Cronos (1993)

“Senor Gris. You may continue the game. After all, you have the toy. But I’m keeping the instructions, and I’m open all night. ” – Angel de la Guardia

Number of Times Seen – 1 (1 May 2018)

Brief Synopsis – An antiquities dealer comes across a strange and mysterious artifact that helps rejuvenate him yet has side effects that make hm crave blood.

My Take on it – As someone who doesn’t like foreign language films or horror films, I must say it was quite and accomplishment for me to actually watch this film.

I’ve always enjoyed the few Guillermo del Toro films that I’ve seen and that was also a driving force in me deciding to take the time (and effort) to watch this film.

As always, del Toro is able to create an enjoyable story that is a mix within genres and this one is a horror, fantasy and fairy tale film all wrapped into one.

The story is told in a really fascinating way and remains thrilling and intriguing the entire time.

So much of this storyline is not stated directly to the viewer and that allows for various interpretations on some of the main themes of this story which opens up even more possibilities for enjoying this film.

The main theme of the quest for a youthful rejuvenation works really well because it is such a universal idea that spans all walks of life since that is the one thing that everyone in the world has in common.

The way that even the artifact’s powers aren’t stated directly or even its proper use is done so well because that too leaves so much open for debate and discussion about such a simple themes film that is in no ways simple at all.

Bottom Line – Great story that is told by del Toro in his usual fascinating way. The mix between horror, fantasy and fairy tale works quite well here and keeps things interesting the entire time. Loved how so much is left to the imagination which helps make the viewer think about everything that happens along the way and then ponder the themes presented here for quite some time afterwards. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Guillermo del Toro met with Universal (who later bought out the film’s U.S. distributor, October Films) in late ’93, where they told him they wanted to buy the rights to this film so they could remake it. del Toro’s response was “Who wants to see Jack Lemmon lick blood off a bathroom floor?”. (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy (9/10)

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