CBS Films and Entertainment One (eOne) announced today that Guillermo del Toro’s SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK will feature a re-recorded version of Donovan’s 1966 hit song “Season of the Witch” by Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Lana Del Rey. The song’s debut will coincide with the film’s theatrical release by Lionsgate on August 9th.
The new trailer for the film, which was just released today, features Lana Del Rey’s version of “Season of the Witch” and can be viewed below:
Based on the series by Alvin Schwartz, SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK is directed by André Øvredal from a screenplay by Dan Hageman and Kevin Hageman and a screen story by Guillermo del Toro, Patrick Melton, and Marcus Dunstan. The film stars Zoe Colletti, Michael Garza, Gabriel Rush, Austin Abrams, Dean Norris, Gil Bellows, Lorraine Toussaint, Austin Zajur, and Natalie Ganzhorn. Guillermo del Toro, Sean Daniel, Jason F. Brown, J. Miles Dale and Elizabeth Grave produced the project.
“I have admired Lana’s music for a while now and felt in my gut that she would run with ‘Season of the Witch’ – that she would use her alchemy to transform it,” said del Toro. “She is a great artist and has been an amazing partner with us in this adventure. It is an honor for me to have met her.”
“Season of the Witch” was written by Donovanand Shawn Phillips, and first released in September of 1966 on Donovan’s album, Sunshine Superman.
Set in 1968, two years after “Season of the Witch” was released, SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK takes place in the small town of Mill Valley where for generations, the shadow of the Bellows family has loomed large. It is in their mansion on the edge of town that Sarah, a young girl with horrible secrets, turned her tortured life into a series of scary stories, written in a book that has transcended time—stories that have a way of becoming all too real for a group of teenagers who discover Sarah’s terrifying home.
Tomorrow, August 6th, Lana Del Rey will join Guillermo del Toro to honor him at his Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony on Hollywood Boulevard.
Lana Del Rey has been noted by critics for its stylized cinematic quality, glamour, melancholia and its references to 1950s and 1960s Americana. Her debut album, “Born to Die”, was released in January 2012 and charted at number one on the official UK Album Chart, peaked number two on the US charts and was the fifth best-selling album of 2012. Her extended play “Paradise” followed that November, garnering her first Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album. “Ultraviolence” (2014), her third studio album, became her first album to reach number one in the US. In 2015, she released her fourth studio album, “Honeymoon”. Both albums received positive critical response.
Lana’s fifth studio album, “Lust for Life,” was released in 2017. The album received critical acclaim, and became her second album to reach No. 1 in the United States, while also reaching the top ten in almost every other country it charted in. The album was also nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2018 Grammys. Lana’s sixth studio album is set to drop August 30th. The highly anticipated album was mainly produced and co-written with Jack Antonoff and will include “Venice Bitch,” “Mariners Apartment Complex,” “hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have – but I have it,” and the cover of Sublime’s “Doin’ Time”.
CBS Films and eOne Entertainment present in association with Rolling Hills and Starlight, SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK, distributed by Lionsgate. This film is rated PG-13.
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