Through The Darkness-Annotated Process Journal by alexlangstudios

An Annot at ed P rocess Journal

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Director

Dashboard

Doodle

Title/ Subtitle

Director Connection

Film Moodboard

Photo Usage

Master Moodboard

Material Narrative

Identity Sketches

Catalog Design

Poster Design

Ads Design

Business System

DVD package Design

Signage System

Soundtrack Design

Ticket Design

Sketch Book

Website Design

100

102

App Design

Social Media Campaign

Face Masks

Vintage Camera

Postal Stamps

105 Canvas Bags

GUILLERMO DEL TORO Director, the soul of the festival Guillermo del Toro is such a “wired” person if I may say. He is a

monster worshiper born in a Mexican Catholic family. “When I was in

the crib, I was attracted to monsters.” he says. Guillermo del Toro

talked about his childhood in Mexico. He grew up in a devout Catholic

family, but he recognized the existence of monsters since he was a child and believes there are ghosts surround him. His grandma didn’t

understand this very much, and even took him to exorcism twice. “I like to praise monsters and tell people how great and beautiful horror

stories are.” Guillermo said, in fact, what he is really interested in is how

to combine horror elements with fairy tales. He thinks the unique

atmosphere presented by dark fairy tales, on the contrary It is more

magical and beautiful, and this is deeply reflected in his movies.

For Guillermo, who loves collecting art, books, and horror movie props, whether it is the real world or the fantasy in his head, “horror” is an important part of life. Whenever he wanted

“Just look at this monster, you can understand its story and purpose, as well as what it represents.”

to conceive or create a story, he always went to his second home in the suburbs of LA ”Bleak House” for inspiration.

“Bleak House” has accumulated tens of thousands of artworks that

Guillermo has collected over the past ten years, such as Gothic paintings, horror comic books, real-life statues, etc., as well as many monster

characters from his movies. These collections were originally kept in his own home, but as the number gradually increased, the home became

crowded, and the younger daughter thought these monsters were too scary, so he bought the first “Bleak House” in 2006.

Guillermo said that creating a monster requires the same care as a work of art. When designing shapes and sculptural outlines, it should show

the expressiveness of the role. Make the monster impressive. In addition, the tone design must be consistent with the vision to match the overall

feeling. In order to fully present the image of the character, Guillermo

recommends guiding the actor like an actor, rather than expressing the

role through imitation. He said that monsters may change their image or show themselves in different ways. The most important core is to

maintain a sense of “mystery” in order to show the charm of monsters.

DASHBOARD This spread contains main process of the project. Film Festival Title

Through the Darkness— Discovering unlikely acts of heroism in real monsters via the prism of Guillermo del Toro.

Thread

A monster’s journey through unlikely heroic deeds to self-redemption and exposing the real meaning of a creature through the Guillermo del Toro prism.

Guiding Narrative Who

I am an outcast mad scientist and forced to move to...

Where ...a secret imperfect biology underground laboratory for some cruel experiments. What

In this place that never sees the sun, it looks like monsters hiding in shadows that the light can’t reach. I was exploring this creepy old laboratory and tried to write a diary to let people know what I had been through and seen under the ground.

Doodle

Filmography

1993 Cronos 1997 Mimic

monster protagonist

2001 The Devil’s backbone

bad guy

2002 Blade II 2004 Hellboy

2006 Pan’s Labyrinth 2008 Hellboy II: The Golden Army 2011 Don’t be afraid of the dark

2013 The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug 2014 The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies 2014 The Strain 2015 The Frankenstein Complex 2015 Crimson Peak

2017 78/52 2017 The Shape of Water 2019 Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Location & Date

Oasis Church | 634 S Normandie Ave Los Angeles, CA 90005 October 9, 10, 11, 12

This church is at LA, that is also where Guillermo del Toro lives near. Guillermo del Toro is catholic. He looks monsters as his gods. So I think it’s a perfect place for this festival and him as a thought of his. And it ’s a sacred place for his films as well. People who want to come look his films as an important element in their life because they feel more less the same way of the monster in the films. October 9, 10, 11 2020 is Guillermo del Toro’s birthday. October 9 is also National Swap Ideas Day. This festival will be hosting in a sacred church in the most important day of his in a year.

Audience - People who feel lost or misunderstood in the society

- People who often feel like they are outcasts that they actually tend to be a good thing.

- People who are interested in monster character development

- The psychologists who research in different aspects of consciousness and dark side of humanity.

- Monster lovers

Additional Event - Brainstorm (Audience can draw about what is their dream or true monster look like)

DOODLE / FILMS STORY LINE “Doodle” shows del Toro’s films overall story line.

TITLE & SUBTITLE DEVELOPMENT This is round 6 to get the right title and subtitle for the festival.

TITLES

Through The Darkness

SUBTITLES

- His monsters homeward bound, when all is lost then all is found, in the land of Guillermo del Toro. - True monsters through the lens of Guillermo del toro

Cabinet Of Curiosities Peculiar Fantasy Strange Laboratory

- Discovering unlikely acts of heroism in real monsters via the prism of Guillermo del Toro - Discovering unlikely acts of heroism in true monsters, through the prism of Guillermo del Toro. - Discoveries of the true monsters in our world through the lens of Guillermo del Toro. - Being they self, a monsters diary, Guellermo del Toro. - A place where the true monsters meet, Guillermo del Toro. - The Oaises of monsters, Guillermo del Toro. - Cross roads to true monsters, Guillermo del Toro - Into the unknown, of the hart of a monster, Guillermo del Toro - Finding the hart of the monster, Guillermo del Toro - In Guillermo del Toro’s films, deep and true, lie the answers and a path for them. - A monsters path to redemption in Guillermo del Toro’s world - The monsters journey to redemption in Guillermo del Toro’s world - A journey to redemption through shadows, Guillermo del Toro’s Film festival

DIRECTOR CONNECTIONS The following directors present the affections to del Toro.

relative a bit far

Tim Burton 10

tall tales in reality

Fanny & Alexander

Ingmar Bergman

profound, childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eyes, fabulist perspective â&#x20AC;&#x153;Monsters are Soulful

Peter Jackson storytelling + ethereal characteristics

Hayao Miyazaki fairy tales + dark, adult themes +illustrations

Guillermo del Toro

internal ambivalence b/w hero & monster

high concept horrow + lovecraftian cosmicism

Stanley Kubrick

Alfred Hitchcock American Gothic

haunting + monstrous nature of the human Barry Lyndon, The Shinning

Voctor Erice

Akira Kurosawa

David Lynch inescapable horror

lovely monsters bond with children

Peter Medal dark romance

FILM MOODBOARD

Film: The Shape of Water

Film moodborad gives the inspiration of color palettes, tones, typography, etc.

Director: Guillermo del Toro

FILM MOODBOARD

Film: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Film moodborad gives the inspiration of color palettes, tones, typography, etc.

Director: Guillermo del Toro

FILM MOODBOARD

Film: Hellboy

Film moodborad gives the inspiration of color palettes, tones, typography, etc.

Director: Guillermo del Toro

PHOTOGRAPHY USAGE Photography Style / Abstract To present isolation, cold, and lost

Photography Style / Landscape Secret and hidden underground wishing to be found

PHOTOGRAPHY USAGE Photography Style / Laboratory Old, abandoned, secret

MATERIAL USAGE Material Style / Texture Vintage, collage

GRAPHIC ELEMENT USAGE Graphic Style / Laboratory Hand-draw notes, sketches

TEXTURE USAGE Texture Style / Mysterious Texture, photo collage

TYPOGRAPHY USAGE Typography Style / Display Age, science

Typography Style / Body-copy Science, clear to read

MASTER MOODBOARD Director

Festival title

Guillermo del Toro

Through The Darkness

The Master Moodboard is filled with the images I use for my festival. Level-1 are your main images / Level-2 is in between / Level-3 are the background images and textures

level 1

level 2

level 3

Thread

Guiding Narrative

A monsterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s journey through unlikely heroic deeds to self-redemption and exposing the real meaning of a creature through the Guillermo del Toro prism.

I am an outcast mad scientist and forced to move to a secret imperfect biology underground laboratory for some cruel experiments. In this place that never sees the sun, it looks like monsters hiding in shadows that the light canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t reach. I was exploring this creepy old laboratory and tried to write a diary to let people know what I had been through and seen under the ground.

MATERIAL MOODBOARD Thread

A monsterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s journey through unlikely heroic deeds to self-redemption and exposing the real meaning of a creature through the Guillermo del Toro prism.

Guiding Narrative

IDENTITY SKETCH Title Through the Darkness

TITLE PLACEMENT

POSTER DEVELOPMENT Round 1

ThrougH the

THROUGH

Darkness the

DARKNESS

Discoveries of the true monsters in our world through the lens of Guillermo del Toro.

Discoveries of the true monsters in our world

Chronos

CRONOS

through the lens of Guillermo del Toro.

El espinazo del diablo

THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE

OCT 9-11

CRONOS

película

HELLBOY

THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE

El laberinto del fauno

HELLBOY

película: el ejército dorado

HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY

CRIMSON PEAK

La cumbre escarlata

CRIMSON PEAK

THE SHAPE OF WATER

634 S Normandie Ave Los Angeles, CA 90005

SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK

OCT 9-11

PAN’S LABYRINTH

Oasis Church

La forma del agua

THE SHAPE OF WATER

thedarkness.com

Historias de miedo para contar en la oscuridad

SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK

OCT 9 -1 1

CRONOS

OASIS CHURCH

PAN’S LABYRINTH

634 S Normandie Ave Los Angeles, CA 90005

HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY

thedarkness.com

HELLBOY CRIMSON PEAK

OASIS CHURCH

SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK THE SHAPE OF WATER

634 S Normandie Ave Los Angeles, CA 90005

THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE

thedarkness.com

Discoveries of the true monsters in our world through the lens of Guillermo del Toro

CRONOS THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE PAN'S LABYRINTH SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY CRIMSON PEAK THE SHAPE OF WATER CRONOS THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE HELLBOY SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK

PAN’S LABYRINTH

CRONOS

HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY

THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE

CRIMSON PEAK THE SHAPE OF WATER

HELLBOY SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK

PAN’S LABYRINTH

HELLBOY

HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY CRIMSON PEAK THE SHAPE OF WATER

OASIS CHURCH

634 S Normandie Ave Los Angeles, CA 90005

thedarkness.com

OASIS CHURCH

OCT 9-11

t he d arkne s s. com

THROUGH

Darkness the

Discoveries of the true monsters in our world through the lens of Guillermo del Toro.

ThrougH the

DARKNESS Discoveries of the true monsters in our world

through the lens of Guillermo del Toro

CRONOS

THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE

CHRONOS

CRONOS EL ESPINAZO DEL DIABLO

THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE

PAN’S LABYRINTH

PELÍCULA

HELLBOY

SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK

OCT 9-11

E L L A B E R I N TO D E L FAU N O

PAN’S LABYRINTH PELÍCULA: EL EJÉRCITO DORADO

HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY

CRIMSON PEAK LA FORMA DEL AGUA

THE SHAPE OF WATER

thedarkness.com CRIMSON PEAK

HISTORIAS DE MIEDO PARA CONTAR EN LA OSCURIDAD

SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK

OCT 9-11

OASIS CHURCH

OASIS CHURCH 634 S Normandie Ave Los Angeles, CA 90005

LA CUMBRE ESCARLATA

THE SHAPE OF WATER

HELLBOY

Round 2

Through

Darkness

Through

the

Discovering unlikely acts of heroism in monsters, through the prism of Guillermo del Toro

OCT 9-12

CRONOS

Discovering unlikely acts of heroism in monsters, through the prism of Guillermo del Toro

THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE HELLBOY

Chronos

CRONOS

PAN’S LABYRINTH HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY

El espinazo del diablo

THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE

CRIMSON PEAK

Oasis Church

película

HELLBOY

THE SHAPE OF WATER

634 S Normandie Ave Los Angeles, CA 90005

Darkness the

Discovering unlikely acts of heroism in monsters, through the prism of Guillermo del Toro

SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK

thedarkness.com

El laberinto del fauno

PAN’S LABYRINTH película: el ejército dorado

HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY La cumbre escarlata

CRIMSON PEAK La forma del agua

THE SHAPE OF WATER

OCT 9-12

Historias de miedo para contar en la oscuridad

SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK

OCT 9-12 OASIS CHURCH

CRONOS

OASIS CHURCH

PAN’S LABYRINTH

634 S Normandie Ave Los Angeles, CA 90005

HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY

thedarkness.com

HELLBOY CRIMSON PEAK SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK

634 S Normandie Ave Los Angeles, CA 90005

THE SHAPE OF WATER

thedarkness.com

THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE

Discoveries of the true monsters in our world through the lens of Guillermo del Toro

Discovering unlikely acts of heroism in monsters through the prism of Guillermo del Toro

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SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK PAN’S LABYRINTH HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY CRIMSON PEAK THE SHAPE OF WATER

OCT 9-12

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PAN'S LABYRINTH

HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY CRIMSON PEAK THE SHAPE OF WATER

OASIS CHURCH

CRONOS THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE

SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK

HELLBOY

634 S Normandie Ave Los Angeles, CA 90005

thedarkness.com

OASIS CHURCH

OCT 9-12

t h e d ark n e s s. c om

Through

Darkness the

Discovering unlikely acts of heroism in monsters, through the prism of Guillermo del Toro.

