One type of scene that I absolutely love in a movie is one that’s all about storytelling. We’re taken away from the main plot and pulled into a whole new tale (or a story that’s completely relevant to the plot). Whether it’s the story itself, how it was told, the visuals we see as it’s told, or all of the above, these are some of my favorite storytelling scenes in movies! I hope you enjoy and let me know some of your favorites!

The Pie Eating Contest – Stand By Me

Escaping from the problems of their own lives, Gordie (Wil Wheaton), Chris (River Phoenix), Teddy (Corey Feldman), and Vern (Jerry O’Connell) set off on an adventure to find the dead body of a missing kid. While camping out their first night, the group asked Gordie to tell one of his stories. There, he told the story of Lard A** (Andy Lindberg), a heavyweight boy who was bullied relentlessly in his town. He ended up joining a pie eating contest and we’re led to believe it was to gain respect of the town. However, what he really wanted was revenge, and he got it in the form of making everyone at the contest violently ill. This was a great break in the main story and it oddly fits so well. It was a fun story created and told by a kid, and it’s one of my favorite scenes.

The Bowling Alley Massacre – Cabin Fever

After finally being done with college, five friends took a trip to a cabin in the middle of nowhere to enjoy a peaceful vacation. On their first night there, they sat around the campfire, roasting marshmallows. There, one of the friends, Paul (Rider Strong) was pushed into telling a story from his childhood. When he was a kid, he spent most of his days at the local bowling alley, but one day, a tragedy happened and the bowling alley was closed indefinitely. What had happened was a disgruntled employee kidnapped his co-workers and bashed their heads in one by one with a ball-peen hammer. He then chopped their bodies up and bowled with them. This was a very random story but I think it was executed really well. The best part was when the friends all broke out laughing after Paul mentioned the Happy Bald Guy’s smiling decapitated head in the ball return.

The Legend Of Eddie Oswald – Dog Soldiers

While on a routine military exercise, a group of soldiers trekked through the wilderness of Scotland. While sitting around a campfire, each soldier started talking about what scared them the most. When it was Sergeant Wells’ (Sean Pertwee) turn, he started talking about the things that really makes the hairs on the back of a person’s neck stand up. One incident he recalled was the fate of one of his buddies, Eddie Oswald. One day, Eddie and his mates decided to get tattoos and Eddie chose to have a tattoo of the Devil right on his a**. His reasoning was that while his soul belonged to God, his physical body was beyond redemption and it was up to Satan to save his skin. Not long after he got the tattoo, he was was blown up after stepping on a mine. While his mates started picking up his pieces, they found a piece of his skin with that Devil tattoo, completely perfect and unscathed. So, Satan did in fact save Eddie’s skin, just not all of it. I don’t know what it is about this story, but it always stuck with me since the first time I heard it.

The Final Protest – Seven Psychopaths

While dealing with kidnapped dogs and angry mobsters, Marty (Colin Farrell) had to deal with writer’s block as he tried to work on his script centered around seven psychopaths. One psychopath he came up with was a Vietcong soldier (Long Nguyen) who enjoyed fighting in the war a little too much. Once the war was over, he thought he would return to a normal life. However, when he returned home, he found his whole family was killed. Hellbent on revenge, he planned to strap a bomb to a hooker, throw her in the middle of a convention discussing the war, and blow everyone to bits. Marty didn’t want the story to end in complete violence, so his friend, Hans (Christopher Walken) came up with a solution. In his ending, the soldier held the match to light everyone on fire, closed his eyes, and opened them again to find his actual reality. He wasn’t a soldier at all, but a monk sitting in the middle of a street. He had completely doused himself in gasoline and prepared to light himself on fire to protest the war. It was a beautifully tragic ending, especially considering this was based on a true story.

The Untrue Story Of Helen Lyle – Candyman (2021)

Introducing his new boyfriend, Grady (Kyle Kraminsky) to his sister, Brianna (Teyonah Parris), Troy (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) brought him to her and her boyfriend, Anthony’s (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) apartment for dinner and wine. There, they talked about the history of the neighborhood. This inspired Troy to tell the tale of one of the most tragic moments in the neighborhood’s history: the tale of Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen). Helen was a professor researching the urban legend of Candyman. According to Troy, the research became an obsession for Helen. One day, she snapped and killed a rottweiler in cold blood and kidnapped a baby, planning to sacrifice him. She then died in a fire and the baby was rescued. As we all know, this wasn’t what happened to Helen at all, but this storytelling scene was so visually stunning. The way we see the events through simple paper puppets and candlelight was so beautiful.