'Scary' Movie News, and the YA Fans Go Wild

In news straight from your recurring childhood nightmares, Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is being made into a movie. And if that's not terrifying enough, Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, two of the writers behind the Saw franchise, are set to write the script.

The news broke Tuesday night that CBS Films nabbed the rights to the movie after a pitch from Melton and Dunstan. The movie adaptation will combine the stories by centering on a group of outcast kids who band together to save their town when their nightmares begin to come to life. Schwartz collected dozens of the creepiest folktales from around the world to write Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and its various sequels, but it was Stephen Gammell's drawings that truly brought the fear to life.

Schwartz's first edition of Scary Stories was released in 1981 and was marketed to kids and young adults — despite its truly terrifying content. The series is a nostalgic favorite among 20- and 30-somethings, and it recently showed up on Buzzfeed.com's list of books that "traumatized you as a kid." Fans quickly took to Twitter to express their feelings about the movie.

Schwartz' collection was the number one most challenged book by the American Library Association from 1990-1999 and has appeared in the top 10 several years since then.

This isn't the first time this decade that Schwartz' book has been in the news. In January 2012, Gammell's grotesque but beloved black-and-white illustrations were replaced in the 30th anniversary edition — much to the outrage of avid fans.

While it's not clear which stories will make the cut for the movie or how the creators will be able to mimic Gammell's original illustrations on screen, it's likely the movie will remind us all to sleep under the covers so that spiders can't lay eggs in our faces.

Image: guy schmidt / Flickr