Review of Cronos (1993) by Nathan M — 03 Mar 2012

Guillermo Del Toro launches with a film of characters and human connection, with each frame colored with his trademark poetically mounted viscera. The art direction appears inexpensive, but carefully considered at every moment.

The setting is an interestingly bilingual Gudalajara, featuring Spanish language Del Toro veteran Federico Luppi and a delightfully acidic Ron Perlman in his first of many Del Toro film appearances. It sets in motion the Del Toro motif of using monsters as an allegorical embodiment of flaws and grand virtues within the human condition, while maintaining the human foundation in every tale.

This film is not really about the natural and horrifically visceral exuberance of any story concerning immortality, but simply about the indefatigable relationship between a man and his granddaughter.