Eric Martin
4/14/08
English 1102
Dr. Tejada
Tracing Cultural Development Through Guillermo del Toro

Guillermo del Toro is an Academy Award-winning and world-renowned director. He has directed many horror and fantasy epics ranging from small local Mexican films such as Cronos and Pan’s Labyrinth to international blockbusters such as Blade 2, Hellboy and Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. His films regularly feature fantastic and unreal creatures such as tooth-eating fairies, skin-shedding vampires, trolls, faceless angels, and human-like fawns. Guillermo del Toro brings these monsters to life with his rich cinematography, vivid colors, and special effects, but these monsters were also created by global influences. The monsters and the gothic ambiance in del Toro’s film were influenced by his earliest childhood memories of watching horror films produced by Universal and Hammer Studios on Sunday morning television. By analyzing the similarities between the classic horror films of Terrance Fisher and James’s Whales and one of del Toro’s first local films Cronos, one can gain insight on how American cinema influenced del Toro’s movies. Furthermore, by analyzing the origins of the cinematic elements and the fantastical monsters in Hellboy 2: The Golden Army one can understand how Guillermo del Toro is redefining the fantasy and action genres of Hollywood cinema.

Guillermo del Toro’s Latin horror film Cronos tells the story of an old antique dealer Jesus Gris who accidentally discovers an ancient insect-like device that gives the bearer eternal life by slowly transforming them into a vampire. The movie is not the typical evil vampire movie. Jesus Gris is a loving man and has a close relationship with his granddaughter Aurora who accepts her grandfather despite his sinister appearance. The movie centers it themes on the relationship between the Jesus Gris and Aurora as they defend the Cronos device from the film’s antagonist de La Guardia and hide Jesus from the real world: “Cronos is not a movie about plot. It is about character” (Ebert).



When questioned about the inspiration and the character development of Cronos, Guillermo del Toro responded, “Both James Whales and Terrance Fisher are to me the two great fathers of horror cinema” (Cronos). Cronos borrows many cinematic elements and character traits from Terence Fisher’s 1958 film Dracula and James Whale’s 1931 film Frankenstein. For example, there are many similarities between Dracula and Jesus Gris. Both Count Dracula and Jesus Gris have pale white faces, and the cinematography in the films uses high-key lighting to produce unnaturally light color tones for these characters. Their light skin contrasts with the dark, gothic colors of the setting to heighten the frightening nature of their appearances. In addition to Dracula, James Whale’s portrayal of Frankenstein being an unconscious monster provides the basic character traits for the Del Toro’s angelic character Aurora in Cronos: “The marvelous thing about Frankenstein’s monster is the absence of consciousness… The girl cannot distinguish between life and death” (Cronos). One of the main ideas behind Cronos is the meaning of immortality. All the characters are marked by mortality in different ways. For example, despite having the Cronos device, Jesus Gris’ appearance becomes gaunt and discolored. Despite his palpable desire to obtain the Cronos, the villain De La Guardia shuts himself away from the world afraid to interact with others until his salvation is guaranteed. Aurora, however, is too pure and young to recognize a different between the living and the dead. She is “unconscious” of their existence, and in consequence she cannot fear death. For example, she does not realize that her parents are dead, nor is she able to recognize that her grandfather is a vampire. Aurora is Del Toro’s antithesis to James Whale’s Frankenstein; through her Del Toro provides a twist on the “unconscious and unstoppable” force behind a classic horror character.



Hellboy 2: The Golden Army is one of Guillermo del Toro’s latest Hollywood films. The movie is an epic adventure filled with creatures ranging from small fairies, trolls, and elves to gigantic forest gods and mechanical armies. These creatures add to the great cultural collection of images in American cinema, but most of these fantastic creatures’ origins lie in Guillermo Del Toro’s earlier and more local films such as Cronos and Pan’s Labyrinth: “This movie comes from a different place. It ‘s the first one of those big movies that belongs to the same world as Pan’s Labyrinth” (Variety). For example, the villain elf in Hellboy 2: The Golden Army possesses the exact same skin and tone color as Jesus Gris in Cronos. Furthermore, the tooth fairies that attack Hellboy and his group of paranormal sidekicks at the beginning of the movie have the exact same body structure as the fairies in Pan’s Labyrinth who aid the main character Ofelia. Another prominent character in Hellboy 2: The Golden Army whose origins exist in Pan’s Labyrinth is the Grim Reaper. The Grim Reaper has a tall, imposing figure and a flat ivory crown resembling horns adorning its head. Furthermore, its eyes lie on its wings and not his face. The characters the Faun and the Pale Man possess very similar characteristics. The Faun has a tall stature with curl ivory horns and the Pan Man wears his eyes on the end of his hands. The differing plot structures of both movies also allow Guillermo Del Toro to explore the conflicts that exist between the real world and humanities imagination. One of the main themes in Hellboy 2: The Golden Army is the isolation Hellboy experiences from the normal human world. His superiors do not allow him out in public, and most people fear him even while he tries to save them from the darker paranormal world humanity is unaware of. This isolation fosters Hellboy’s aggressive and rebellious attitude towards life and is a source of much conflict in the Hellboy series. In Pan’s Labyrinth, the protagonist Ofelia struggles with the rules the imaginative and real world place on her: “The coexistence of these two worlds is the scariest element of the film; they both impose a set of rules that can get an 11-year-old killed” (Ebert).



Guillermo Del Toro is truly an international director. The horror movies he watched from Universal and Hammer Studios as a child filled his head with terrifying images he wanted to bring alive on film: “It was a steady diet of sensibility horror films… I just knew that this was the type of film I wanted to do from the start” (Guillermo Del Toro). The cinematography and ideas he inherited from Western cinema gave birth to his definitions for vampires and fantasy. He ultimately created an entire new collection of monsters and fantasy creatures for the whole world to enjoy.

Work Cited

Cronos. Dir. Guillermo Del Toro. Federico Luppi, Ron Pearlman, Claudio Brook,

Margarita Isabel. Fondo de Fomento Cinematografico, 1993.

Ebert, Roger. “Cronos.” www.rogerebert.suntime.com. 6 May 1994.



Ebert, Roger. “Pan’s Labyrinth.” www.rogerebert.suntime.com. 25 August 2006.



Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. Dir. Guillermo del Toro. Perf. Ron Pearlman, Selma

Blair, Doug Jones. Universal Pictures, 2008.

“Hellboy 2: The Golden Army Closes LAFF.” www.variety.com. 2008.

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