Last Thursday, I had the pleasure of attending a special presentation for the upcoming film SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK, where a fantastic clip and spine-tingling teaser trailer were unveiled. Producer Guillermo del Toro and Director André Øvredal took the stage to present the footage, and the young cast: Natalie Ganzhorn, Gabriel Rush, Austin Abrams, Austin Zajur, Michael Garza and Zoe Colletti.

Here are some highlights of what the incredibly talented filmmakers shared with journalists and special guests.

SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK will be released on August 9.

Guillermo del Toro, Zoe Colletti, André Øvredal in 2018.

Guillermo del Toro on selecting the stories to be adapted

“We did American Idol with the stories in the writers’ room. We distilled it to the five or six that we liked the most. Some of them are told in their entirety, some are just referenced. Those that know the books will see more than those that haven’t read them. […] The books obviously have many many more stories, so this could go on and on. But we said, ‘Let’s do greatest hits.’ […] It has a throwback, wholesome feeling but it’s also scary. It’s a ride, but there is a safety bar in it.”

Del Toro on finding the perfect director

“We started to lay down the pieces, very carefully, to make it thematically relevant to the stories that we were making. The challenge was to find the filmmaker that could do this. When I produce I stand in the corner, but the guy getting the punches is the director. I am there with the water and I say ‘You are doing great, Rocky. Don’t worry!’ I suffer, but I am not getting the punches. I had to go with someone that I greatly admire. Andre and I have communicated when “Trollhunter” came out, a movie that I love, and “The Autopsy of Jane Doe,” a movie that I was praising as much as I could through Twitter. We started corresponding and I said ‘He would be the ideal guy!’ […] Luckily for me, he accepted.”

André Øvredal on collaborating with del Toro and the movie’s story

“I am just in awe of being able to work with Guillermo. It has been a pleasure from the moment that we started tweeting until today. I have learned so much from you, from storytelling to how to direct actors and shoot a movie. I didn’t know about these books. When I got the screenplay, I have never heard of them. I fell in love with the script, with this ‘Amblin-esque’ scary movie, set in a period that was so exciting. It was a great opportunity to create a fascinating image of America in the sixties, as well as a wonderful story about these characters, and amazing monsters based on a series of books that was so beloved. […] This is not an anthology film. It’s a two-hour feature with one story where everything is weaved together to be part of that story.”

Del Toro on his decades-long attachment with this intellectual property

“I basically was roaming through a bookstore, in San Antonio, Texas, I was in my early teens, and I came upon this volume that had an irresistible title: ‘Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.’ The cover illustration was so creepy, and I started browsing it, and the illustrations got me first, but Alvin Schwartz’s retelling of the tales was incredibly efficient and lean and mean. [Years later] I was really, really broke but I was extravagant and bought the key illustrations from the book that I love, which led to a lot of financial trouble after that and marital trouble. You cannot justify a buy like that. But I needed to have the key images that affected my youth!”

Del Toro on choosing practical effects to craft the fantastical characters

“As I always do, I went with physical effects. So we had make-up, mechanical creatures, etc. Sculptors are like actors, you cast them, so I wanted people that could embody the exact feeling of the sculpture, the painting, and creation of each creature. We used several of the best ‘creature guys’ in the business to render each of the drawings and bring them to life. Digital effects are just for enhancements or accents.”

SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK will open in theaters August 9.

It’s 1968 in America. Change is blowing in the wind…but seemingly far removed from the unrest in the cities is the small town of Mill Valley where for generations, the shadow of the Bellows family has loomed large. It is in their mansion on the edge of town that Sarah, a young girl with horrible secrets, turned her tortured life into a series of scary stories, written in a book that has transcended time—stories that have a way of becoming all too real for a group of teenagers who discover Sarah’s terrifying home.