Alex (Winslow Fegley) loves horror stories. He loves writing them and he loves reading them, though sometimes this sets him apart from the other kids in his class. When nobody shows up to his birthday party, Alex decides to burn all of his story books. What he doesn’t expect is while he is on his way to do so, he is lured by a witch into her swanky, modern apartment where he becomes his prisoner. In order to avoid death, Alex convinces Natacha (Krysten Ritter) to let him tell her a scary story each night. But he is no alone in the apartment. Yazmin (Lidya Jewett) has been her servant for the past three years and she knows the ins and outs of the place. Together, Alex and Yazmin devise a plan to escape before it’s too late.

The concept for Nightbooks seemed really cool. I liked the element of Alex having to tell stories to Natacha for his freedom where that was the one thing that got home stuck in her apartment to begin with. All of the scenes that took place there were magical. I loved the special effects and everything was was incorporated to give that creepy effect. At times it really was as if the audience was supposed to be stuck in a real life nightmare.

I was mainly interested in watching the movie because of Krysten Ritter. I’ve been a fan of hers ever since she guest starred in Veronica Mars way back in the day. She hasn’t been up to much since Jessica Jones was cancelled and that’s a right shame because she’s such a delight. Winslow Fegley and Lidya Jewett were enjoyable enough as Alex and Yaz. I liked their friendship and thought they worked well off each other. I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw more of them in the future.

Nightbooks was a fun film, but it wasn’t as good as I was hoping it would be. It is definitely marketed towards a younger generation and it shows. I’m still glad that I watched it, I just wish it had held up the intrigue factor I felt while checking out the trailer.

Rating: ♥♥