Persephone's (Gothic) Insights

The trailer for the upcoming Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019) is here, and I wanted to provide my initial impressions. In other words, how is it Gothic? Note: Spoilers! Watch the trailer before reading this! Before I start, a synopsis: The trailer begins; small town images fade and disappear, on-screen. You might recognize the locale, if only by reputation—the kind with a creepy old house on the corner (the star attraction for many-a-novel, from Clara Reeve, to Poe, to R. L. Stein). On Halloween (note the clown outfit), a group of youngsters go inside. For them, it's probably a rite of passage, the kind ridiculed by Joe Dante, in The 'Burbs  (1989): "They're daring each other to ring the doorbell." The children trespass, breaking into, by all appearances, an old, vacant home. Inside, something insidious awaits them: a black book. Watching the children stumble to their doom, I recalled the words of Ellen Ripley during her inquest: "It was a ...