Guillermo del Toro and André Øvredal on Scary Stories and banned books

It’s impossible to think back on Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark books without conjuring up the ghastly images of Stephen Gammell’s illustrations in your mind. The eerie drawings have been freaking out children for years, so it was no surprise when monster maestro Guillermo del Toro announced his plan to turn the stories into a family-friendly horror movie. Ahead of the film’s release, we spoke with del Toro and his Scary Stories director, André Øvredal, about which creatures proved most difficult to adapt from the page. The pair also discussed the silly notion of banned books, and why labeling something as “inappropriate” only makes it more tantalizing.

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