EXCLUSIVE: Wild Eye Releasing has acquired worldwide rights to Scary Stories, a documentary about Alvin Schwartz’s 1980s-penned YA book series Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. The film from director Cody Meirick will now get a theatrical release in 2019, timed to the expected release of the Guillermo del Toro-produced feature adaptation of the books set to hit big screens via CBS Films and eOne.

The docu, which was partly crowd-funded, features more than 40 interviews including Schwartz’s family members and fellow YA horror authors like R.L Stine (Goosebumps) and Q.L. Pearce, as well as folklorists, artists and fans.

The three-volume series, written by Schwartz and illustrated by Stephen Gammell from 1981-1991, featured short horror stories for kids that were adapted from folklore and urban legends — it was the intro to the genre for a swath of kids in that generation. Some parent groups and school boards had the books pulled from libraries and schools owing to Gammell’s sometimes violent illustrations.

Wild Eye Releasing, a genre distributor now dipping its toe in theatrical releases, struck the Scary Stories deal with producer Giant Thumb Studios LLC.