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Every great artist has humble origins. For Guillermo del Toro, the first steps toward mastering genre storytelling began in his back yard, with heapfuls of fake blood, plastic monkeys, and an impressive grasp on depravity from a very early age. Let us explain.

In 2001, Guillermo del Toro attended the Toronto Internationa Film Festival for a recently-unearthed tell-all panel that dug into the director's inspirations, some projects he almost developed, and of course, his origins as a filmmaker. Actually, that last topic is how the panel started, with its moderator asking the future Oscar-winner about his earliest moments behind the camera. Those, he explained, were with his father's Super 8.

"I grabbed the camera," explains the Blade II director, "And started doing very bloody little stories with my Planet of the Apes toys. They were stories about submission and sadism - I didn't even know those words back then. We created little special effects; clay human figures filled with ketchup that we threw from the roof and filmed them while they exploded. Very desstructive. At the age of eight, I was already twisted beyond salvation."

Adding a layer of fun to this idea is that, a decade after telling this story, Guillermo del Toro was on a shortlist to make a Planet of the Apes movie for the studio that actually owns the rights. According to a Deadline article published in September of 2012, del Toro's name was in the mix for helmer of the franchise reboot Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, a role which, we all know now, went to future the Batman director Matt Reeves.

But hey, at least we now have the tools to color our imagination of what an alternate-universe del Toro movie in the Planet of the Apes franchise would've looked like. That is, a lot of fake blood and exploding, humanoid dummies. I mean, I would've bought a ticket.

In the immortal words of Danny Elfman, "Life's no fun without a good scare." We couldn't agree more, which is why we've cobbled together a couple pieces to send a chill up your spine. Join Popverse as we explore:

• The best horror movies of all time, according to horror aficionado Greg Silber
• The most underrated horror movies from the past couple years
• All the new and upcoming horror movies for 2025 and beyond

And much gore. Er, more. Much more.