‘Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark’: Guillermo del Toro Bringing Childhood Fears To Movie Life

Guillermo del Toro is one of those writer-directors that really knows how to bring horror to real life and make your dreams into nightmares. He has written things that will live on and haunt your memories forever. Giving him the keys to direct the movie version of Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark is just making it to easy for him to make your childhood fears into reality.

According to Gizmodo, the well-known director is starting development on the movie based on the books, and that means it could be just a few short years away.

One of the best things about del Toro taking on this project is that he is a horror master and knows how to frighten people. Something even better than that is that he is a true fan of the books and knows them so very well.

The project has been in the works for some time, and it was back in August that a good bit of noise was being made on it. From there, things turned dead silent until Deadline realized today that Guillermo del Toro is already working on it.

I start development on a film based on a favorite book of youth: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark! pic.twitter.com/yu31FkCz4K

— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) January 14, 2016

For those not familiar with the books, Scary Stories To Tell in The Dark is a three-book series of children’s books that were written by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by Stephen Gammell. The titles of the books are quite similar, but nothing more is really needed in getting the point across.

• Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark – 1981
• More Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark – 1984
• Scary Stories 3: More Tales To Chill Your Bones – 1991

Back in 2011, the 30th anniversary of the books was celebrated as HarperCollins re-released them with new illustrations from Brett Helquist, who was the illustrator for the A Series Of Unfortunate Events series.

The Scary Stories series has sold more than seven million books worldwide, so it’s obviously been successful and stayed that way for three decades. Sales jumped up once the book was banned from placement by the American Library Association.

Many always considered the material to be far too scary for children.

Del Toro will be directing the film, but he may also produce it along with Jason Brown, Elizabeth Grave, and Sean Daniel.

As of now, there really is no word on the plot at all. It’s hard to imagine just which portions or stories may be chosen, but there is so much that could be used or put together for one solid film. It would be interesting if a few tales were chosen and split into different segments maybe like Twilight Zone: The Movie.

If anyone has read any of the books in the Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark series, then there are likely a few tales which will stand out to you. Here are just a few which may bring forth the horribly amazing, horrific mind of Guillermo del Toro:

• “Harold”
• “The Wendigo”
• “The Bed by the Window”
• “The Red Spot”

If del Toro is really looking to frighten and freak out everyone, all he has to do is create “T-H-U-P-P-P-P-P-P-P!” from Scary Stories 3. Not that “Wonderful Sausage” is any less creepy, and it’s just downright demented.

Guillermo del Toro is someone who loves to create projects and movies where he is a fan of the source material, and that’s why so many hope that his vision for Disney’s Haunted Mansion pans out. For now though, a movie version of Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark is truly a terrifying and overly satisfying consolation prize.

[Image via Amazon]