The Labyrinths of Guillermo del Toro’s Imagination

On 9 October 1964, Guillermo del Toro, a cult Mexican director and screenwriter, was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. He is renowned for working in the genres of horror films, dark fantasy, and social parables. His distinctive directorial style is unmistakable, and his wild imagination has given birth to some of the most unusual, terrifying, and mesmerizing monsters in global cinema.

A visionary and skilled dramatist, del Toro has made an invaluable contribution throughout his career to legitimising the "low genre" of mystical and horror films. An impeccable visual style, oppressive atmosphere, non-trivial plots, and deep moral undertones are characteristic features of many of his films.

From a young age, Guillermo was fascinated by scary stories, with one of his favourite writers being H.P. Lovecraft, and his favourite directors, George Romero ("Night of the Living Dead") and Alfred Hitchcock ("The Birds", "Psycho"). He was raised by his grandmother, a devoutly ultra-conservative Catholic, who sent him to a Catholic boys’ school – likely where the roots of the neo-Gothic motifs in del Toro’s works originated.

Guillermo became interested in filmmaking as a teenager, and as an adult, he began his journey into the world of cinema by working as a makeup artist. One of his mentors in special makeup effects and effects creation was Dick Smith, who worked on cinematic masterpieces such as "The Exorcist" and "The Hunger". Del Toro devoted 10 years to his work as a makeup artist and even founded his own special effects studio, Necrotopia – the first monsters created by this studio can be seen in the series "Tales from the Crypt".

To create his first full-length mystical thriller "Cronos" (1993), del Toro went into debt, but it was worth it – the film was noticed at festivals, and soon he was offered to direct a horror film in Hollywood. This resulted in the film "Mimic" (1997), about giant mutated insects that terrorize New York City. The film wasn’t a huge success but neither was it a failure. Nevertheless, Guillermo decided it was time to bring his own ideas to life and temporarily turned down new offers from Hollywood producers. He returned to Mexico and began working on one of his best films, the mystical parable about the Spanish Civil War, "The Devil’s Backbone".

Del Toro has also been involved as a producer and screenwriter in other no less significant projects, including Peter Jackson’s "The Hobbit" trilogy and the vampire series "The Strain", based on a book by del Toro and Chuck Hogan. His most recent directorial work was the animated film "Pinocchio", released in 2022. In addition, del Toro has announced work on a puppet animation adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s fantasy novel "The Buried Giant", and the director also plans to release his version of the "Frankenstein" film. In the future, as del Toro recently announced, he wants to focus exclusively on making animated films. While the master is working on his new masterpieces, let’s revisit his most iconic works.

The Devil’s Backbone, 2001

The script for the first film of the intended trilogy about the Spanish Civil War was written by del Toro while he was still in college, 15 years before filming began. Interestingly, this stylish, intelligent, scary, and atmospheric film went largely unnoticed upon release, only receiving a second life (and a re-release) in 2007, after the success of del Toro’s most famous film, "Pan’s Labyrinth". The story takes place at the end of the Civil War in an orphanage where a young orphan boy, Carlos, arrives. In the area, hungry Francoists are searching for gold, an unexploded bomb sticks out of the ground in the orphanage’s yard, and a ghost of one of the children, who died under mysterious circumstances a few years ago, roams the corridors. The story of children and war was so appealing to another famous Spanish director, Pedro Almodóvar, that he became one of the film’s producers. Del Toro himself considers "The Devil’s Backbone" his best work.

Hellboy, 2004

Del Toro had long dreamed of bringing Mike Mignola’s dark and ironic comics to the screen – for the sake of working on "Hellboy", he turned down offers to participate in such franchises as "Alien vs. Predator" and "Harry Potter". The outcome of World War II is decided, and the Nazis from the occult division of Ahnenerbe, in an attempt to change the course of the war, try to open a portal to hell and awaken ancient demons. Helping them is Grigori Rasputin, who survived an old assassination attempt. The ritual to summon the demons is interrupted by American special forces, who defeat the occultists. However, a small red-skinned demon manages to emerge from the portal. He is adopted by an American professor, and later, as an adult, the demon named Hellboy becomes an employee of the CIA’s paranormal investigation department. In 2008, a sequel to Hellboy, "Hellboy II: The Golden Army", was released, which also achieved significant box office success. However, the 2019 reboot of the franchise, without del Toro in the director’s chair and without the charismatic Ron Perlman as the sarcastic red demon, did not win the love of the fans.

Pan’s Labyrinth, 2006

Three Academy Awards and BAFTAs, nominations at Cannes and the Golden Globes – this visually flawless parable became del Toro’s signature work. The plot is also devoted to the events of the Civil War and the establishment of Franco’s dictatorship, intertwining real events with the heroine’s journey into a mythical world of fairy-tale creatures. The year is 1944, five years after the Civil War. A brutal Falangist captain, Vidal, arrives in a remote village with his pregnant wife and her daughter from a previous marriage, Ofelia. While Vidal hunts Maquis guerrillas fighting against the regime, Ofelia discovers the ruins of an ancient stone labyrinth, and soon, fairies and a Faun appear to her, claiming that she is the long-lost daughter of the king from a magical underground realm. But to return home, the girl must complete three terrifying tasks.

The Shape of Water, 2017

Four Academy Awards, BAFTAs, and a long list of prestigious festival prizes – this fantasy melodrama about the Cold War and passionate love amazed both critics and audiences. Once again, as in his previous works, del Toro explores the theme of outsiders and the criteria of "normality", where the true monsters are not those who look terrifying, but those who commit evil under the guise of being a respectable citizen. The setting is the 1960s, during the height of the US-Soviet Cold War. The protagonist is a mute, lonely girl named Elisa who works as a cleaner in a secret Pentagon military lab. One day, a new classified object arrives – a mysterious anthropomorphic amphibian creature captured in the Amazon jungle. It’s known that local indigenous tribes worshipped this monster as a god. Scientists at the lab try to communicate with the amphibian, but only Elisa succeeds, using sign language. A friendship forms between the girl and the river creature, which soon blossoms into romantic feelings – and Elisa begins to plan her lover’s escape.