Cronos – 1993 del Toro

Guillermo del Toro was just 29-years young at the time of the release of his debut film Cronos. Only two years earlier Cuaron made his debut with Sólo con tu pareja (1991)—the two of them marking the Mexican New Wave- or Nuevo Cine Mexicano. Iñárritu got a later start with his debut in 2000
Opens with an enigmatic prologue on immortality and alchemy, the title of the film on a neon sign reflected off a puddle
It is half monster movie, half moral fable—the friendly unknown is never the real evil for del Toro. He almost always has the eyes and point of view of an unafraid child, and the film is violent and bizarre. Though this is far from his best work, many of del Toro’s traits are there here in this first draft.

Dracula is certainly the text of influence- a good one for del Toro to riff on—but with the fountain of youth reading, and even a potential drug addiction reading- I see Cronenberg’s recent (1986) The Fly here a bit as well

Ron Perlman is here as the arrogant American. He plays a menacing but goofy henchman obsessed with plastic surgery. I think it is also telling that del Toro’s male muse here is the former “Beauty and the Beast” television actor—one of his monsters.