CHRONOS

CRONOS EL ESPINAZO DEL DIABLO

THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE PELÍCULA

HELLBOY E L L A B E R I N TO D E L FAU N O

PAN’S LABYRINTH PELÍCULA: EL EJÉRCITO DORADO

HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY LA CUMBRE ESCARLATA

CRIMSON PEAK LA FORMA DEL AGUA

THE SHAPE OF WATER HISTORIAS DE MIEDO PARA CONTAR EN LA OSCURIDAD

SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK

OCT 9-12

OASIS CHURCH

CATALOG DEVELOPMENT Direction 1 Round 1

Through

Darkness the

| |

Discovering unlikely acts of heroism in monsters, through the prism of Guillermo del Toro

Guillermo del Toro Film Festival Catalog

Discovering unlikely acts of heroism in monsters, through the prism of Guillermo del Toro

Chronos

CRONOS El espinazo del diablo

THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE película

HELLBOY El laberinto del fauno

PAN’S LABYRINTH película: el ejército dorado

HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY La cumbre escarlata

CRIMSON PEAK La forma del agua

THE SHAPE OF WATER Historias de miedo para contar en la oscuridad

SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK

OCT 9-1 2 OASIS CHURCH 634 S Normandie Ave Los Angeles, CA 90005

thedarkness.com

walked through

The CREATIONS

FILM SCHEDULE CRONOS THE DEVIL’S BACK B ONE HELLB OY SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK PAN’S L ABYRINTH HELLB OY II : THE G OLDEN AR MY

BEHIND THE FESTIVAL

CRIMSON PE AK

DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY

THE SHAPE OF WATER

FILMOGRAPHY

137

The UNDERWORLD

The Laboratory

AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS

| | 67

FESTIVAL RESOURCES CONTACT INFORMATION

LOS ANGELS

THE MAP

INTERACT WITH MONSTERS CREATE YOUR OWN

“The underground of the city is like what’s underground in people. Beneath the surface, it’s boiling with monsters.”

ONE

The Laboraory

—Guillermo del Toro

W H E R E

E V E R Y T H I N G

S T A R T S

For him, monsters are his real family. “Monster design is one of the most difficult forms of creation.”

Guillermo del Toro is such a “wired” person if I may say. He is a monster worshiper born in a Mexican Catholic family. “When I was in the crib, I was attracted to monsters.” he says. Guillermo del Toro talked about his childhood in Mexico. He grew up in a devout Catholic family, but he recognized the existence of monsters since he was a child and believes there are ghosts surround him. His grandma didn’t understand this very much, and even took him to exorcism twice. “I like to praise monsters and tell people how great and beautiful horror stories are.” Guillermo said, in fact, what he is really interested in is how to combine horror elements with fairy tales. He thinks the unique atmosphere presented by dark fairy tales, on the contrary It is more magical andbeautiful, and this is deeply reflected in his movies.

For Guillermo, who loves collecting art, books, and horror movie props, whether it is the real world or the fantasy in his head, “horror” is an important part of life. Whenever he wanted to conceive or create a story, he always went to his second home in the suburbs of LA ”Bleak House” for inspiration. “Bleak House” has accumulated tens of thousands of artworks that Guillermo has collected over the past ten years, such as Gothic paintings, horror comic books, real-life statues, etc., as well as many monster characters from his movies. These collections were originally kept in his own home, but as the number gradually increased, the home became crowded, and the younger daughter thought these monsters were too scary, so he bought the first “Bleak House” in 2006 (now he has 2 houses).

film schedule 00:00

08:00

00:00

08:00

00:00

08:00

00:00

08:00

SHOWING OCTBER 9

SHOWING OCTBER 10

SHOWING OCTBER 11

SHOWING OCTBER 12

CRONOS A mysterious device designed to provide its owner with eternal life resurfaces after four hundred years, leaving a trail of destruction in its path.

THE DEVIL’S BACK B ONE After Carlos - a 12-year-old whose father has died in the Spanish Civil War - arrives at an ominous boys’ orphanage, he discovers the school is haunted and has many dark secrets which he must uncover.

HELLB OY A demon, raised from infancy after being conjured by and rescued from the Nazis, grows up to become a defender against the forces of darkness.

SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK On Halloween 1968, Stella and her two friends meet a mysterious drifter, Ramón, and uncover a sinister notebook of stories.

PAN’S L ABYRINTH In the Falangist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world.

HELLB OY II A prince of the mythical world starts a rebellion against humanity in order to rule the Earth, and Hellboy his team must fight to stop him from locating the all-powerful Golden Army.

CRIMSON PE AK In the aftermath of a family tragedy, an aspiring author is torn between love for her childhood friend and the temptation of a mysterious outsider. Trying to escape the ghosts of her past, she is swept away to a house that breathes, bleeds - and remembers.

THE SHAPE OF WATER At a top secret research facility in the 1960s, a lonely janitor forms a unique relationship with an amphibious creature that is being held in captivity.

The Shape of Water Is Altogether Wonderful “The Shape of Water” is partly a code-scrambled fairy tale, partly a

The most obvious reference point for “The Shape of Water” is “Creature From the

“The Asset,” as his minders call him, poses no threat to anyone. He is, as wild things tend to

genetically modified monster movie, and altogether wonderful. Guillermo del Toro, the writer and director, is a passionate genre geek. Sometimes his enthusiasm can get the better of his discipline, producing

Black Lagoon,” a Cold War-era camp-horror classic about a strange beast, quasi-fish and sort-of human, discovered in the rain forests of the Amazon. In Mr. del Toro’s update, such a creature is brought to Baltimore in the

be in movies nowadays, an innocent at the mercy of a ruthlessly predatory species, which is to say us. His particular nemesis is Richard Strickland, a government-issue, square-jawed square played with reliable menace by Michael

misshapen (but never completely uninteresting ) movies like “Pacific Rim” and “Crimson Peak.” At his best, though — in “The Devil’s Backbone,” “Pan’s Labyrinth” and now, at last, again — he

early 1960s and kept in a tank at a government research lab, where he is subjected to brutal torture in the name of science and national security.

Shannon. Strickland lives in a suburban split-level with his wife and two kids, drives a Cadillac, reads “The Power of Positive Thinking” and is into mechanical missionary sex (and workplace sexual harassment). His

fuses a fan’s ardor with a romantic sensibility that is startling in its sincerity. He draws on old movies, comic books, mythic archetypes and his own restless visual imagination to create movies that seem less made than discovered, as if he had plucked them from the cultural ether and given them color, voice and form.

favorite accessory is an electric cattle prod, a detail that links him to the Southern sheriffs occasionally shown terrorizing civil rights demonstrators on television. A caricature? Maybe. But also a perfectly plausible villain, and in his diabolical all-American normalcy a necessary foil for the film’s loose rebel coalition, a band of misfits who come to the Asset’s defense. The most important of these is Elisa (Sally Hawkins), a member of the laboratory’s nighttime cleaning staff, who plays jazz records for the piscine captive, feeds him hard-boiled eggs and before long falls in love with him.

CATALOG DEVELOPMENT Direction 2 Round 1

Through

Darkness the

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Table of Contents

06 The Laboratory

The Underworld

BEHIND THE FESTIVAL

the way he looks at me... He does not know, how I am incomplete. He sees me, fo r what I - am He's happy to see me.

LOS ANGELS

DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY

THE MAP

FILMOGRAPHY

INTERACT WITH MONSTERS

AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS

CREATE YOUR OWN

14 The Creations

When he looks at me,

137

Walked Through

FILM SCHEDULE

FESTIVAL RESOURCES

CRONOS

Every time. Every day.

CONTACT INFORMATION

THE DEVIL’S BACK B ONE HELLB OY

The Shape of Water Is Altogether Wonderful “The Shape of Water” is partly a code-scrambled fairy tale, partly a genetically modified monster movie, and altogether wonderful. Guillermo del Toro, the writer and director, is a passionate genre geek. Sometimes his enthusiasm can get the better of his discipline, producing misshapen (but never completely uninteresting ) movies like “Pacific Rim” and “Crimson Peak.” At his best, though — in “The Devil’s Backbone,” “Pan’s Labyrinth” and now, at last, again — he fuses a fan’s ardor with a romantic sensibility that is startling in its sincerity. He draws on old movies, comic books, mythic archetypes and his own restless visual imagination to create movies that seem less made than discovered, as if he had plucked them from the cultural ether and given them color, voice and form. The most obvious reference point for

“The Asset,” as his minders call him, poses no threat to anyone. He is, as wild things tend to be in movies nowadays, an innocent at the mercy of a ruthlessly predatory species, which is to say us. His particular nemesis is Richard Strickland, a government-issue, square-jawed square played with reliable menace by Michael Shannon. Strickland lives in a suburban split-level with his wife and two kids, drives a Cadillac, reads “The Power of Positive Thinking” and is into mechanical missionary sex (and workplace sexual harassment). His favorite accessory is an electric cattle prod, a detail that links him to the Southern sheriffs occasionally shown terrorizing civil rights demonstrators on television. A caricature? Maybe. But also a perfectly plausible villain, and in his diabolical all-American normalcy a necessary foil for the film’s loose rebel coalition, a band of misfits who come to the Asset’s defense. The most

“The Shape of Water” is “Creature From the Black Lagoon,” a Cold War-era camp-horror

important of these is Elisa (Sally Hawkins), a

classic about a strange beast, quasi-fish and

staff, who plays jazz records for the piscine captive, feeds him hard-boiled eggs and before

sort-of human, discovered in the rain forests of the Amazon. In Mr. del Toro’s update, such a creature is brought to Baltimore in the

member of the laboratory’s nighttime cleaning

long falls in love with him.

early 1960s and kept in a tank at a government

SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK PAN’S L ABYRINTH

research lab, where he is subjected to brutal torture in the name of science and

HELLB OY II : THE G OLDEN ARMY

national security.

CRIMSON PE AK THE SHAPE OF WATER

apter ch

“The underground of the city is like what’s underground in people. Beneath the surface, it’s boiling with monsters.” —Guillermo del Toro

ONE

The Laboraory W H E R E

E V E R Y T H I N G

S T A R T S

For him, monsters are his real family. "Monster design is one of

Guillermo del Toro is such a “wired” person if I may say. He is a monster worshiper born

For Guillermo, who loves collecting art, books, and horror movie props, whether

in a Mexican Catholic family. “When I was in the crib, I was attracted to monsters.” he

it is the real world or the fantasy in his head, “horror” is an important part of life.

forms

says. Guillermo del Toro talked about his childhood in Mexico.

Whenever he wanted to conceive or create a story, he always went to his second

He grew up in a devout Catholic family, but

the most difficult

creation."

home in the suburbs of LA ”Bleak House” for inspiration.

he recognized the existence of monsters since he was a child and believes there are

“Bleak House” has accumulated tens of

ghosts surround him. His grandma didn’t understand this very much, and even took him to exorcism twice. “I like to praise

thousands of artworks that Guillermo has collected over the past ten years, such as Gothic paintings, horror comic books,

monsters and tell people how great and beautiful horror stories are.”

real-life statues, etc., as well as many monster characters from his movies. These

collections were originally kept in his own home, but as the number gradually increased, the home became crowded, and the younger daughter thought these monsters were too scary, so he bought the first “Bleak House” in 2006 (now he has 2 houses).

Film Schedule 00:00

00:00

08:00

SHOWING OCTBER 9

SHOWING OCTBER 10

CRONOS A mysterious device designed to provide its owner with eternal life resurfaces after four hundred years, leaving a trail of destruction in its path.

HELLB OY A demon, raised from infancy after being conjured by and rescued from the Nazis, grows up to become a defender against the forces of darkness.

SHOWING OCTBER 9 THE DEVIL’S BACK B ONE After Carlos - a 12-year-old whose father has died in the Spanish Civil War - arrives at an ominous boys’ orphanage, he discovers the school is haunted and has many dark secrets which he must uncover.

SHOWING OCTBER 10 SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK On Halloween 1968, Stella and her two friends meet a mysterious drifter, Ramón, and uncover a sinister notebook of stories.

CATALOG DEVELOPMENT Direction 3 Round 1

Through

Darkness the

Through

Darkness the

Discovering unlikely acts of heroism in monsters, through the prism of Guillermo del Toro

Guillermo del Toro Film Festival Catalog

Discovering unlikely acts of heroism in monsters, through the prism of Guillermo del Toro

OCT 9-12 Oasis Church 634 S Normandie Ave Los Angeles, CA 90005

thedarkness.com

CRONOS THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE HELLBOY PAN’S LABYRINTH HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY CRIMSON PEAK THE SHAPE OF WATER SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK

The Laboratory

When he looks at me,

The Underworld

BEHIND THE FESTIVAL DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY FILMOGRAPHY

LOS ANGELS

AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS

THE MAP

the way he looks at me... He does not know,

INTERACT WITH MONSTERS

CREATE YOUR OWN

The Creations

how I am incomplete. He sees me, fo r what I - am He's happy to see me.

Walked Through

FILM SCHEDULE

FESTIVAL RESOURCES

CRONOS

HELLB OY

Every time. Every day.

SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK PAN’S L ABYRINTH HELLB OY II : THE G OLDEN ARMY CRIMSON PE AK

underground in people. Beneath the surface, it’s boiling with monsters.” —Guillermo del Toro

N U CHAPTER ONE

The Laboraory W H E R E

For him, monsters are his real family. “Bleak House” has accumulated tens of thousands of artworks that Guillermo has collected over the past ten years, such as Gothic paintings, horror comic books, real-life statues, etc., as well as many monster characters from his movies. These collections were originally kept in his own home, but as the number gradually increased, the home became crowded, and the younger daughter thought these monsters were too scary, so he bought the first “Bleak House” in 2006 (now he has 2 houses).

Guillermo said, in fact, what he is really interested in is how to combine horror elements with fairy tales. He thinks the unique atmosphere presented by dark fairy tales, on the contrary It is more magical andbeautiful, and this is deeply reflected in his movies. For Guillermo, who loves collecting art, books, and horror movie props, whether it is the real world or the fantasy in his head, “horror” is an important part of life. Whenever he wanted to conceive or create a story, he always went to his second home in the suburbs of LA ”Bleak House” for inspiration.

"Monster design is one of the most difficult forms of creation."

Film Schedule

00:0003:30

geek. Sometimes his enthusiasm can get the better of his discipline, producing misshapen (but never completely uninteresting ) movies like “Pacific Rim” and “Crimson Peak.” At his best, though — in “The Devil’s Backbone,” “Pan’s Labyrinth” and now, at last, again — he fuses a fan’s ardor with a romantic sensibility that is startling in its sincerity. He draws on old movies, comic books, mythic archetypes and his own restless visual imagination to create movies that seem less made than discovered, as if he had plucked them from the cultural ether and given them color, voice and form.

“The Shape of Water” is “Creature From the Black Lagoon,” a Cold War-era camp-horror classic about a strange beast, quasi-fish and sort-of human, discovered in the rain forests of the Amazon. In Mr. del Toro’s update, such a creature is brought to Baltimore in the

torture in the name of science and national security.

“The underground of the city is like what’s

He grew up in a devout Catholic family, but he recognized the existence of monsters since he was a child and believes there are ghosts surround him. His grandma didn’t understand this very much, and even took him to exorcism twice. “I like to praise monsters and tell people how great and beautiful horror stories are.”

code-scrambled fairy tale, partly a genetically modified monster movie, and altogether wonderful. Guillermo del Toro, the writer and director, is a passionate genre

early 1960s and kept in a tank at a government research lab, where he is subjected to brutal

THE SHAPE OF WATER

“The Shape of Water” is partly a

The most obvious reference point for

CONTACT INFORMATION

THE DEVIL’S BACK B ONE

The Shape of Water Is Altogether Wonderful

CRONOS A mysterious device designed to provide its owner with eternal life resurfaces after four hundred years, leaving a trail of destruction in its path.

08:0011:00 THE DEVIL’S BACK B ONE After Carlos - a 12-year-old whose father has died in the Spanish Civil War - arrives at an ominous boys’ orphanage, he discovers the school is haunted and has many dark secrets which he must uncover.

E V E R Y T H I N G

S T A R T S

apter ch

HERE IS... WHERE EVERYTHING STARTS... 42

Online Project Site, Please visit: https://thedarkness.myportfolio.com/

CATALOG DESIGN The theme is the mad scientistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s journal. I use leather texture for the cover. For inner spreads, I use a lot of paper textures to show collage, ages, and note-taking of the journal, and some white pages for contents to let readersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; eyes get some rest.

44 Through the Darkness

There is happiness for those who accept their fate, there is glor y for those who resist their fate.

US $45 CAN $59

Through the

Darkness Guillermo del toro Film Festival Presents

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Guillermo del Toro Film Festival Monster Catalog

apter ch

“I see you are in the darkness of

t h e f l ame c an i l l u mi n at e t h e d ark n e ss,

uncertainty, but if you wish to shine

bu t wi t h o u t t h e d ark n e ss, t h e g l ow c an n o t be se e n .

for someone, or yourself, you must not fear the darkness”

are yo u af rai d o f t h e d ark ?

—Hai Hsiang Lang

ONE

THE FEELING OF AFFECTION W H E R E

E V E R Y T H I N G

S T A R T S

HOPE IS ANYWHERE

To have hope is to want an outcome that makes your life better in some way. It not only can help make a tough present situation more bearable but also can eventually improve our lives because envisioning a better future motivates you to take the steps to make it happen. Whether we think about it or not, hope is a part of everyone’s life. Everyone hopes for something. It’s an inherent part of being a human being. Hope helps us define what we want in our futures and is part of the self-narrative about our lives we all have running inside our minds. Hope is not the same as optimism. An optimistic generally is more hopeful than others. On the other hand, the most pessimistic person you ever met can still be hopeful about something. Hope is very specific and focused, usually on just one issue.

“If we hope to go anywhere or develop ourselves in any way, we can only step from where we are standing. If we don’t really know where we are standing... We may only go in circles...”

Most people associate hope with a dire situation. People hope to get out of difficult circumstances. That is often when people do find themselves hoping fervently! But hope also can provide the key to making everyday life better. In a way, having hope links your past and present to the future. You have a vision for what you hope will happen. Whether it does not, just envisioning it can make you feel better. And if it’s something you can somewhat control – like the kids working to get out of poverty – then hope can motivate you to take whatever steps you need to take. Dr. Neel Burton, a book author who writes about emotions, writes that he always asks patients for what they hope for, because if they say “nothing” then that is a sign of depression or worse. Having hope is important to the very act of being a human being. As Dr. Judith Rich writes, “Hope is a match in a dark tunnel, a moment of light, just enough to reveal the path ahead and ultimately the way out.”

DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY FILMOGRAPHY

CRONOS THE DEVIL’S BACK B ONE HELLB OY SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK PAN’S L ABYRINTH HELLB OY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY CRIMSON PE AK THE SHAPE OF WATER

THE FEELING OF WISDOM

BEHIND THE FESTIVAL

FILM SCHEDULE

THE WALKED THROUGH

THE DESIRE OF KNOWLEDGE

THE FEELING OF AFFECTION

THE MONSTER ADMIRER AND HIS DARK COLLECTION “Just look at this monster,

138

126

you can understand its stor y and purpose, and what it represents.” Guillermo said that creating a monster requires the same care as a work of art. When designing shapes and

FESTIVAL RESOURCES

sculptural outlines, it should

CONTACT INFORMATION

show the expressiveness of the role. Make the monster impressive.

THROUGH THE DARKNESS OASIS CHURCH

CREATE YOUR OWN MONSTER

“When I was in the crib, I was attracted to monsters.” Director Guillermo del Toro talked about his childhood in Mexico. He grew up in a devout Catholic family, but he recognized the existence of monsters since he was a child and believes there are The ghosts surround him. Grandma didn’t understand this very much, and took him to exorcism twice. “I like to praise monsters and tell people how great and beautiful horror stories are.” Guillermo said that what he is really interested in is how to combine horror elements with fairy tales. He believes that the unique atmosphere presented by dark fairy tales, on the contrary It is even more magical and beautiful, and this is deeply reflected in his movies. “This is a spiritual call. I like the way people worship God. But for me, monsters are also closely connected to me in a very fundamental way.” Guillermo sympathizes with those who are unpopular and feared. People think that monsters are always misunderstood. This idea is the reason why he rewrites the history of monsters, and it is also an important medium to open the way of creation.

“For me, the monster is my real family.”

“I BECAME A FAN, NOT A COLLECTOR.”

WELCOME TO BLEAK HOUSE

Through

his movies. These collections were originally kept in his own home, but as the number gradually increased, the home became crowded, and the younger daughter thought these monsters were too scary, so he bought the first “Bleak House” in 2006 ( Now there are two

Darkness the

buildings), as their own small world. “I hung up a creepy oil painting by illustrator Richard Corben at home, but my wife said, “This is too close to the kitchen, and the children will be scared.” My heart is a bit broken, and Therefore, I am determined to have a place of my own.”

“Bleak House” is named after Charles Dickens’ novel of the same name. Guillermo refers to Disney’s research library and divides the collection into categories, hoping to create a space that can stimulate his imagination.

“Monster design is one of the most diff icult forms of creation.”

“There are 13 libraries in this room. Each room is of a different type. There are horror stories, myths, fairy tales, etc.. When designing Pacific coast creatures, I will find sharks or deep seas from the bookshelves of natural history. Pictures of monsters. When designing the haunted house in Crimson Villa, I also had books on Victorian architecture for reference.” For Guillermo, this is a very important field of research. “If you have been to these two houses, you will not only see the movies I have made, but also the movies I will create.” Guillermo said, “This is everything I accumulated in my mind when I was young. Now it is slowly showing up.” He added that about half of his salary goes to these collections. There is also a window in the “Bleak House”. It looks like a storm is falling outside and the glass is broken, but it is actually “fake”. Guillermo said that he likes to write on rainy days, with the sound of thunder and rain, surrounded by monsters, sitting on a comfortable sofa and thinking, can make him more relaxed.

Not only that, there are also two home theaters in the house. When Guillermo has finished writing and wants to rest, he can watch a movie to relax, or get the information he wants from it. Including the “rain room,” the collections in the house are all sorts of strange, but not everyone knows how to appreciate this “alternative beauty.” Guillermo said that he had explained to the doubting police that the unresponsive body in the TV room was actually just a dummy from Linda Blair in “The Arch Mage”. Guillermo previously shared his important process of creating monsters on his personal Twitter. He suggested that creators should get in touch with various fields and get inspiration from them, such as mythology, literature, nature and their own spirit. For example, “The Labyrinth of the Sheep Man” is derived from Roman mythology and combines all the elements. In order to fully present the image of the character, Guillermo recommends guiding the actor like an actor, rather than expressing the role through imitation. He said that monsters may change their image or show themselves in different ways. The most important core is to maintain the “mystery” in order to show the charm of monsters. For Guillermo, the existence of Bleak House is like an important part of his soul. Therefore, when his collection was moved to the art museum for exhibition, he felt very insecure. “When I went into the house and found that the head of the giant Frankenstein was not there, it felt terrible.”

TIMELESS OF GUILLERMO DEL TORO

FEATURE FILMS director & producer

FESTIVAL SCHEDULE

TELEVISION director & producer & credit

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1993

Cronos

2014–2017

The Strain

2009

The Strain

1997

Mimic

2016–2018

Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia

2010

The Fall

“It was never too late to exchange

2001

The Devil’s Backbone

2018–2019

3Below: Tales of Arcadia

2011

The Night Eternal

the things you believed def ined you

2002

Blade II

2020

Wizards: Tales of Arcadia

2015

Trollhunters

for something better.”

2004

Hellboy

2018

The Shape of Water

2006

Pan’s Labyrinth

2019

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Pan’s Labyrinth: The Labyrinth of the Faun

2008

Pacific Rim

2020

The Hollow Ones

2013 2015

Crimson Peak

2017

The Shape of Water

2021

Pinocchio

16:0019:30 CRONOS A mysterious device designed to provide its owner with eternal life resurfaces after four hundred years, leaving a trail of destruction in its path.

20:0023:00 THE DEVIL’S BACK B ONE After Carlos - a 12-year-old whose father has died in the Spanish Civil War - arrives at an ominous boys’ orphanage, he discovers the school is haunted and has many dark secrets which he must uncover.

19 26

DEATH IS THE CURATOR INTERVIEW Guillermo del Toro is perhaps best known as a builder of worlds—his films grow from the sketchbooks that he fills with ideas for fantastical creatures and places. Del Toro’s work is sometimes big and bright and fun, like Hellboy, Pacific Rim, or his latest release for Netflix, the animated series Trollhunters. Other times, he tells quieter stories about ghosts and loss, like The Devil’s Backbone, Pan’s Labyrinth, or Crimson Peak. But no matter what kind of film he’s making, he works from a place of devotion to his craft and pure love for his characters.

On the heels of Donald Trump’s inauguration, del Toro was generous enough to have a lengthy discussion with us. It may seem an unusual choice to include an interview with a fantasy director in our “True Stories” issue, but I think that much of our talk turned out to be about what truth is—and how stories can help us find it. We covered a lot of ground: art as politics, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, eye candy versus “eye protein,” the speed of contemporary discourse, and what the last three minutes of your life might look like.

QMaybe that’s part of the difference between

pure visual art and film, which does involve a narrative.

is a part of film that is like song. That AThere exists in a place that is responsive and emotional and that defies rationalization, analysis, or categorization. You know, you can take any song; for example, ‘Let It Be,’ and the lyrics separate from the music or the music separate from the lyrics are one thing, and when you listen to it together, it provokes an emotion unique to each person. Some people are going to love it, some people are going to cry, some people are going to turn it off. But there’s a lyrical, almost musical side to cinema that speaks very profoundly to each of us. That’s why we can see the same movie, and you hate it and I love it. It’s the same movie. It’s our soul that is different.

