Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark: All References And What They Looked Like In The Books
1. Sounds
This particular reference was not stated anywhere, but it's hard not to see the connection once you read this story and watch the film, when it seems to be the basis for the plot that ties all the scary stories together.
In Sounds, a haunted house stands where nobody dares to enter, until some fishermen caught in a storm have to spend the night there.
Throughout their stay, they hear the sounds of activity in the house, but never see a thing. They hear a woman scream, then they hear the sounds of a woman being chased around the house by an angry man, eventually leading to the sound of something being dragged out of the house and thrown.
It's later revealed that a rich recluse used to live in the house, who was rumoured to have a mentally ill daughter - and when he moved away, she had disappeared.
The film takes these elements and builds on them, from the rich family to the mentally ill daughter and a haunted house holding all the horror that entailed. And the image Gammell presents - empty of people - is as frightening as the horrors that readers could not see.