Guillermo del Toro Films
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The Mexico-born director began his career making independent horror films in their native country (“Cronos,” “The Devil’s Backbone”) before bringing his lavish talents to Hollywood blockbusters (“Hellboy,” “Pacific Rim”) and deserved Oscar winners (“Pan’s Labyrinth,” “The Shape of Water”), all displaying a distinctive sensibility.
Del Toro makes personal projects that reveal his joy to be making movies.
Blade II (2002)
![BLADE II, Wesley Snipes, 2002. (c) New Line Cinema/ Courtesy: Everett Collection.](https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/MSDBLAD_EC008.jpg?w=800)
Del Toro injected personality into the vampire-hunting franchise, headlined by Wesley Snipes, but this follow-up to the 1998 original could only be as good as its script was middling. Screenwriter David S. Goyer would co-write Christopher Nolan’s three Batman films.
Crimson Peak (2015)
![CRIMSON PEAK, from left: Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, 2015. ph: Kerry Hayes/©Universal Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection](https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/MCDCRPE_EC008.jpg?w=800)
Guillermo del Toro directed gothic romance set in a haunted house. Though flawed, as visual, sensory experience, “Crimson Peak” was bloody, fantastical, and beautiful. Not all monsters are of the supernatural variety, and the scariest resident of this haunted house isn’t a ghost.
Pacific Rim (2013)
![PACIFIC RIM, 2013. ©Warner Bros./courtesy Everett Collection](https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/MCDPARI_EC132.jpg?w=800)
This massive monster movie helped introduce Western audiences to the world of monsters beyond Godzilla.
The premise: in a last-ditch effort to combat the enormous sea monsters who suddenly emerged from interdimensional portal, mankind creates equally huge mechas.
Hellboy (2004)
![HELLBOY, Ron Perlman, 2004, (c) Columbia/courtesy Everett Collection](https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/MCDHELL_EC034.jpg?w=800)
Before superhero movies were self-sustaining industry unto themselves, entries like “Hellboy” were the exception.
No one could have brought the title character to life like GDT and Ron Perlman, continuing a long-standing collaboration that began a decade earlier and continues to this day. Also great is Selma Blair as firestarter Liz Sherman, transcending the typical love-interest role and making her character worth rooting for on her own terms.
Nightmare Alley (2021)
![NIGHTMARE ALLEY, from left: Willem Dafoe, Bradley Cooper, 2021. ph: Kerry Hayes / © Searchlight Pictures /Courtesy Everett Collection](https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/MCDNIAL_H4009.jpg?w=800)
“Nightmare Alley” is a dark but enjoyable jaunt through late-1930s carnival, a moody noir hurtling toward inevitably tragic conclusion. You wish that the whole of “Nightmare Alley” took place at that carnival — it’s such a rich world.