project out over five years actually aided him.

“I really started building an audience on social media from the beginning,” he said. “People have followed the project. They’ve reached out to me about it. They’ve shown me their work. I really got to know my audience, and I was able to naturally frame the story of the documentary with three things: the illustrations, the stories, and the controversy.”

It was also during this process that he contacted Shane Hunt to create animations for the documentary, though he wasn’t sure at first what to animate. There was no way for him to fully animate the stories, and he wasn’t sure that shorter animations would benefit the film ultimately.

The spark of inspiration finally came when he heard a story from a particular librarian whose school had asked her to remove the books from the library’s shelves, a decision which she disagreed with wholeheartedly.

“Telling that story was pertinent to telling the story of the documentary,” Meirick explained. “And I suddenly thought we could animate her story! So, we segmented it out and it turned out to be a great way to give our audience a story that they probably didn’t know that was still important to the project.”

Hunt’s animation perfectly evokes Gammell’s illustrations with creepy overtones to what might otherwise be straightforward storytelling making those animated sequences compelling and tonally perfect for the documentary.

With all the pieces in place, Meirick was able to create a documentary that is more balanced, I think, than even he realized.

Scary Stories is currently streaming on Amazon Prime, and is also available finally on DVD. CLICK HERE to order a copy and get ready for the journey into Cody Meirick’s brilliant documentary.

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Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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Part Concert, Part Horror Movie M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Trailer Released

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In true Shyamalan form, he sets his film Trap inside a social situation where we aren’t sure what is going on. Hopefully, there is a twist at the end. Furthermore, we hope it’s better than the one in his divisive 2021 movie Old.

The trailer seemingly gives away a lot, but, as in the past, you can’t rely on his trailers because they are often red herrings and you are being gaslit to think a certain way. For instance, his movie Knock at the Cabin was completely different than what the trailer implied and if you hadn’t read the book on which the film is based it was still like going in blind.

The plot for Trap is being dubbed an “experience” and we aren’t quite sure what that means. If we were to guess based on the trailer, it’s a concert movie wrapped around a horror mystery. There are original songs performed by Saleka, who plays Lady Raven, a kind of Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga hybrid. They have even set up a Lady Raven website to further the illusion.

Here is the fresh trailer:

According to the synopsis, a father takes his daughter to one of Lady Raven’s jam-packed concerts, “where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.”

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider.

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Woman Brings Corpse Into Bank To Sign Loan Papers

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Warning: This is a disturbing story.

You have to be pretty desperate for money to do what this Brazilian woman did at the bank to get a loan. She wheeled in a fresh corpse to endorse the contract and she seemingly thought the bank employees wouldn’t notice. They did.

This weird and disturbing story comes via ScreenGeek an entertainment digital publication. They write that a woman identified as Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes pushed a man she identified as her uncle into the bank pleading with him to sign loan papers for $3,400. 

If you’re squeamish or easily triggered, be aware that the video captured of the situation is disturbing. 

Latin America’s largest commercial network, TV Globo, reported on the crime, and according to ScreenGeek this is what Nunes says in Portuguese during the attempted transaction. 

“Uncle, are you paying attention? You must sign [the loan contract]. If you don’t sign, there’s no way, as I cannot sign on your behalf!”

She then adds: “Sign so you can spare me further headaches; I can’t bear it any longer.” 

At first we thought this might be a hoax, but according to Brazilian police, the uncle, 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga had passed away earlier that day.

 “She attempted to feign his signature for the loan. He entered the bank already deceased,” Police Chief Fábio Luiz said in an interview with TV Globo. “Our priority is to continue investigating to identify other family members and gather more information regarding this loan.”

If convicted Nunes could be facing jail time on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and desecration of a corpse.

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