QYou once said that you could compare a film QWhat’s a relationship that was nurturing? to a Gauguin painting, where you have to If you see my filmography, I don’t repeat a lot. ATom analogize the brush strokes and the vigour of Sanders, for example, in Crimson Peak, we the colour palette. Do you think viewers may be a little hung up on the narrative aspect of movies?

think that that’s a gigantic area of discussion. AISometimes that is defined by some people, they’ll say this or that filmmaker is a ‘filmmaker’s filmmaker.’ You know, I can tell you a transformative moment in my life—a couple of them—have happened in George Miller movies

QIs he a filmmaker’s filmmaker? think George Miller is a filmmaker’s AIfilmmaker, but he’s also a filmmaker

for everyone. That’s a guy who works at every level. He’s firing on all cylinders. To me, Miller exists in the Olympian category; he’s a cinema god for me. I remember being a teenager and seeing Max Rockatansky step out of his patrol and walk towards the camera and the camera was doing a push-in and a jib-up at the same time, you know? It was a dolly and a jib, a little crane up to him as he removes his glasses, and it’s purely camera, purely the choice of lens, the choice of angle, the movement—it’s a ballet. His portion of Mad Max 3 in the Thunderdome is pure ballet.

started design with a very small crew, before Tom showed up. Then Tom showed up and he took what we were designing and he put his own spin on it. So it was not territorial, he didn’t come and say, ‘I’m going to start from scratch.’ That’s very nurturing, because he didn’t say, ‘I’m going to follow exactly what you guys have designed.’ I don’t think the dictatorial style produces the best results—I think a demanding style produces the best results. The dictatorial style frustrates people’s impulses. The moment an artist is afraid is the moment an artist ceases to function. The only thing that is healthy is to be afraid of failure—not afraid of your instincts. It should a relationship between adults. It’s not a vertical relationship. I don’t think vertical relationships in any walk of life are for the better.

16:0019:30

SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK On Halloween 1968, Stella and her two friends meet a mysterious drifter, Ramón, and uncover a sinister notebook of stories.

HELLB OY A demon, raised from infancy after being conjured by and rescued from the Nazis, grows up to become a defender against the forces of darkness.

To thos e of you who feel outc aste d and lost

The abse nce of hope can be num bing You may even . feel brok en or lost. But that weig ht does n’t have to stick arou nd fore ver

20:0023:30

I’m just a little thing, but I f lood the entire room. What am I? I’m a white snake that swallows the sea. What am I?

16:0019:30 PAN’S L ABYRINTH In the Falangist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world.

I become shorter the longer I stand.

20:0023:00 HELLB OY II A prince of the mythical world starts a rebellion against humanity in order to rule the Earth, and Hellboy his team must fight to stop him from locating the all-powerful Golden Army.

What am I?

When all is lost, then all is found

23 30

apter ch

“I love the soft and tender glow of your

warm light. I believe that the people who were precious to you were very happy to have you envelope them with that glow.” —Hai Hsiang Lang

THE DESIRE OF KNOWLEDGE

B E L I E V E

I N

T H E

16:0019:30

THE SHAPE OF WATER At a top secret research facility in the 1960s, a lonely janitor forms a unique relationship with an amphibious creature that is being held in captivity.

TWO

W H E R E

20:0023:30

M O S T

25 32

CRONOS 1994

A mysterious device designed to provide its owner with eternal life resurfaces after four hundred years, leaving a trail of destruction in its path.

“The secret of immortality is

Directed by

Guillermo Del Toro

Written by

Guillermo Del Toro

Produced by

Arthur H. Gorson Bertha Navarro

living inside the Cronos device.

Alejandro Springall Bernard L. Nussbaumer Distributed by

A mystery six hundred years old.

Prime Films S.L. (Spain)

An obsession of everlasting life.

STORYLINE In 1536, in Veracruz, Mexico, during the Inquisition, an alchemist builds a mysterious and sophisticated device named Cronos to provide eternal life to the owner. In the present days, the antiques dealer Jesus Gris finds Cronos hidden inside an ancient statue while cleaning it with his granddaughter Aurora. He accidentally triggers the device and soon his wife Mercedes and he note that he has a younger appearance. Out of the blue, the stranger Angel de la Guardia visits Gris’s shop and buys the old statue. On the next day, Gris finds his shop trashed and Angel’s card on the floor. He pays a visit to Angel that introduces him to the eccentric millionaire De la Guardia that

The search is over.

explains the healing power and the eternal life given by Cronos. Angel is sent by De la Guardia to hunt down Gris to get Cronos no matter the costs.

The blessing, the curse, Cronos.”

THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE 2001

“What is a ghost?

After Carlos - a 12-year-old whose father has died in the Spanish Civil War - arrives at an ominous boys’ orphanage, he discovers the school is haunted and has many dark secrets which he must uncover.

A tragedy condemned to repeat itself time and again?

Directed by

Guillermo Del Toro

Written by

Guillermo Del Toro David Muñoz Antonio Trashorras

An instant of pain, perhaps.

Produced by

CAST

CREW

Something dead which still seems

INFO

Federico Luppi

Jesús Gris

Narrated

Jorge Martínez de Hoyos

Running time

92 minutes

Ron Perlman

Angel de la Guardia

Music

Javier Álvarez

Country

Mexico

Dieter de la Guardia

Language

Claudio Brook

Dieter de la Guardia

Tamara Shanath

Aurora Gris

Cinematography

Guillermo Navarro

Margarita Isabel

Mercedes Gris

Edited

Raúl Dávalos

Production company

Fondo de Fomento

Mario Iván Martínez Alchemist Farnesio de Bernal

Manuelito

Cinematográfico

Jorge Martínez

Narrator

Instituto Mexicano de

Agustín Almodóvar Bertha Navarro

Distributed by

Warner Sogefilms A.I.E. Sony Pictures Classics

to be alive. An emotion suspended

Spanish English

in time. Like a blurred photograph. Like an insect trapped in amber.”

Cinematografía Universidad de Guadalajara Iguana Producciones

STOEYLINE It is 1939, the end of three years of bloody civil war in Spain, and General Franco’s right-wing Nationalists are poised to defeat the left-wing Republican forces. A ten-yearold boy named Carlos, the son of a fallen Republican war hero, is left by his tutor in an orphanage in the middle of nowhere. The orphanage is run by a curt but considerate headmistress named Carmen and a kindly Professor Casares, both of whom are sympathetic to the doomed Republican cause. Despite their concern for him, and his gradual triumph over the usual schoolhouse bully, Carlos never feels completely comfortable in his new environment. First of all, there was that initial encounter with the orphanage’s nasty caretaker, Jacinto, who reacts even more violently when anyone is caught looking around a particular storage room the one with the deep well. Second, and more inexplicable, is the presence of a ghost, one of the former occupants of the orphanage named Santi. Not long after Carlos’ arrival, Santi ..

Ventana Films 44

IT’S GOT YOU UNDER ITS SKIN “Cronos” begins with the legend of a 14th century Spanish alchemist who invents a device both elegant and horrifying: a small golden machine, looking like a scarab beetle from Faberge, which unfolds its beautiful claws and sinks them into the flesh of its user, injecting a substance which will impart immortality. Centuries later, we learn, a Mexican earthquake shakes down the building where the alchemist . . . was still alive. The body of the alchemist is found dead in the rubble, his heart pierced by a stake, of course. The Cronos Device, hidden inside an ancient wooden statue of an archangel, is purchased by an antiques dealer named Jesus Gris (Federico Luppi), who finds the diabolical toy, winds it up, and watches with terror as it attaches itself to his skin and makes him, he later discovers, immortal. This is the stuff of classic horror films, and “Cronos,” written and directed by a 29-year-old Mexican named Guillermo del Toro, combines it with a colorful Latin magic realism. There is also an undercurrent of fatalism and sadness in the film, flowing from the relationship of the old antiques dealer and his granddaughter Aurora (Tamara Shanath), who loves the old man even after an embalmer makes some gruesome alterations on his undead body.

Elsewhere in the city, a dying industrialist (Claudio Brook, favorite Mexican actor of Luis Bunuel) obtains the journal of the ancient Spanish alchemist, and learns of the Cronos Device. He imports his American nephew (Ron Perlman, of TV’s “Beauty and the Beast”) to track down and obtain the device, setting the plot into motion. Perlman brings a comic element into the film, whistling “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” in a way that for the first time finds sinister undertones in the tune But “Cronos” is not really about plot. It is about character. One of the curious things about immortality in fiction is that it almost always seems to be possessed by those unworthy of it. The typical immortal is not a young and cheerful person who wishes to spend eternity doing good, but an old, embittered miser who wants to live long enough to see compound interest make him a billionaire.

CAST

There is always something shameful, in these stories, about being unwilling to die when your time has come. Those dark feelings are at the heart of del Toro’s story, made more poignant

CREW

INFO

Eduardo Noriega

Jacinto

Narrated

Marisa Paredes

Carmen

Written

Federico Luppi

Dr. Casares

David Muñoz

Junio Valverde

Santi

Antonio Trashorras

Irene Visedo

Conchita

because the antiques dealer is a good man who has had immortality with all of its incon-

Running time

Guillermo del Toro

Country

Music

Javier Navarrete

Cinematography

Guillermo Navarro

Edited Production company

veniences thrust upon him, while the industrialist is a cadaverous monster and the

Federico Luppi

108 minutes Spain Mexico

Language

Spanish

Luis De La Madrid Canal+ España Tequila Gang

nephew is a goon. The heart of the story is the love that persists between the little granddaughter and the immortal old man, after everything begins to go horribly wrong.

Sogepaq Anhelo Producciones El Deseo

REVENGE STORY In this revenge story, the ugliness of human nature is revealed once again

All good horror movies have a sense of humor,

Guillermo Del Toro’s stylish and original take on the vampire legend is one of the most

usually generated by the tension between their terrible subjects and the banality of everyday life (see the embalming scene for a demonstration). What Latin horror films also have is a undercurrent of religiosity: The characters, fully convinced there is a hell, may have excellent reasons for not wanting to go there. The imagery is also enriched by an older, church-saturated culture, and for all its absurdity “Cronos” generates a real moral conviction. If, as religion teaches us, the purpose of this world is to prepare for the next, then what greater punishment could there be, really, than to be stranded on the near shore? “Cronos” won the grand prize in the Critics’ Week at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival, and nine Mexican Academy Awards, including best picture and director. In a bravura prologue, a 16th Century alchemist constructs a weird clock-like device which enables him to live on into the 1930s before he is killed in a collapsing building. But the discovery of a corpse suspended upside down in his apartment suggests his bid for immortality has been bought at the usual price - the sacrifice of human blood - and that whoever comes into possession of the Cronos is in for a hard time of it.

strangely overlooked and underrated films of the 1990’s. It’s films like this that make me want Cue the arrival of Jesus Gris (Lubbi), an old antiques seller who runs a shop in Mexico with only his granddaughter for company. After a stream of beetles escape from a hole in one of his statues, he discovers, nestling inside, the Cronos - an encrustation of gold, spun around a living vampiric insect which feeds off his host by stabbing metal spikes into their veins. Jesus soon clamps the creature to his chest and begins to surprise his family with his sprightly air and youthful looks. The plot involves a battle for the Cronos fought between Jesus and a dying cadaverous industrialist, and the scenes in the industrialist’s chamber - which looks like some sort of hi-tech morgue - provide some of the strongest and most authentically baroque images in the film. Otherwise, especially towards the end where del Toro slips into more familiar genre territory, the imagery has a trashier feel. But with spot-on pulp dialogue, simple, poetic imagery and gothic sound effects, this is nothing short of a near-masterpiece.

to watch films that are fresh, unpredictable and so rich in symbolism that it has leaves lots of room for discussion. Del Toro was little more than an amateur director at the time this made, but in spite of that he’s more than given the professionals a run for their money.

From the prologue, it becomes clear that del Toro possesses an extraordinary vivid pictorial sense.

Every scene is adeptly filmed, and the way

The struggle between the small good and the

that Del Toro makes contrasts between locations and the two central families is a pleasure to observe. The way that the film switches language from English to Spanish and back again is indicative of the fact that this is a rich tapestry of contradictions and one that makes intelligent comments on many subjects, from obvious ones such as addiction, to more concealed ones, such as a commentary on family; stemming from the way that the roles of child and parent become reversed when our hero becomes afflicted with the vampire-like curse. For the story, Del Toro has taken the classic vampire theme and mixed it with essences of mechanics and the human lust of being able to live forever. The story follows Jesús Gris, an antique dealer that lives with his granddaughter Aurora and wife Mercedes. One day, our hero happens upon a mechanical scarab that latches itself onto his palm, causing him to bleed. Jesús slowly gets addicted to the mystical scarab, but there’s someone else that wants it and will stop at nothing to get it. The mythology of the scarab is told in a great opening sequence that sets the viewer up for an intriguing and original horror story. The film retains the intrigue that it sets up in it’s intro for the duration, and Del Toro ensures that his audience is always left guessing and wanting to see what comes next. The film works due to interesting characters that the audience is able to feel for, and is constantly interesting by the way that Del Toro handles the contrasts that the story presents.

main story line of the film. Because when we face a fantasy movie, we often have some slight changes in the changes in the characters in it. Because the positive person you see at the beginning is not a positive person, and the negative person you see at the beginning is not necessarily a negative person. So when Sandy first appeared, the doubt might be greater than the horror. People always tend to unravel this mystery rather than being driven by fear. But all this will be restricted by a condition.

