More than Screen Monsters: Guillermo Del Toro’s Impact on Elevating Monsters to a Humanized Level Po

The first film I watched of Guillermo Del Toro was The Devil’s Backbone, a haunting film about a ghost that still lurks at a boys orphanage in the 1920s Spain in the midst of the Spanish Civil War and the secrets that lie hidden at this derelict place. This film of Del Toro’s was the only one in his oeuvre of work that does not have the film director’s iconic monsters, or the extent that his more familiar films are known for.

Why am I bringing this film up first? The Devil’s Backbone revealed the underpinnings of the role Del Toro’s creatures play in his films, shedding away the sci-fi and CGI, typical of science fiction films. The creatures in Del Toro’s film weave the personal and political of the director’s history and how he views society. The monsters in Del Toro have the pathos and understanding

Guillermo Del Toro’s monsters puts the archaic and terrifying into the surface of movie viewer consciousness. In movies such as The Babadook, recent Alien reboot, and the recent Blairwitch Project to name a few, his creature designs still pervade throughout the sci-fi and monster films in Hollywood, the detail of the eyes, the godlike, nature creatures.

Theirs is a real love for his creatures and that they are direct connections to Del Toro himself. These creatures are not stand-ins or embellishment. They represent a deeper symbolism of political and personal histories of Del Toro’s Mexican immigrant identity.

It isn’t a surprise to know that the first foray into film was make-up and special effects. Having those crafts established as the base and foundation to create his monsters by understanding the the techniques, processes, and materials of building the fantastical characters. The consistent presence of Catholicism runs through each of Del Toro’s films including his affinity to Hell – not a place, but an identity.

Whether he is making a sci-fi, action, blockbuster, or drama, Guillermo Del Toro’s creatures are pure; an anthesis to the human characters in his films. The creatures are an amalgamation of Del Toro’s Mexican Catholic identity and the subversive, twisted diversions of his mind.

There are things that his monsters substitute visually on screen that is easier to do that speak about complicated, contested topics that triggering than seeing a monster on screen, exploring the nature of monsters and reflections of society.

I propose that these three creatures define Del Toro’s aesthetic of supernatural beings.

1. Insect – Devil Backbone and Pan’s Labrynth

2. Amphibian – Hellboy and the Shape of Water

3. Elf/ fairy – Hellboy and Pan’s Labrynth

Del Toro’s creatures exist on the periphery, a commentary on the marginalized, oppressed, and underrepresented of society, which are the insect, amphibian, and the elf/ fairy. The creatures oppose the industrialized, capitalistic structure, regressing to a more simpler, natural world. On the other hand, Del Toro’s creatures are perversion of the idyllic, ethereal creatures that their creatures are based. The ‘insect’ creatures from Mimic and Pan’s Labyrinth, the amphibian in Hellboy, and the elf/ fairy in Hellboy film series and Pan’s Labyrinth.

Elves from Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Left to right: Princess Nuala, Prince Nuada, King Balor

Instead of diaphanous eyes, the eyes of the Elves in Hellboy II: The Golden Army appear white (actually a light green tint) with a black iris. These elves don’t seem to be the good kind.

Abe Sampian from Hellboy Series

Amphibian Man from The Shape of Water

In Abe Sampan or the Amphibian Man in The Shape of Water, the eyes are super enlarged like fish eyes.

Left to right: Pale Man in Pan’s Labrynth, The Angel of Death in Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Jared Nomak/ Reaper in Blade II

Then there are the creatures in Del Toro’s films with larger canine, carnivorous mouths like the Pale Man (Pan’s Labyrinth), The Angel of Death (Hellboy II) and Reapers (Blade II). The eyes seem to be an area of less importance, or not nearly as striking as the teeth of Del Toro’s monsters.

In all of Del Toro’s films, the monsters have a human quality, even with human blood, going from the vampire in Blade II and the mouth of the vampire reaper is an evolved form of the mouth from the insect creature in Mimic. By including these human qualities in his monsters, it complicates the perception and understanding that the monsters serve more than props —two-dimensional characters. The monsters are the protagonists and in a way speak more about the deeper, uncomfortable parts of the human complex.

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