Every year, the creators of “The Simpsons” give us a little treat come Halloween-time: a “Treehouse of Horror” episode which features different spooky segments. They’ve lampooned everything from Poe’s “The Raven” to Harry Potter, and for fans of the show it’s always a fun little break from the norm.

Of course, they’ve been showing off their brilliant senses of humor since the show began by changing up the famous “couch intro” for each episode. This year, they went all out by charging iconic director Guillermo del Toro with helming this year’s homage to horror.

“We talked about doing it around the movies I have done, but I felt I’d rather mix those images with the creatures and monsters of film, which have influenced me enormously,” del Toro said. “So, I said, ‘Why don’t we do a really long riff on the title sequence, rather than just a couch gag?”

The director of “Hellboy” and “Pan’s Labyrinth” took elements from many different iconic figures in horror films, including the classic monsters such as Wolfman and the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and merged them with his own work (check out Mr. Burns as the creepy, saggy-skinned, hand-eye monster from “Pan’s Labyrinth”).

“I ended up cramming in about 1/50th of what I wanted,” he said. “My top 10 (films) are more like a thousand. It’s really hard for me. If I was pressed to choose, I would always choose Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein, because they are so dear to my heart. I love the genre with a passion and it’s hard for me to choose.”

Image: screenshot via YouTube