First of all, let’s look at the environment in which this evil story took place. It was the

And this girl has her own sweetheart, but this sweetheart has not become the ultimate

Spanish Civil War. Therefore, the orphanage in the war-torn environment is certainly not a peaceful place. People’s fear of the situation is no less than the panic after their own lives are threatened. . In the age of war, survival is the most important thing, and everything else can be discarded.

companion. Because he also has his own secret. The Dean, Ms. Carmen, has always maintained an unclear relationship with him, and all this happened in the company of a kind doctor.

Obviously, the little protagonist had already met from the beginning, but he didn’t know it. His own ignorance does not mean that this incident did not happen. The little boy still noticed a strange breath in this seemingly unfamiliar environment. And this kind of breath also drove him to uncover an event that happened not long ago.

These intricate relationships did not disrupt the

explaining step by step why the older child is so irritable that no one dares to mess with it. The arrival of Carlos is destined to be revealed. When he and Carlos gradually got acquainted, he still didn’t confide his heart to Carlos, because many things in the children’s world can divert their attention, and those unforgettable things will soon be diluted by the beauty in front of them. Because that child fell in love with the girl who cooked for them.

Therefore, the environment where everyone is in danger may breed some small contradictions. And once these contradictions spread, there will be a catastrophe.

The film first uses the results as a guide,

small evil under the shadow of the big evil ended very well. Many people will like the ending of this story, so the dark corners under this story will be ignored by us. But the things that happened, especially the things that happened in the evil environment, will remain in our memory forever. Sinful places will be banned forever, and those kind-hearted people will eventually be favored. Perhaps this is our biggest expectation.

Greed will eventually cause disasters for yourself, such as the principals greed for desire, but the final result is death. The doctor said that he believed in science, but he still drank the glass of wine. The bad boy finally got the gold he had longed for, but died because of the gold in the end. The girl expects her lover to lead a stable life, but she is eventually killed by her lover. When this hope is ignited, does it mean that disappointment has arrived? Kind people are always treated differently, but we have seen more how important it is to maintain a pure heart during wartime. Maybe it won’t bring you much benefit, but at least it will increase your time to see hope.

WHAT’S THE REASON

Ghosts are more interesting when they have their reasons. They should have unfinished affairs of the heart or soul. Too many movies use them simply for shock value, as if they exist to take cues from the screenplay. “The Devil’s Backbone,” a mournful and beautiful new ghost story by Guillermo del Toro, understands that most ghosts are sad, and are attempting not to frighten us but to urgently communicate something that must be known so that they can rest. The film takes place in Spain in the final days of the Civil War. Franco’s fascists have the upper hand, and in a remote orphanage the children of left-wing families await the end. An enormous crucifix has been put on display to disguise the institution as a Catholic school, and the staff is uneasily prepared to flee. In the courtyard, a huge unexploded bomb rests, nose-down, like a sculpture. “They say it’s switched off,” says one of the kids, “but I don’t believe it. Put your head against it. You can hear it ticking.” A young boy named Carlos (Fernando Tielve) has been brought to the school in a car riding across one of those spaghetti Western landscapes. He is assigned Bed No. 12--”Santi’s bed,” the children whisper. Santi is a boy who died, and whose ghost is sometimes seen, sometimes heard sighing. Carlos learns the ways of the school, its rules, the boys who will be his friends and his enemies. The most ominous presence is Jacinto (Eduardo Noriega), a former student who is now the janitor. The orphanage is run by Dr. Casares, elderly and self-absorbed, and by Carmen (Marisa Paredes), who has a wooden leg.

Now this film. Del Toro is attracted by the horror genre, but not in thrall to it. He uses the There is also Conchita (Irene Visedo), the sexy maid; Jacinto sleeps with her but also goes through the motions of courting Carmen, because he suspects she has gold hidden somewhere on the grounds, and he wants it. This information unfolds gradually, as Carlos discovers it. He also begins to see the ghost, a sad, gray indistinct figure who seems associated with a deep water tank in the basement. There’s a creepy sequence in which the other boys dare Carlos to make a forbidden nighttime expedition to the kitchen, to bring back water; he is venturing into the world of the orphanage’s dreaded secrets. What happens, and why, must remain a secret. The Mexican director del Toro is a master of dark atmosphere, and the places in his films seem as frightening as the plots. He is only 36; he began with “Cronos” (1994), the story of an antiques dealer who invents a small, elegant golden beetle that sinks its claws into the flesh and imparts immortality. In 1997 he made a Hollywood film, “Mimic,” starring Mira

Stay by my side as my light grows dim, as my blood slows down and my nerves shatter with stabbing pain, as my heart grows weak and the wheels of my being turn slowly

golden beetle, the mimic insects, the school ghost, not as his subjects but as the devices that test the souls of his characters. Here he uses buried symbolism that will slip past American audiences not familiar with the Spanish Civil War, but the impotent school administrators and the unexploded fascist bomb do not need footnotes, nor does the grown child of the left, who seduces the younger generation while flattering the older for its gold. Carlos I suppose is the Spanish future, who has a long wait ahead. Such symbols are worthless if they function only as symbols; you might as well hand out nametags. Del Toro’s symbols work first as themselves, then as what they may

CAST

Narrated

Guillermo del Toro

Running time

122 minutes

Trevor Bruttenholm

Music

Marco Beltrami

Country

United States

Selma Blair

Liz Sherman

Cinematography

Guillermo Navarro

Language

English

faced with the difficult question of portraying the ghost. A wrong step, and he gets bad laughs. The ghost in “The Devil’s Backbone” is glimpsed briefly, is heard sighing, is finally seen a little

Karel Roden

Grigori Rasputin

Edited

Peter Amundson

Jeffrey Tambor

Tom Manning

Production company

Lawrence Gordon/

Brian Steele

Sammael

Bridget Hodson

llsa Haupstein

better as a dead boy.

their tension, but a chain of events that have a logic and a poetic justice. “The Devil’s Backbone” has been compared to “The Others,” and has the same ambition and intelligence, but

sound dumb, but it was uncanny in its ability to transcend the creature genre, to create complex characters and an incredible interior space (an abandoned subway station).

INFO

Hellboy

John Hurt

What happens at the end is not the usual action scene with which lesser ghost films dissipate

Sorvino and Jeremy Northam, which trapped them in a subway system with a fearsome bug that mutates out of control. That makes it

CREW

Ron Perlman

stand for, so it does not matter if the audience has never heard of Franco, as long as it has heard of ghosts. Any director of a ghost film is

is more compelling and even convincing.

Corey Johnson

Agent Clay

Jim Howick

Corporal Matlin

Angus MacInnes

Sergeant Whitman

Stephen Fisher

Agent Quarry

James Babson

Agent Moss

Brian Caspe

Agent Lime

Lloyd Levin Productions

BOY FROM HELL

“What makes a man a man?” A friend of Hellboy was a monster summoned from hell by

These two samples can imply that he is born a

the Nazis during World War II. He was really a little boy when he first arrived in the world, and

terrifying killing machine, but he also has some harmless talent, like communicating with

he was rescued by the Allies as soon as he came out and handed over to Professor Trevor Broom Raising, he let Hellboy understand and learn

animals. But such a monster is invisible to normal society, so Professor Brue was asked to conceal the fact that he exists, but at the same time he also used love to enlighten the lonely

everything about humans. Soon, Hellboy grew rapidly and joined BPRD (Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense)

Hellboy’s story starts in 1681. A young girl in East Bromwich, England, is dreamy by nature,

A boy from hell wants to protect mankind he wanted to destroy. A group of freaks that are not accepted by society must fight against crazy demons. Adapted from the best-selling comics in the United States, “Hellboy” is directed by the director of “Blade Warrior 2” Guillermo del Toro, and hired the special effects masters of “MIB Star Wars 2” to create visual effects. Hellboy is a terrifying creature that was awakened by one of the scientists after a failed experiment by the German Nazis during World War II. He is the son of Satan, the god of death. He has red skin and a long tail because of strangeness. Because of his appearance, he was adopted by an American agent.

Hellboy. But such a Hellboy actually didn’t understand the reason why he was a freak. The professor didn’t tell him until 1959. In shock, Hellboy decided to never discuss his origin.

loves German literature, and especially likes fairy magical things. So far, she is no different from ordinary girls. But one day, she met a high-level demon, and she had a close

In the vast majority of BPRD, there is only

relationship with it. After that, she was full of shame and panic and spent the rest of her life in deep regret. After she died, the devil took her

a mysterious but equally lonely woman, Liz Sherman joined BPRD. She fell in love with him, but at the same time, Hellboy also slowly felt the heartache...

body to hell, and in her belly, there was already an evil seed waiting to come to earth.

one non-human agent, until Abraham Sapien joined in 1978, he immediately became Hellboy’s best friend and partner. In 1988,

mine once wondered. Is it his origins? The way he comes to life? I don’t think so. It’s the choices he makes. Not how he starts things, but how he decides to end them.

In the fateful year of 1944, her child was called back to Earth by Grigli Yefimovich Rasputin but was later placed there, This unfortunate child was officially named Hellboy. Hellboy grew up very fast, his body and curiosity grew bigger every day. Hellboy has some magical places, like his stone-like right hand. The professor spent a lot of time unable to analyze this hand, only knowing that it is very hard and powerful (this is actually a “The Right Hand of Doom’s stone gloves, it has the ability to destroy the world), he is almost not afraid of pain.

“So there we were, an unwanted child and an unready father. The name we gave him was not, perhaps, an appropriate one. But we would all call him by it in the years to come. That name was Hellboy.”

HELLBOY 2004

A demon, raised from infancy after being conjured by and rescued from the Nazis, grows up to become a defender against the forces of darkness.

“Tom Manning: Hey, fish stick.

Directed by

Guillermo Del Toro

Screenplay by

Guillermo Del Toro

Story by

Guillermo Del Toro

Don’t touch anything.

Produced by

Lawrence Gordon

Abe Sapien: I need to touch it to see.

Distributed by

Sony Pictures Releasing

Mike Richardson Lloyd Levin Revolution Studios Columbia Pictures

Tom Manning: See what? Abe Sapien: Past, future. Whatever this object holds.”

STORYLINE At the end of World War II, Nazi officers Karl Ruprecht Kroenen and Ilsa Haupstein start an experiment to raise the forces of Hell trough Russian dark mystic Rasputin on a Scottish island, but it’s interrupted by an allied commando guided by professor Trevor “Broom” Bruttenholm. He prevents killing the human-demonic half-blood, which was accidentally created and raises this “Hellboy”, while rising to head of a secret C.I.A.-linked U.S. agency Bureau of Paranormal Research, which secretly studies and uses the occult, including supernatural freaks. As “father” Broom is aging , he hand-picks brilliant, sensitive Agent John Myers as new minder-companion, as regular “warrior” Agent Clay can’t empathize and lacks flexibility mental. Hellboy is quite a handful, regularly spotted by worried civilians on unauthorized excursions, especially to pyro-telekinetic freak friend in a mental asylum. Johnny, Hellboy, and Clay team up on missions against paranormal threats with aquatic-bionic freak Abe ...

“I told Sarah’s story

The answer is that the narrative design largely

GUILLERMO DEL TORO THE WORLD AS CABINET

gets in the way of the limbic disturbances of the originals. In the books, Schwartz’s matter-of-

exactly as I promised.

fact, unadorned, often whimsically inconclusive narration of ghastly turns of event is balanced

“You have to believe the magic to see it.”

by the harrowing, hallucinatory illustrations by Stephen Gammell. The movie’s director, André Øvredal, takes a conspicuous pleasure in the

For guillermo del toro, it all starts with the eye—or, more accurately, the lens. His keen Vision processes everything , judging it, Molding it to his intellectual and

I wrote about the pale,

slightly heightened lyrical reconstruction of a

creative Purpose, turning it to his interests and Obsessions, exquisite and grotesque, and

narrow and clichéd but myth-steeped sliver of American adolescence, but evokes far less of it

crafting it into an endless procession of indelible, unique images—some on the world

lonely girl who wrote

in the explicitly horror-centric sequences. In shoehorning the movie’s own characters, plots,

stage, some utterly private. Most private of all are his phenomenal notebooks, full of pointed observations, random thoughts, sketches from life, and wondrous drawings.

stories in the dark.

and themes into them, he sacrifices cinematic

At first glance, they appear to resemble those of another polymath, Leonardo da Vinci.

style. There are some briefly jolting moments (a famous faceful of spiders, a pale being that

A true modern Renaissance man with stunning capacity, vast interests, and endless

And how she was

engulfs one character in her amorphous stomach, a chopped-up corpse that reassembles

enthusiasm, Guillermo del Toro invites such a comparison. Like Leonardo, Guillermo is an artist with wide interests and talents who can be hired but not bought and who

turned into a monster

itself and skitters to attack) and one particular

approaches the way he lives with a passionate aesthetic sense.

set—the basement of a mental institution—that delivers chills. But Øvredal’s sense of horror is

From each of his many guides, Guillermo selects bits and pieces, playing the role of Dr.

neither notably stark nor significantly

Frankenstein and the monster both, becoming the scientist who fashions himself into

ornamental; it’s nearly textureless, as if it had been squeezed from a tube. The framed tales of

something imultaneously shocking and beautiful. He combines the darkness of Lovecraft, the formalism of Hitchcock, the wildness of Fellini. His distinct palette is equal parts Richard Corben, Johannes Vermeer, Edvard Munch, and his beloved symbolists— Félicien Rops, Odilon Redon, Carlos Schwabe, and Arnold Böcklin. Guillermo is an

May those who accept their fate be granted happiness?

the macabre don’t come near delivering the uncanny creeps of the pulpy originals.

