GUILLERMO DEL TORO: Simpsons Couch Gag

 
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: In trying to scare up some laughs for its annual Halloween episode, The Simpsons also got deadly serious: They recruited big-screen writer-director Guillermo Del Toro. Known for crafting surreal worlds of fantasy and horror (Pan’s Labyrinth, The Devil’s Backbone) as well as action (Pacific Rim), Del Toro turned Springfield into his own wicked playground with a 2-minute-45-second couch gag/ opening-titles extravaganza to kick off last night?s “Treehouse of Horror XXIV.” It’s a dense, elaborate, clever, creepy, impressive creation — and it requires several viewings to process all of the action. Initially offered the opportunity to record a guest voice or whip up a simple couch gag, del Toro decided to go for gory glory and reimagine the entire opening credits, too. “The Simpsons titles are so iconic and yet they’ve never been riffed in this vein,” he says. “I really wanted to land the connections between the [show’s] set pieces and the titles and some of the most iconic horror movies, and intersperse them with some of my stuff in there for pure joy,” he says. MORE