Guillermo del Toro Presents New Footage from ‘Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark’

Producer Guillermo del Toro and director André Øvredal debuted a new trailer and two exclusive clips for the upcoming family horror film Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, coming this August.

Prior to the clips from Scary Stories being shown, guests at the Roxy Hotel in Tribeca saw still images from the film placed next to the notoriously horrifying drawings from the books. The artwork of Stephen Gammell and the writing of Alvin Schwartz cast a shadow over everything happening at the event, and for readers of the books as children (like myself), it was like being scared all over again.

Soon, guests were seated and Guillermo del Toro and André Øvredal introduced two of the scariest clips from the film.

In the first, a take on the story “The Big Toe,” the character Auggie finds himself being haunted in his own home by a reanimated corpse in search of a big toe she is missing… which might be in the food Auggie is trying to eat. Actor Gabriel Rush (Moonrise Kingdom), also in attendance, gives a great performance in his terror, something that ran throughout the crowd as well.
The second clip was pulled from a story called “The Red Spot,” and it was a nightmare for arachnophobes everywhere. The two clips showed that Øvredal and del Toro aren’t pulling any punches and that Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark will scare audiences everywhere.

Following the clips, del Toro and Øvredal discussed the making of the film, and the ways that they collaborated. Del Toro discussed how he fell in love with the artwork of Gammell when he was a budding filmmaker, and how that has influenced the ways that he has made films ever since. He also talked about why he and Øvredal make such a good team, and how Øvredal does horror so well. They also discussed making the monsters scary not with CGI but with makeup, having them be realistic and horrifying at the same time by using the same people involved in designing the sea creature from The Shape of Water and more.

Øvredal also mentioned how he discovered the actors for the film, looking for the most realistic looking and acting younger people that he could find. The two then also discussed how they found their own horror as children. Del Toro discussed his Catholic upbringing and how that has influenced his filmmaking and made a number of jokes about what makes Mexican religion so much more horrifying than American religion.

Discussing his childhood and how to make movies that scare children as well as adults, Del Toro answered a question from the Knockturnal about how the family is the scariest thing we think about, so it makes sense to be scared together.

After the Q&A, del Toro and Øvredal debuted the new Scary Stories trailer, which you can find below. But overall, it was a wonderfully scary time, and I know that I will be first in line to see the film when it is released nationwide on August 9th.