May those who defy it be granted glory?

The movie is dominated by its dramatic framing element, the story of Stella and her friends, which cleverly, sincerely, blatantly, yet narrowly

omnivore, or more accurately, a creature who absorbs everything that draws his interest and transmutes it into something all his own. Through his sorcery we see the world

The story is continuing.

transformed. His bleak and heartening vision imprints us as indelibly as a tattoo, its

The stoey is alive...

and selectively weaves political elements of the day—the hatred that Ramón endures, the election, the Vietnam War—into the

grimness leavened by compassion, its central characters— often children in emotional

framework. The crucial maneuver of the

isolation— struggling to master a larger world.

screenplay (by the brothers Dan and Kevin Hageman) is one that, fascinatingly yet wanly and fliply, mirrors Schwartz’s own method. The books’ author didn’t invent the stories but

Their research is dispatched in a narrative hand wave, a rapid and conventional montage of

but they have also been targets of political

dusty volumes and microfilm, in which the ancient depredations of the Bellows clan—and

libraries over the charge that they were too disturbing for children, and, specifically, that

their cruel, knowing, demagogic scapegoating

they promoted Satanism, cannibalism, and

of Sarah—come easily and instantly to the fore.

other immoralities. There’s no such danger in the movie, which offers some of the stories’

Stella’s discovery of the truth about Sarah becomes a crucial element of the plot. It offers her a pathway to put an end to Sarah’s metaphysical reign of terror, by enabling her to dispel the ghost’s rage by telling the truth about Sarah and her sufferings. The story of “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” is about the telling of stories. In a recurring voice-over, Stella asserts that “stories hurt, stories heal.” Schwartz’s books may long have delighted

by her family.

controversy—threatened with bans from

Some people believed

more gruesome elements but, by framing them skillfully, moralizes their fabrications by

me. Most didn’t.

undergirding them with (fictitious) facts. There’s authentic charm to the fine-grained didacticism of the plot of “Scary Stories,” which embodies the very virtues that it promotes. In the process of displaying the redemptive power

Because, like Sarah, I was a lonely girl who

of factual knowledge, however, the movie flattens and tames the power of imagination.

knew how to tell a

many children,

discovered them, with a folklorist’s enthusiasm,

good creepy story.”

by way of archival research.

SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK 2019

“Stories can teach us to

On Halloween 1968, Stella and her two friends meet a mysterious drifter, Ramón, and uncover a sinister notebook of stories.

Stories heal. Stories hurt. If we repeat

Directed by

André Øvredal

Screenplay by

Dan Hageman

them often enough, they become real.

Story by

Guillermo Del Toro

Produced by

Guillermo del Toro

Kevin Hageman

Sean Daniel Jason F. Brown

They make us who we are. They have

J. Miles Dale Distributed by

care. They make us brave enough to admit

STORYLINE It’s 1968 in America. Change is blowing in the wind...but seemingly far removed from the unrest in the cities is the small town of Mill Valley where for generations, the shadow of the Bellows family has loomed large. It is in their mansion on the edge of town that Sarah, a young girl with horrible secrets, turned her tortured life into a series of scary stories, written in a book that has transcended time-stories that have a way of becoming all too real for a group of teenagers who discover Sarah’s terrifying tomb.

Lionsgate

such power. This I learned on the very

that we need each other.

Give us a home to go back to.”

last autumn of our childhood.

“Well, it is Halloween, CAST / THE KIDS Zoe Colletti

Stella Nicholls

CAST / THE MONSTERS

CREW

Dean Norris

Roy Nicholls

Narrated

Guillermo del Toro

Running time

INFO 108 minutes

Music

Marco Beltrami

Country

United States

Michael Garza

Ramón Morales

Gil Bellows

Police Chief Turner

Austin Zajur

Charlie Steinberg

Marie Ward

Mrs. Hilderbrandt

Austin Abrams

Tommy Milner

Lorraine Toussaint

Lou Lou

Cinematography

Roman Osin

Natalie Ganzhorn

Tom Manning

Deborah Pollitt

Mrs. Steinberg

Edited

Patrick Larsgaard

Matt Smith

Mr. Steinberg

Production company

CBS Films

Karen Glave

Claire Baptiste

Entertainment One

Kyle Labine

Deputy Hobbs

1212 Entertainment

Victoria Fodor

Mrs. Milner

Double Dare You Productions

Anna Drubich

so do you want to see a haunted house?”

Canada Language

English

Sean Daniel Company

PAN’S LABYRINTH

“I’M AFRAID THAT WE WOKE SOMETHING UP.” “Ghostbusters” was more effective and more interesting as a work of political platforming than as a movie, and “Scary Stories” fervently takes part in the same campaign—by means of a

He is instantly suspect, in Mill Valley, because he’s Hispanic, and he’s lying low because he’s evading the draft. The three friends lead Ramón into an eerie local adventure to a dreaded place:

well-developed and engaging dramatic framework that nonetheless overwhelms the horror tales it’s meant to showcase.

the town’s haunted house, the former mansion of the Bellows family (the long-vanished founders of the mill that gave the town its

The time frame of “Scary Stories” cleverly straddles Halloween and Election Day in 1968, which brought Richard Nixon into the White House—in other words, it’s posed between monsters of fiction and monsters of fact, and it

The mainspring of “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,” an adaptation of the three-book series (published between 1981 and 1991) of classic macabre and gory tales gleefully retold by Alvin Schwartz, is, oddly, nearly the same as the one that rebooted “Ghostbusters,” in 2016: the ghost of a cruelly abused woman, locked up in the walls of a Gilded Age mansion, lashes out at the world in revenge. It takes both movies a few warm up scenes to establish their high concept—the reality of the supernatural—and both movies rely on the private sufferings of the ghosts to reveal unredressed historical crimes.

balances the terrors of the supernatural against the ambient ones of the Vietnam War. The movie is set in the fictitious town of Mill Valley, Pennsylvania, where an imaginative, literary-minded, and socially isolated high-school student, Stella, and her similarly awkward friends Auggie and Chuck, don their geeky costumes and head out as if trick-or-treating. The trio, knowing that they’ll have their bags of candy stolen by Tommy (Austin Abrams), a school bully, plan a smelly surprise and a messy counterattack that works like a charm, until the big brute and his friends—including, to Chuck’s surprise, his older sister, Ruth (Natalie Ganzhorn), a stereotypically popular blond girl—chase them menacingly. The three friends escape by slipping into a car at the drive-in (showing “Night of the Living Dead”), where a young man from out of town, Ramón (Michael Garza), is taking refuge from the police.

2006

name). Legend has it that the ghost of the family’s daughter, Sarah, is locked inside; lures children to the house, by means of the scary stories that she tells through the walls; and then kills them. In the course of their exploration, Stella gets a hallucinatory glimpse of the ancient ghoul and finds a volume of her stories, which, in the movie’s finest inspiration, contains blank pages on which fables begin to write themselves, as if by an unseen hand, in blood-red writing. These tales, it’s soon discovered, are designed to catch the teen-agers of Mill Valley, one at a time, in Sarah’s deadly designs.

In the Falangist Spain of 1944, the bookish

The trio, knowing that they’ll have their bags of candy stolen by Tommy (Austin Abrams), a

young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating

school bully, plan a smelly surprise and a messy counterattack that works like a charm, until the big brute and his friends—including, to Chuck’s

fantasy world.

surprise, his older sister, Ruth (Natalie Ganzhorn), a stereotypically popular blond girl—chase them menacingly. The three friends escape by slipping into a car at the drive-in (showing “Night of the Living Dead”), where a

“You’ll meet her. She’s very pretty,

young man from out of town, Ramón (Michael Garza), is taking refuge from the police. He is instantly suspect, in Mill Valley, because he’s

Directed by

Guillermo Del Toro

Written by

Guillermo Del Toro

Produced by

Guillermo del Toro Bertha Navarro

even though sometimes she’s sad

Alfonso Cuarón Frida Torresblanco

Hispanic, and he’s lying low because he’s evading the draft.

for many days at a time. You’ll see,

The handful of stories in question, attributed to Sarah, are taken from Schwartz’s books, but they differ from the originals in significant ways. The

when she smiles, you’ll love her.”

first, “Harold,” about a scarecrow that’s brutalized by Tommy, the bully, and takes its revenge, sets up both a moral riddle that runs throughout the film—the dangerous emotional

Álvaro Augustin Distributed by

Warner Bros. Pictures

STOEYLINE In 1944 Falangist Spain, a girl, fascinated with fairy-tales, is sent along with her pregnant mother to live with her new stepfather, a ruthless captain of the Spanish army. During the night, she meets a fairy who takes her to an old faun in the center of the labyrinth. He tells her she’s a princess, but must prove her royalty by surviving three gruesome tasks. If she fails, she will never prove herself to be the true princess and will never see her real father, the king , again.

satisfaction of seeing a villain get a definitive and gory comeuppance—and another plot twist, involving authorities who have no truck with the supernatural and suspect a member of Stella’s circle of murder. As the action continues, Stella, who is the bearer of Sarah’s book and so, unexpectedly and suddenly, becomes her sort-of spiritual heir, observes the stories written in blood come to life and consume those around her—and, as a result, looks desperately for a way to put a stop to Sarah’s new compositions.

HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY 2008 A prince of the mythical world starts a rebellion against humanity in order to rule the Earth, and Hellboy his team must fight to stop him from locating the all-powerful Golden Army.

Directed by

Guillermo Del Toro

Based on

Hellboy

Screenplay by

Guillermo Del Toro

gods, destroyed the Earth, and for

Produced by

Lawrence Gordon

what? Parking lots? Shopping

Distributed by

“The humans have forgotten the

Mike Richardson Lloyd Levin

CAST

CREW

INFO

Ivana Baquero

Ofelia

Narrated

Pablo Adán

Sergi López

Captain Vidal

Music

Javier Navarrete

Maribel Verdú

Mercedes

Cinematography

Guillermo Navarro

Doug Jones

The Pale Man

Edited

Bernat Vilaplana

Ariadna Gil

Carmen

Production company

Telecinco Cinema

Álex Angulo

Doctor Ferreiro

Estudios Picasso

Manolo Solo

Garcés

Tequila Gang

César Vea

Serrano

Esperanto Filmoj

Roger Casamajor

Pedro, Mercedes’ brother

Sententia Entertainment

Federico Luppi

King of the Underworld

Pablo Adán

Narrator / Voice of Faun

Running time

119 minutes

Country

Spain

Universal Pictures

malls? Greed had burned a hole in

Mexico Language

Spanish

their hearts that will never be

STORYLINE After saving the world from the evil Russian mystic, Grigory Rasputin, in Hellboy (2004), the red-skinned gun-toting demon and humankind’s strange protector, Hellboy, now struggle to accept that the operations of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence must remain secret. As if that weren’t enough, the powerful Elven-prince, Nuada, is bent on retrieving the fragments of a crown that commands the indestructible Golden Army: an omnipotent legion of clockwork warriors that can destroy all humans. Now, before this new menace, all hope rests on Hellboy and Liz’s old brothers-in-arms, as well as the ectoplasmic being , Johann Krauss. However, the Earth’s supernatural defenders seem to be no match for Nuada’s unstoppable forces. Did Hellboy and the rest bite off more than they could chew ?

filled! They will never have enough!”

THE METAPHOR OF THE DUAL STORY

When returning from her second mission, what

debates about Ophelia’s situation in the film are actually only the hand and foot of the ending

we saw was that the chalk marks would disappear as the door closed. However, when

timing that caused people to question this. If the movie ends in the scene where Ophelia

Messiti and the guerrillas came to her room to find her, they saw her drawing by the bed Mark

returns to the underground world, instead of

of. On the other hand, if Ophelia can really use

The two most important female characters in

jumping back to the scene of bleeding in Messidi’s arms, the audience will probably not

chalk to enter the captain’s locked room, that seems to be an “iron proof ” that fantasy magic

the movie: Ophelia and Messiti, undoubtedly represent the two axes of the story. Ophelia

doubt her fantasy experience but can take this The movie is completely regarded as a fantasy

does exist, but this part has not been photographed, that is, we Actually, I don’t

experienced a fantasy test, while Messiti faced the cruel reality. The test. At the beginning of the movie, through the zoom technique, the worlds of Little Worm Spirit and Ophelia were

movie. But I must point out that the timing of the epilogue does strengthen this effect, but it is

know if she really used chalk to get rid of the guards and sneak into the captain’s room. In

constantly switched, showing the difference between the two worlds, until Ophelia slowly entered the fantasy. Since then, two storylines have faintly formed, and many repeated objects

Some people think that the fictitious and real

echo each other. After completing the first task, Ophelia got a key, and Messy also secretly hid a key to the material storage room; when performing the second task, Ophelia must be before the hourglass ends. To complete the mission within, the captain always carries a pocket watch and watches at any time; in the second mission, Ophelia is faced with the temptation of a delicious feast, Mesiti, and the guerrillas and others are also faced with lack of supplies, However, if you act rashly, you will face a greater threat. The dangerous pupil and the captain happened to appear in the same scene and seat when announcing the new material distribution method. After the end of the second mission, Ophelia received a sharp blade, which is a necessary object to the underground world.

not unique or accidental. Dai Toro really deliberately wants the audience to think that “everything may be just Ophelia’s fantasy”. In Ophelia’s second mission, the goat-man gave her a piece of chalk that could make a door on the wall, and finally, she used it again to enter the captain’s room.

