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Known for movies such as The Shape of Water, Pan's Labyrinth, and his recent release, Nightmare Alley, Guillermo del Toro is a prolific film-maker. Most of his hits are found in the horror genre, but as Nightmare Alley shows, psychological thriller and genre films are well within his reach.Del Toro has been around in some capacity or another since the 1980s, so he's bound to have both Latin American and American films of all sorts on his resume. With all those movies under his belt, and only a limited amount of awards to win, there are plenty that deserves more exposure — even if they aren’t as good, it can be fun to track a director’s influences and interests through time!
'Crimson Peak' (2015) (Director/Writer/Producer)
Perhaps not as obscure as his other credits due to the presence of stars like Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain, Crimson Peak still wasn’t nearly as popular as it could have been. Most of this was due to unclear marketing, as the Gothic-inspired psychological tale was presented in trailers as a typical haunted house period piece.
A reinvention of the Gothic romance genre popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries, this movie center on a mysterious inventor from England, his sister, and their isolated, desolate mansion. It's as chilling as some of del Toro's more gory horror movies.
'The Devil's Backbone' (2001) (Director/Writer/Executive Producer)
Plenty of Guillermo del Toro's films have won or been nominated for prestigious awards and Golden Globes, but not all of those movies make it to the wider public's awareness. This particular award-winning film is known to del Toro aficionados and film critics, but not widely known by the United States' public, as it gained most of its popularity abroad.
Del Toro wrote the first draft of the screenplay, and although it changed significantly during production, the movie still holds the particular psychological aspects del Toro likes to include.
'Dona Lupe' (1985) (Director/Writer/Executive Producer)
abA short film, coming in at 30 minutes, Dona Lupe was one of Guillermo del Toro's very first films, created when he was only 19 years old. As a work from someone just starting in the film industry, this movie doesn't hold all the brilliance and amazing production value as his more recent films might. It was only released commercially in 2008, and the quality is understandably poor by today’s standards.
Still, there's a certain charm to even beginners' 80s horror movies, and it's always great to go back to filmmakers' earliest work to appreciate how they've grown.
'Cronos' (1993) (Director/Writer)
Released as an indie film back before Guillermo del Toro's name sparked instant recognition, Cronos was in fact his first feature-length film. Even then, audiences could see the lean toward dark fantasy and a love of horror/thriller tropes, as the film entwines alchemy, archangel statues, vampirism, and eternal life with enticing surrealism.
The surrealism here provides some of the first glimpses of the creativity that would later infuse movies like Pan's Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, and Crimson Peak. Cronos presents a truly intriguing story of eternal life and familial love binding darkly fantastical themes together into a cohesive film.
'Geometria' (1987) (Director/Writer/Producer)
This is another short film released before Guillermo del Toro had quite found his footing, Geometria was loosely based on a short story from a collection of fantasy stories and follows the short-lived life of an unnamed high school student who summons a demon to ensure he'll never fail his math class again. Unforeseen consequences ensue.
Though dark and gruesome, this isn't quite Guillermo del Toro at his peak — the director later admitted that he wasn't satisfied with how it turned out and released a directors' cut in 2010.
'Megamind' (2010) (Creative Consultant)
Movies can't just be written, filmed, edited, and released — they need some extra help sometimes, and that's where creative consultants come in. They offer a second opinion on how commercially successful a film is likely to be, revising the screenplay or doing any number of other things. This is the role Guillermo del Toro would have played in this Dreamworks production.
As moderately successful as Megamind was on its release, and as many A-list actors were involved in the voice work, it was a great idea to bring the legendary Guillermo del Toro on to help iron out the kinks.
'Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans' (2021) (Writer/Executive Producer)
Just another example of Guillermo del Toro's ever-increasing diversity as a creative legend, the movie Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans follows in the steps of a trilogy of Netflix television shows that he had a hand in creating. Trollhunters represents even more of a leap into the science fiction genre than del Toro's involvement in Megamind did, and though it received mixed reviews on the strength of its storytelling, everyone has to start somewhere.
Seeing legendary filmmakers like Guillermo del Toro dabbling in anything and everything definitely shows that some people really are in it for the art.
'Julia's Eyes' (2010) (Producer)
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This Spanish horror thriller could only come at the direction of one of the greatest contemporary horror writers. A tale of encroaching blindness, strange suicides, and a mysterious hospital worker claiming to be named "Iván," this is certainly an experimental film that plays with classic horror tropes. A somewhat convoluted ending doesn’t detract from Julia’s Eyes being a fascinating, disquieting experience.
The psychological underpinnings of Julia's Eyes only go to show that, often, humans are worse than anything else out there in the world.
'The Book of Life' (2014) (Producer)
Only one of the multiple Golden-Globe-nominated movies under del Toro's belt, this is another movie that probably comes as a surprise to see his name attached to. Guillermo del Toro is listed as a producer in this animated musical movie, continuing his fondness for Spanish-language and Latin American-centered films.
Often compared to (and unfairly overshadowed by) movies like Pixar's subsequent Coco, The Book of Life was nevertheless a success on its own terms. Set in a Mexican town in the midst of celebrating the Day of the Dead, this movie explores the afterlife and a feud between deities.
'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey' (2012) (Writer)
Nothing screams del Toro's name less than a wholesome fantasy series about hobbits traveling with a bunch of dwarves to steal from a dragon, but The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey carries a certain charm that Guillermo del Toro seems to have been attracted to. Looking carefully, viewers can pick out those bits of whimsy and emotional storytelling that Guillermo del Toro emphasizes in his own directing experience, and the idea that he worked on this makes a bit more sense.
In fact, he continued writing for the other two movies in the trilogy, so fans of the series can only say: "thank you."