To introduce this year's Treehouse of Horror special, The Simpsons teamed up with a man who knows a thing or two about the genre: Dark fantasy master Guillermo del Toro.

"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," said del Toro, director of such screen gems as Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy, and, most recently, Pacific Rim. "So, I said, 'Why don't we do a really long riff on the title sequence, rather than just a couch gag?'"

And that's exactly what they did: Nearly three full minutes of every horror/fantasy pop culture reference you can think of, including a particularly excellent nod to The Simpsons' recently departed sister show, Futurama.

"I ended up cramming in about 1/50th of what I wanted," said del Toro, who hinted that an even longer version could be out there.

Treehouse of Horror XXIV airs this Sunday on Fox, and is set to feature vignettes based on Dr. Seuss stories and a tribute to the pre-Code cult classic Freaks.

[video via Fox]