If we only look at the result theory, we will ignore the beauty that once existed in many processes. That persistence in ideal things, even if they end in failure, still have far-reaching significance, and they are only for those who understand.

addition, the perspective lens is used in the latter part of the movie to show what the captain sees, but the little girl is talking to herself with the baby, which highlights the fantasy nature. Among the various arrangements for creating virtual and real debates, the least easily discovered is the arrangement of the names of the characters in the movie. The names that Day Toro gave to the main characters are obviously of special significance. The cruel and tyrannical Captain Vidal is obviously just like his name, which is “fatal”. The kind and firm maid, Mercedes, is just as benevolent as her name. Her brother, who led the masses against the tyranny

CAST

of Fascism, is named Pedro, who is named after the famous Spanish director Almodóvar who worked with De Toro. Pedro Almodóvar). Following this path to explore Ofelia’s name, it is hard not to think of the woman of the same name in Shakespeare’s work “Hamlet” who fell into madness because of her father’s death. In Shakespeare’s story, Ophelia finally drowned when she lost her sanity and was still humming a small song before her death. Doesn’t this correspond to Ophelia who died in the lullaby hummed by Messiti in the movie?

CREW

Ron Perlman

INFO

Hellboy

Narrated

Mike Mignola

Running time

120 minutes

Selma Blair

Liz Sherman

Music

Danny Elfman

Country

United States

Doug Jones

Abe Sapien

Cinematography

Guillermo Navarro

Language

English

John Alexander

Johann Krauss

Edited

Bernat Vilaplana

Luke Goss

Prince Nuada Silverlance

Production company

Relativity Media

Anna Walton

Princess Nuala

Lawrence Gordon

Jeffrey Tambor

Tom Manning

Dark Horse Entertainment

John Hurt

Trevor Bruttenholm

Brian Steele

Mr. Wink

Roy Dotrice

King of the Underworld

Pablo Adán

King Balor

Hellboy: I would give my life for her, but Behind the dark and gloomy fantasy story, the whole movie is full of dualistic dialectics and sequential choice of topics. Every character in the film chooses his life like this. Mesiti has to choose to continue to forbear. The captain threw it to the doctor to save the pregnant woman or the child. From the beginning of the Pan, Ophelia’s “Book of Choice”, and The ubiquitous horns of the bedside, the entrance of the maze, the old tree branching into two or two branches, and the uterus that connects the two ovaries. These dualistic alternative images strengthen the subject of “alternative alternatives” in the movie.

Imagination can be the exit

If you agree with the foregoing, Ophelia and Messiti’s encounters in the fantasy and real worlds correspond to each other, then Ophelia criticized Toad in the first mission, “Living here, Eat these insects, grow so fat, and then let the tree die?” It is not difficult to understand it as a criticism of the Spanish regime. In the last task, the choice between morality and life and death also echoes the choice of the guerrillas.

are always mixed with the

Whether Ophelia was finally deceived by the goat man, everything was just fantasy, or she really returned to the underground world, it didn’t change the fact of her physical death. Just like Messiti’s struggle with the guerrillas, despite their small victory at the end of the movie, from the perspective of historical evolution, these actions were ultimately futile. The doctor in the film also said: “You kill him, and then the government sends another person. What’s the difference?” But if so, how should we view these sacrifices and choices? Are these “failed” struggles really just in vain?

IF YOU CANNOT COMMAND, THAN YOU MUST OBEY

of reality or the entrance of another life. The paradox is that if the imagination is to

everything else. Ron Perlman gives a very funny and winning performance as the Tandoori-red anti-hero with the serious cigar habit, the swan-off horns, the mighty specs and the imperceptible nipples: Hellboy, a being from the netherworld who as a fiery imp was discovered by the US army in 1944 and who with other like-minded and like-bodied creatures has joined America’s top-secret battle against dark forces.

escape the unbearable reality, but the constituent elements of the imagination appearance of reality, and the emotion of smuggling is In “Hamlet”, the courtier described Ophelia, who has gone mad, “Although the words are incomprehensible, they can cause reactions in the hearts of those who hear them, and try to find meaning from them.” Shakespeare’s Ophelia “climbs on a horizontal branch and wants to hang the flower crown on it”, so she falls into the water, while Dai Toro asks Ophelia in his film to really make The branches bloomed with flowers. “The princess left only a few small traces on the ground. Only those who know how to look will find out. If we only look at the result theory, we will ignore the beauty that once existed in many processes. That persistence in ideal things, even if they end in failure, still has far-reaching significance and is only for those who know how to understand. Day Toro responded to these questions poetically through this film.

what makes people cold.

“Guillermo del Toro’s last directorial outing was the beautiful-looking Pan’s Labyrinth, an arthouse fantasy fable set in Franco-era Spain featuring imaginary bulbous beasts with tiny little eyes dotted about in unexpected parts of

Fortunately, the slicked colored pens have the possibility of beautification;

their bodies. It was received in awestruck rapture by the world’s press, and left me feeling a little like a Roman Catholic prelate

fortunately, there is always

at a pentecostal ceremony, smiling with thin politeness while all around congregants were

an opportunity for rebirth

getting a Toronto Blessing full in the face.

in the imagined world.

It is a relief, as well as quite exciting, that Del Toro has returned to the action-fantasy thriller series Hellboy, based on Mike Mignola’s comics: it is a crackling enjoyable and exciting sequel, with something that the memory of Pan’s Labyrinth might have entirely erased: a sense of humour. Because Hellboy II is a comedy, as well as and ahead of

This spectacular movie seethes and fizzes with wit and energy, absorbing and transforming influences such as Ghost-busters and even Harry Potter and the secret world of Diagon Alley. At his obviously mature age, Hellboy is incidentally entitled to upgrade his name to adult level, but has decided against it, perhaps because of unfortunate associations with mayonnaise. Hellboy is still working for the government; he’s a maverick and beer- and tobacco-enthusiast just about tolerated by his uptight boss, Tom Manning, played by Jeffrey Tambor. He is very much together with his girlfriend, the pyro-magician who periodically bursts into flames, Liz Sherman (Selma Blair); their relationship had a beauty-and-the-beast piquancy in the first film, but now strains are showing, and the public and the media are not impressed when they discover that this weirdo couple is on the public payroll. One conservative TV commentator notes that theirs is an “Inter-species union–a threat to marriage fuelled by federal funds!”

she still wants me to do the dishes. Prince Nuada: Demon! What are you waiting for? This is what you want, isn’t it? Look at it. The last of its kind, like you and I. If you destroy it, the world will never see its kind again... You have more in common with us than with them. You could be a king... If you cannot command, then you must obey.

To Hellboy’s fury and Manning’s smug satisfaction, the government drafts in a new team leader over Hellboy’s head, an ectoplasmic German called Johann Krauss, who is basically just a wisp of shape-shifting smoke inside what looks like a diver’s outfit. He has to be the most unsympathetic screen German since the businessmen Hans and Fritz in The Simpsons, who buy up the Springfield power plant and make disobliging comments about the local beer. Hellboy playfully mispronounces his name “Kraut” and on being corrected, earnestly notes the final two letters of his name: “SS”. Yet it is Johann who is wiser, in the end. The heroes are ranged against a hateful new demon in the form of Prince Nuada, played by Luke Goss with long silver hair and long silver face, a malcontent from that hidden universe that Del Toro loves to locate just underneath our boring normal world. He is obsessed with getting his hands on a lost and fractured crown that will give him the power to command a mighty and unbeatable golden army. The only faintly restraining influence is his twin sister Princess Nuala (Anna Walton), who is later to conceive a tendresse for Abe, and who physically feels any hurt or affront to her brother in her own body. It is this transgressive love affair that triggers the goofiest and most lovable part of the film: when lovestruck Abe and beerstruck Hellboy start singing along to Barry Manilow’s Can’t Smile Without You.

The battle against Prince Nuada, which is to lead to Co Antrim in Northern Ireland, gives rise to more encounters with weird Del Toro-ish creatures with little eyes in odd parts of their body and clothes. But these mighty

“Wood always remembers it was once a living tree,

contests are always less important and less interesting than Hellboy’s smaller encounters

alive and breathing in both

with lesser monsters, and it is Hellboy’s cheerful conviction that there is no creature who cannot

kingdoms, the one above

be slapped into submission, or simply blasted by his big revolver - the weapon and the belief system giving him a distinct resemblance to Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry. In the underground troll market, Hellboy discovers a very odd female entity breast-feeding what appears to be an infant, which indignantly shrieks: “I’m not a baby; I’m a tumour!”

and the one below.”

“Visionary” is a word too easily applied to fantasy movies, but it sticks easily here, because of the laid-back and likable way the characters are represented; you can envision them actually existing. However obtuse it sounds, they are very human with human failings and human characteristics, and I found myself rooting for the Hellboy and Liz relationship much more fervently than that of any recent romcom. Hellboy 2 is a movie that’s a tingling boost to the senses: and that sense of humour is such a stimulus to the other five.

“You will pay for what happened to my friend down there!”

“I find myself thinking about you even at the most inopportune moments of the day. I feel as if a link exists between your heart and mine, and should that link be broken, either by distance or by time, then my heart would cease to beat and I would die.”

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CRIMSON PEAK 2015 In the aftermath of a family tragedy, an aspiring author is torn between love for her childhood friend and the temptation of a mysterious outsider. Trying to escape the ghosts of her past, she is swept away to a house that breathes, bleeds - and remembers.

A house as old as this one becomes,

Directed by

Guillermo Del Toro

Written by

Guillermo Del Toro

Produced by

Guillermo del Toro

Matthew Robbins

in time, a living thing.

Callum Greene Jon Jashni Thomas Tull

It starts holding onto things...

Distributed by

Universal Pictures

keeping them alive when they

STORYLINE Edith Cushing’s mother died when she was young but watches over her. Brought up in the Victorian Era she strives to be more than just a woman of marriageable age. She becomes enamored with Thomas Sharpe, a mysterious stranger. After a series of meetings and incidents she marries Thomas and comes to live with him and his sister, Lady Lucille Sharpe, far away from everything she has known. The naive girl soon comes to realize not everything is as it appears as ghosts of the past quite literally come out of the woodwork. This movie is more about mystery and suspense than gore.

shouldn’t be. Some of them are good; some of them bad... Some should never be spoken about again.

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There are things that tie them to a place, very much like they do us. Some remain tethered to a patch of land. A time and date. The spilling of blood. A terrible crime. But there are others. Others that hold onto an emotion. A drive. Loss. Revenge. Or love. CAST

CREW

Those, they never go away.

INFO

Mia Wasikowska

Edith Cushing

Music

Fernando Velázquez

Running time

119 minutes

Jessica Chastain

Lucille Sharpe

Cinematography

Dan Laustsen

Country

United States

Tom Hiddleston

Thomas Sharpe

Edited

Bernat Vilaplana

Language

English

Charlie Hunnam

Dr. Alan McMichael

Production company

Legendary Pictures

Jim Beaver

Carter Cushing

Burn Gorman

Holly

Leslie Hope

Mrs. McMichael

Jonathan Hyde

Ogilvie

Emily Coutts

Eunice

Doug Jones

Ghosts of Edith’s mother

Javier Botet

Ghosts of Enola Sciotti

Double Dare You Productions

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CRIMSON PEAK IS AWASH IN THE RED STUFF

But the horror... The horror was for love. The things we do for love

Like the blood-red clay that lends the

touted by its marketers, than a costume version of “Scream,” dressed up in crinoline and top hats. Maybe somewhere in the creative process the plan was to make a period

but has a vein of narrative muck at its core.

inside out. It is a monstrous love and it makes

boasts a gaping hole in the ceiling, no heat, water that runs red from the tap, winds that howl through the halls with a hellish roar and an infestation of black moths. Oh, yes, it is also slowly sinking into the ooze that stains the snow-capped hills scarlet, leading locals to bestow its nickname. In the age of the telegraph, “Crimson Peak” broadcasts its sinisterness early and often. If you haven’t figured out what’s going on well before Edith does, it’s no fault of del Toro’s. And what is going on? It’s no secret that Thomas is after Edith’s money.

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But “Crimson Peak” feels less like a Gothic romance or supernatural mystery, as it’s being

After a prologue set in Buffalo, where the dashing English baronet Sir Thomas Sharpe (Hiddleston) has wooed and wed a wealthy young American, Edith (Wasikowska), the story quickly relocates — along with Thomas, Edith and Thomas’s creepy sister, Lucille (Chastain) — to the ancestral Cumberland home of the Sharpe family. Officially called Allerdale Hall, the rotting family mansion

On the plus side, the prestige cast is a good

like this are ugly, mad, This love burns you and maims you and twists you

monsters of us all. The violent death of her father early in the film, coupled with Thomas’s desperate need to finance his clay-harvesting operation, removes any doubt about his ulterior motives. As for Lucille, what’s eating her is more mysterious, but only slightly. Her dark secret should become apparent ’round about the time the film turns into a slasher flick. You’d be forgiven if you thought this was going to become a ghost story, especially if you’ve seen the trailer. And to be sure, wispy, smoke-like apparitions do regularly rise through the floor and float through the halls, terrorizing Edith. But who these spectres are and what they want remains unclear, at least for a little while.

