Guillermo del Toro Talks Bringing Monsters to Life forScary Stories to Tell in the Dark

If you learn Alvin Schwartz ’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark as a kid , no doubt you ’re still haunted by Stephen Gammell ’s cool illustrations . When Guillermo del Toro decide to produce a picture show version , with brother - in - revulsion André Øvredal ( Trollhunter , The Autopsy of Jane Doe ) directing , he knew that bringing Gammell ’s iconic artwork to life history would be a of the essence part of the process .

Being del Toro , he , of course , make out on the button who he wanted to bring in to give biography to Scary Stories ’ nightmarish creature . At San Diego Comic - Con , del Toro and Øvredal took the stage with a trio of special effects masters that worked on their upcoming film : Mike Elizalde ( an Oscar candidate for his employment on del Toro ’s Hellboy II : The Golden Army ) , Norman Cabrera ( The Walking Dead ) , and Mike Hill ( The Shape of Water ) . The movie is n’t a straightforward adaptation — instead , it ’s about a group of adolescent who break into a haunted family and discover a playscript sate with stories that suddenly come live .

“ When we start up talking about this about five year ago , I had to think about it . Of of course , I make out the books , but I did n’t want to do an anthology film , because anthology films are always as regretful as the bad write up in them , ” del Toro told the interview . “ They ’re never as safe as the good story . I think , that ’s not a data format I desire . And then I remembered in Pan ’s Labyrinth , I make a book that was send for The Book of Crossroads , that when you opened it , it reads you the hereafter , and compose itself for you and only for you . I think , that could be bully — if I have a book that read you , rather than you reading the book , and it writes the thing that you ’re most afraid of … and then it hap . I imagine that was sound , and then the theme became the stories we say about each other . I remember that ’s as good for 1968 - 69 , which is when the motion-picture show is set , or [ today ’s ] social medium , which is the way we shape each other through our conversations and our history . It seemed very prudent justly now . ”

The Jangly Man cuts a worrisome figure on the new Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark poster.

The Jangly Man cuts a worrisome figure on the new Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark poster.Image: CBS Films

https://gizmodo.com/guillermo-del-toro-explains-why-he-only-does-bonkers-mo-1834327722

The trailers thus far have offer some tantalizing glimpses of the those “ things you ’re most afraid of , ” many of which come in the form of monsters , includingultimate creepy scarecrow Harold , the Big Toe , the Pale Lady , and a creature create just for the film , Jangly Man . In fact , here ’s a fresh trailer they just released today :

As ( legitimately hair’s-breadth - raising ) images of Harold draw his leap from pageboy to screen were shown to the crowd , creature upshot executive program Elizalde and special makeup core creative person Cabrera explicate that staying on-key to Gammell ’s draught was an important goal for his department .

“ We ’re massive fans of the books , and we were so inhale by the artwork . One of the first affair was , it ’s get ta stay true to the real art , so we literally took our sculpt and the art , and in Photoshop kind of fuse two photograph together . We were literally overlie them so that the billet would equalize up , ” Cabrera say . “ You live , it ’s always good when you ’re doing a lusus naturae design to explore every idea . It was important for us to simulate the Gammell art , but you kind of want to explore a minuscule moment too . If you have a little minute of clip for R&D , that ’s really good , because you might slip up upon something . Like , that works , that does n’t work , that sort of thing . In this typeface , we all just reverted back to the original artwork . ”

Elizalde supply , “ One of the things that ’s really special about this undertaking for all of us was that sometimes , you go down the route of creating something that you ’ve been handed designs [ for ] that come from an creative person that you ’ve never met before . Sometimes we beget the designs ourselves . But in this case , we were create intention from something that pit us as youngster . It was something that was really peculiar and important for us to strain and get ripe . We did prove a range of aspect for Harold in the first place , but André was really unmortgaged . He tell , ‘ I do n’t desire this to look like a person . It demand to look like a terrific mask that ’s been decompose in the sunshine . ’ So that ’s how the final look was arrive at . ”

particular makeup effects artist and sculptor Hill , who work on the squishy horror that is the Pale Lady , also helped craft the new fictitious character , Jangly Man . “ This character was n’t formally in the books , but he was an amalgamation of several characters , ” Hill pronounce . “ He was in reality played by a guy namedTroy James , ” he say , pausing to let the audience shriek at the alarming footage being show onscreen . “ As you could see , he ’s a contortionist . We knew that Troy was so good at walk [ bent over ] backwards , very eerily , so we decide that we ’re gon na do an upside - down head , which is a ripe - room - up oral sex if he ’s walking backwards . So that really was very supernatural , and added a supernatural countenance to it . ”

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

Added del Toro , “ All the tool , the Pale Lady , Harold , all of them , 90 percent of everything is forcible . And then we add the 10 percent digital that tweak it very , very little but makes you think it ’s live . It ’s extremely successful to let the physical effects lead , and digital follows . ”

Elizalde hold . “ for create a really convincing legerdemain , you employ all of the tools at your disposal . Digital is such a viable tool for us , just for that function , to just push it into that next realm . Where your subconscious is evidence you , ‘ I recognise what I ’m looking at is real , but there ’s really something very wrong with it . ’ There ’s something so dissimilar , but subtle stuff . That ’s really what sells the semblance of these not bad fiber . ”

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is out August 9 .

William Duplessie