The ‘Scary Stories’ Movie Teasers Take A Childhood Fave & Turn It Into Your Worst Nightmare

If the Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark books you bought from the Scholastic Book Fair back in the day gave you nightmares when you read them at sleepovers with your friends, you're going to want to stay far, far away from the internet for a minute. The Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark teasers during the Super Bowl — yea, there were four of them — are sleep-with-the-lights-on terrifying. Yet, just like the books before them, they're also too intriguing to pass up. Cue the fist shaking at the scary story gods.

Alvin Schwartz and Stephen Gammell's Scary Stories books first hit bookshelves (and our nightmares) back in 1981. A second one was released in 1984, and the third in 1991. Now, they're being turned into a movie produced by Guillermo del Toro and directed by André Øvredal, set for release in August, according to the creepy AF teasers aired during the Super Bowl. The first teaser was a version of "The Big Toe," the horrifying story of a little boy who digs up a toe in his garden, has his mom unwittingly cook it in soup, and then has to deal with a ghost later looking for it. The second teaser seemed to tease the "Jangly Man," which wasn't in the books, and then the "Red Spot," and "Pale Lady," both stories from the books. They're all exactly as scary as they sound.

The Big Toe

Jangly Man

Pale Lady

Red Spot

Much like the original stories themselves, the teasers are short and seem to get right to the point. And to be honest, the imagery is just as, if not creepier, than the original drawings in the books. Just think — if Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z were totally scarred for life by a pencil sketch of that mean old big toe monster, what about the poor little souls who are going to grow up watching that on HD and 4K screens? Gives me chills just thinking about it. That being said, the effects look spectacular, especially when it comes to the creatures like the Big Toe guy and Jangly Man.

According to Deadline, the movie will somehow be more connected than the collections of short stories and follow a group of teens who must solve the mysteries of deaths and terrifying happenings in their small town, which makes sense. Apparently, according to the same report, Del Toro is a longtime fan of the young adult books and actually owns ten of the original prints from the series. So if everything looks especially scary, it's likely because it was created, in part, by a fan. It was made with love.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Javier Botet (The Slender Man), Breaking Bad's Dean Norris, Zoe Colletti (Annie), Michael Garza (Wayward Pines), Austin Abrams (Brad’s Status), Gabriel Rush (The Grand Budapest Hotel), Austin Zajur (Kidding), and Natalie Ganzhorn (Make it Pop) are all also on board to star in the movie, so familiarize yourself with all of them right this minute. That way, it won't be so creepy when one of them plays the Pale Lady.

In the meantime, call your siblings and elementary school besties and warn them: that monster is back and looking for its big tooooeeeee.