in Focus
awards including three Oscars
®
and three
BAFTA awards, Pan’s Labyrinth had
everything working against it: no stars, a
HELLBOY II: THE GO LDEN ARMY
foreign language, brutal graphic violence,
and a downbeat ending. And yet through
its pure artistry, it was embraced by critics
and audiences around the globe, bringing
del Toro the success and respect he has long
deserved without ever courting it.
So how could any filmmaker follow that
kind of achievement? Some might feel the
pressure to turn out another art-house
masterpiece or leverage the attention to
win a plum Hollywood studio gig. But
Guillermo del Toro has never been driven
simply by the need for success.
After risking everything to produce his
first feature, Cronos (1993), the Mexican
vampire fable, its international success put
him on the fast track to Hollywood. When
the studio tampered with his artistic vision
on Mimic (1997) del Toro shunned
Hollywood and returned to his roots to make
the disturbing The Devil’s Backbone
“For many years I was
very confused because
I’m in love with the
aesthetics of the horror
movie—the genre—
but I’m not necessarily
in love with the
mechanics of them.”
He is not of our world. He is from
“The real voyage of discovery consists
(2001), a haunting ghost story set in a
not in seeking new landscapes but in
decaying boarding school at the end of the
another place where fairies are real,
Spanish Civil War; a precursor to the grim
having new eyes.”
where monsters roam freely and the
landscapes he would later revisit in Pan’s
Marcel Proust Labyrinth. In between he would return to
dark denizens of the underworld
the studio system to make the popular
dwell and thrive. We could be talking
S
uch is the nature of Guillermo Blade II (2002), thereby establishing a
del Toro—mind you, in his case those pattern of films alternating between stylish
about Hellboy, the stump-horned,
eyes might be imbedded in the wings Spanish language art-house films and more
cat loving, gun-toting hero of comic
of Death itself. Few filmmakers today traditional popcorn fare.
can be called an artist in the truest sense of When the original Hellboy (2004) hit
books and movies. Or we could be
the word and del Toro is chief among those the cinemas, it was a modest but respectable
talking about writer/director,
who can. success. The studio wanted a sequel right
With his most recent film, Pan’s away but it took del Toro some time (along
Guillermo del Toro.
Labyrinth (2006), del Toro took a major with co-writer and Hellboy creator, Mike
leap forward in his already remarkable career. Mignola) before he could find just the right
By Rick Drew The winner of innumerable prestigious note to strike for the return of Big Red.
www.moviescopemag.com 39
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