Nightbooks Review: Witches And Scary Apartments In Horror For The Children

Director: David Yarovesky

Cast: Winslow Fegley, Lidya Jewett, Krysten Ritter, Mathieu Bourassa, Jess Brown

Streaming Platform: Netflix (stream from here)

Ratings: 3/5 (three stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Horror – like most film genres – can be reworked and adapted to a young audience, but it is not always successful, the right balance between some hints of jump scares, (not too much) monstrous creatures thirsty for human flesh. and touching happy ending stories that carry an uplifting message aren’t always easy to come by. As we will discover in this review of Nightbooks – Tales of Scary, the film directed by David Yarovesky and co-produced by Sam Raimi and his Ghost House Pictures, manages to entertain its target audience, those children who would like a first taste of horror but are not yet ready to approach the genre. The film distributed by Netflix – which harks back to Goosebumps and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, even if it was a product designed for viewers a few years older – tells a story of friendship and acceptance of one’s diversity to the inside of a slightly scary dark frame: a film that works very well for the audience it is intended for but that will hardly keep the attention of the adult who accompanies the little ones to the vision high.

A Child Enthusiast Of Horror

Little Alex (Winslow Fegley) is a kid who is passionate about horror stories, his bedroom is covered with posters of famous horror (Nightmare – From the depths of the night, Lost Boys …) and he loves writing spooky stories. This love of him for all that is macabre and scary has made him a bit of an outsider among his peers and his parents would like him to try to integrate more, that he was, in short, more “normal”. On the evening of his birthday – after something happened, with his school friends, which we will be told only at the end of the film – Alex decides to renounce his passion for horror and burn the notebook where he wrote all the tell about him. As he goes to the furnace in the basement of the condominium where he lives with his parents, he is attracted by the open door of an apartment, by a television broadcasting one of his favorite films, Lost Boys. As soon as he enters (and after tasting a suspiciously abandoned slice of cake) the little one faints.

A short time later Alex wakes up in a bedroom, where he meets Natacha (Krysten Ritter), a witch who specializes in kidnapping children: if he wants to stay alive he will have to tell him a scary story every night. However, any kind of happy ending is banned. In the apartment, which as we will soon discover moves from city to city looking for victims, Alex makes the acquaintance of Yasmin (Lidya Jewett), another child kidnapped by the witch. Together the two will try to survive (and not be transformed into porcelain figurines like the children who came before them) and to escape: escaping the clutches of the terrible Natacha, however, seems an impossible undertaking.

The First Steps In The Cinema Of Fear

Among the merits of this film, based on the novel of the same name by J.A. White, there are first of all his little performers, Winslow Fegley and Lidya Jewett, capable of bringing two characters that are almost always credible to the screen. Krysten Ritter, who plays the only adult character who has a minimum of weight in the economy of the story, too often sins of overacting, making her Natacha a bit of a caricature (although it turns out, we must admit, also quite fascinating). If on the one hand the special effects and the CGI used highlight the limited budget with which the film was made, we can only dwell on the care that was put into the creation of the location in which the characters move: the apartment, with the its innumerable rooms and its mysterious ravines, it is at the same time as much a distressing prison as a place full of magic and wonders.

A film that we recommend, therefore, to those viewers who want to take their first steps in the world of scary cinema, the youngest will be captivated by the story of Alex and Yasmin (who will even take them to the house of the witch of Hansel and Gretel who inspired the famous fairy tale) and maybe they can get an idea of the emotions that horror can offer. Who knows if, among the audience of Nightbooks – Tales of Fear, future fans are not hiding who just need a first push towards this kind of cinema.

The Final Words

We conclude this review of Nightbooks – Tales of Fear by reiterating how much this film distributed by Netflix is a product suitable for the very young audience it is intended for. It may not catch the attention of the adults who accompany the little ones in the vision but it is perfect for those viewers who want to take their first steps in the world of horror cinema.

What Worked

• The story is perfect for the young audience target it is intended for.
• Winslow Fegley and Lidya Jewett work very well in the role of the two leads.
• The apartment in which the film takes place captures and fascinates.

What Didn’t Worked

• Kristen Ritter is often too caricatured.
• It is unlikely that this film will be of interest to an audience other than the one for which it is intended.