Guillermo del Toro Puts His Spin on ‘Simpsons’ Opening for Halloween Special

Guillermo del Toro is putting his spin on The Simpsons.

The Pacific Rim filmmaker is throwing in a horror history lesson of sorts for the animated Fox comedy's opening credits for its "Treehouse of Horror XXIV" Halloween special, airing Oct. 6 at 8 p.m.

Instead of the usual opening, del Toro — a former special effects makeup artist in Mexico — created a sequence featuring monsters and classic characters from horror films of the past several decades.

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The Halloween special will tell three different stories. The first sees Homer Simpson traveling around Springfield wreaking havoc in a rhyming take on a popular children's story. In the second tale, "Dead and Shoulders," Bart is beheaded during a kite accident, his head is attached to Lisa's body, and they are forced to live together as one person. The third, "Freaks No Geeks," follows Mr. Burns' traveling circus The Burnsum and Bailey Circus, which stops in Springfieldland in the '30s. Things go wrong when Moe starts to make advances toward trapeze artist Marge.

Del Toro, who is prepping Crimson Peak with Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain and FX's The Strain pilot, counts Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy, Cronos, Mimic, The Devil's Backbone and Blade II among his credits.

E-mail: Philiana.Ng@THR.com
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Philiana Ng