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THE SHAPE OF WATER

one, and mostly fun to watch, even if Chastain could stand to dial down her Lady Macbeth-like performance, say from 11 to a more reasonable 7 or 8. And the art direction (by Brandt Gordon) is impressive.

full of sweat and regret.

eponymous setting of “Crimson Peak” its name, the movie is a visually striking but sticky thing. Set in 19th-century England, in a decrepit but picturesque manor home, and starring Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain, the film by the stylish fantasist Guillermo del Toro looks marvelous,

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2017

At a top secret research facility in the 1960s, a lonely janitor forms a unique relationship with an amphibious creature that is being held in captivity.

ghost story. It’s not a bad idea, in an age in which restraint and subtlety are routinely left out of scary movies. But the old-fashioned good intentions of “Crimson Peak,” like the house at the center of the film, quickly get swallowed up by puddles of bright red goo.

“She holds him, he holds her, they

Directed by

Guillermo Del Toro

Screenplay by

Guillermo Del Toro Vanessa Taylor

hold each other, and all is dark, all

Though del Toro is a master of macabre visuals, his screenplay (written with his “Mimic” collaborator Matthew Robbins) is filled with cliches, and frequently sets aside

Produced by

is light, all is ugliness, all is beauty,

the supernatural story line—along with any attendant suspense—to focus on blunt tropes more familiar to fans of the violent-psychopath genre. Del Toro uses a lot of old-fashioned camera tricks like wipes (as transitions from scene to scene), and there are

all is pain, all is grief, all is never,

Guillermo del Toro J. Miles Dale

Distributed by

Fox Searchlight Pictures

STORYLINE From master storyteller Guillermo del Toro comes THE SHAPE OF WATER , an otherworldly fable set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1962. In the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is trapped in a life of isolation. Elisa’s life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer) discover a secret classified experiment. Rounding out the cast are Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Michael Stuhlbarg , and Doug Jones.

all is forever.”

also multiple iris wipes (where a circular shape surrounded by blackness homes in on one small image). Del Toro is old-school in his framing and camera moves, in his understanding of spatial relationships. There are times when Edith hugs Thomas, his black coat taking up half the screen, and as the camera moves to the side Edith is slowly engulfed by blackness.

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Unable to perceive the shape of You, I find You all around me. Your presence fills my eyes with Your love, It humbles my heart, For You are everywhere.

CAST

CREW

INFO

Sally Hawkins

Elisa Esposito

Music

Alexandre Desplat

Running time

123 minutes

Michael Shannon

Richard Strickland

Cinematography

Dan Laustsen

Country

United States

Richard Jenkins

Giles

Story

Guillermo del Toro

Language

English

Production company

TSG Entertainment

Doug Jones

The Amphibian Man

Michael Stuhlbarg

Robert Hoffstetler

Octavia Spencer

Zelda Delilah Fuller

Nick Searcy

Frank Hoyt

David Hewlett

Fleming

Nigel Bennett

Mihalkov

Lauren Lee Smith

Elaine Strickland

John Kapelos

Mr. Arzoumanian

Double Dare You Productions

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“It was never too late to exchange the things you

TOUCHING IRREPLACEABLE

believed defined you for something better.”

This is a touching fantasy love story. The rarest thing is that the content of this story is very seductive, the main axis is very clear, and the plot is very complete. If you see a human girl falling in love with a different animal in the water and still be happy, anxious, and sad for them, and hope they have a happy ending, then this is a successful movie, isn’t it?

In 1955, the United States and the Soviet Union

There is a gloomy and dark atmosphere in

Alexandre Desplat’s soundtrack is diverse and

launched a fierce “Space Race” in order to compete for the aerospace throne. After losing a big step to the Soviet Union in 1961, the United States was eager to find a species that could replace humans in the space experience. American Colonel Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon Michael Shannon) caught the special species “Murloc amphibious man” worshipped by local indigenous people in the Amazon River Basin and transported him Go to the government experimental facility in Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland.

the play, but it is also humorous. The colonel’s branch line is especially humorous. He laughed when his newly bought blue-green Cadillac was hit, and he watched at the end. The Murloc said, “You are really a god” is a classic. Elisa put out six eggs, Giles’ bald head was touched by the Murloc, and hair grew out of it.

colorful, and the strings, piano, symphony, and jazz are integrated into a whole, creating a mysterious, dark, thrilling, and happy heterosexual love song. The jazz song “You’ll Never Know” sung by the actress on TV sang Elisa’s heartfelt voice: You will never know how much I miss you and care about you, I can’t hide my love for you... the melody that flows slowly, a little A drop permeated her heart.

Elisa (Sally Hawkins, Sally Hawkins) and her good friend Cerda Zelda ( Octavia Spencer) are the mysterious laboratories night cleaning lady, the Murloc (Doug Jones ), the sympathy-initiated love for the Murloc came quickly but very warmly. Elisa decided to cooperate with her companion neighbor Jiale when she knew the Murloc will be killed for anatomy. Giles (Richard Jenkins) save her love.

The slightly unreasonable thing is that the colonel can investigate the source of the bomb from the guard post but does nothing. The doctor of medicine knows that he is under surveillance but goes out to meet the Soviet spies in a high-profile manner. The most incredible thing is that he actually said Elisa and Zelda rescue fish when he was about to die human facts.

And yet, though this gem is strong, it’s easily scarred... Though beautiful, it’s easily tarnished, if fought over,

Although the plot is full of fantasy colors, the setting of an underwater animal that looks like a Murloc actually fits the origin and evolution of mankind. Fish in the sea are the oldest vertebrates. After they climbed onto land, they slowly evolved into reptiles and mammals and then became primates. The mermaid captured from the Amazon river basin in the film is amphibious, and it also has the ability to learn and perceive. This beast can communicate with Elisa, who exudes kindness.

it may prove deadly. Please use care and handling it.

The narrative in the context of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union can not only draw out the “Murloc” monster but also embed the black history of rejecting blacks and homosexuals, which is really clever. The actors have excellent acting skills as well as excellent tacit understanding. No matter who plays with anyone, they are naturally and smoothly. People can’t help but believe this heart-stirring love affair. In addition to the protagonist, each supporting role also has its own storyline, which is quite rare.

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EGGS, WATER AND OLD MOVIES

the compassion of her husband. She always complains about her husband but still cares for her feelings. At that time, black African Americans had no status and dignity (look at the face of the lemon pie boss expelling blacks). Zelda could only work hard and portray a bright future.

The egg appears many times in the film. It is a life-saving food and an important image that connects Elisa and the Murloc in future life. Many creatures on the earth broke out of the egg to start life, symbolizing “new birth”, which is the meaning of the acquaintance between Elisa and the Murloc. Before the birth of Jesus Christ, the egg was used to express the resurrection of life, which means “rebirth”, and it also represents the restart of life after Elisa and the Murloc escaped into the sea. Human beings are covered in amniotic fluid for more than nine months after birth. 60%-70% of human tissues are water. There are countless images of water in the play. It is life and love. The Vientiane’s life bred by water contains Elisa and Murloc. In addition, Murloc live in the water, Elisa wakes up in the morning and lie down in the water to love herself, Elisa boiled eggs every day, and Elisa and Murloc kiss and make love in the water. The last two People plunge into the sea and return to the water...are closely connected with the “water” here. Even the proverb behind the calendar that Elisa tore off is related to water: Time is a river that flows from the past. The theme music The Shape of Water surrounds the whole film. The water has no fixed shape. It changes shape with the container at any time. It is round when round, square when square, wide when wide, narrow when narrow... It can be shaped into Lin Lin’s appearance, so humble and gentle, is like the way Elisa and the Murloc treat each other and the love they have for each other.

Elisa is an orphan and a mute girl. She and her two friends are both disadvantaged groups in society. They are little people seeking food and clothing under the giant wheel. They warm each other and take care of each other, forming a strong friendship. In the latter part, the Murloc ate the cat and escaped in fear of crime. He stood in the theater and watched the movie (this play may also be the same as the previous one). This scene is similar to the scene in ancient Rome. Just like a Murloc who was captured by humans for use and abuse, he silently watched without moving, as if thinking about his own destiny. THE DISTANCE BETWEEN DREAM AND REALITY Elisa’s gay neighbor, Giles, is an illustrator. He has superb drawing skills and lost his job because of his advanced photography skills. He has been fiddled with by his boss many times. When he is not young, he still lives in his heart. In order to get close to the owner of the dessert shop (Morgan Kelly), he bought a

Although Dimitri is Mr. Robert Hoffstetler, the undercover medical doctor of the Soviet Union, he really admires the intelligent and sentimental Murloc species and refuses to let him be destroyed by the United States and the Soviet Union. Colonel Richard is tyrannical and innocent. Even if he is a bad guy, he is only a poor army (male) man who was manipulated by General Hoyt and Great Times. Because Zelda, Giles, and the doctors were unable to live the life they wanted, seeing that the weak woman Elisa could be so firm and brave in order to understand and save the Murloc, the dream in her heart rested on her and the Murloc, and decided to help them both. Really human appearance.

“You deserve better than this.

bunch of unpalatable lemon pie, and finally, he insulted himself. Alas, only Elisa who really

You deserve people who value you.

takes care of him is a good friend. for more than nine months after birth. Zelda,

You deserve to go somewhere where

a close friend who has known her for many years, contributes to the family but never gets

you can be proud of who you are.”

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TOUCHING IRREPLACEABLE Murloc resemble humans, with dorsal fins, webbed fingers, and huge eyes. The body has dark green markings. As long as the mood fluctuates, it will emit a little blue light. The body has the ability to quickly recover. It can also treat human wounds with a touch, and even repair necrotic cells to regenerate hair. He is worshiped as a god in the Amazon River, and now American generals and colonels use him as an “asset” to study him and deprive him of his freedom. Elisa was abandoned by the river when she was a baby. She has no father or mother and can’t speak. She lives upstairs in the big theater and does night shift cleaning. Although she has two friends, she is still a marginal person from the lower class of society. Without a lover, she can only love herself in the morning when she is lonely. The Murloc was captured and bullied by the colonel, which made Elisa sympathize with him and gave her care with boiled eggs. And the monster that suddenly appeared from the water was so close to the appearance of human beings. He knew how to accept Elisa’s care, how to appreciate music, and tap dancing. Murloc did not see her incompleteness and did not discriminate against her, making Elisa a complete Women, the soul is also close to it. Elisa was very excited when she changed into red shoes. It is undeniable that there are many conditions for the two to be in harmony; they cannot speak, are lonely, are connected with each other, and are confined by the general environment... But in a class society where the strong and the weak are bullied, Elisa can see the true soul of the Murloc And rescue without hesitation, that is true love.

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apter ch

“When he looks at me, the way he looks at me... He does not know, what I lack... Or how I am incomplete. He sees me,

“Water is drawn to fire,

for what I am, as I am. He’s happy to see me.

Fire to darkness.

Every time.

Darkness to Silence,

Every day.”

Come, let’s go. To where you must go.” —Hai Hsiang Lang

THREE

THE WALKED THROUGH I T ’ S

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T H E

P L A C E

B E L O N G

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ALL ABOUT MY

THERE’S ALWAYS LIGHT AFTER THE DARK

ALL ABOUT MY

MONSTER

“There’s always light after the dark. You have to go through that dark place to get to it, but it’s there, waiting for you. It’s like riding on a train through a dark tunnel. If you get so scared you jump off in the middle of the ride, then you’re there, in the tunnel, stuck in the dark. You have to ride the train all the way to the end of the ride.” Everyone has stories like this, happy or sad, and hope to walk through this long life in self-awakening. It is not as low as the dust to solve the problem. It’s not that you treat him well, and he must be sincere to you. In a corner of the world, at the moment when the wind passed, how many people were wandering in the trough, working hard for survival. People will always experience unbearable pain, long-distance love, and tears when relatives leave.

Name

MONSTER

Favorite Colors My monster is My monster has

Likes

Dislikes My monster can My monster loves

Looking out the window, snowflakes, a piece of whiteness, and the last piece fell on that piece of soil, leaving only a piece of whiteness for the world. Pure and holy. No matter what kind of suppression in life, I see through the various forms of life, I still work hard to keep my original intention. Although I know how weak the world is, the world is so hot. In the deep night, there is only oneself, nothing else. If you are really sad, cry a lot, and then live your life, just see it through.

My monster lives My monster eats My monster's family My monster is..... My monster's house looks

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139

apter ch

“There are darknesses in

life and there are lights, and you are one of the lights, the light of all lights.” —Bram Stoker, Dracula Born to be lonely, when the first cry in life, it seems to foresee the cold world of life, indifferent to human affection, and use the most innocent and immature cry to fight against the irreversible cold. During the trek of a lifetime, there will always be many fellow travelers, and there will also be many stories. Along the way, it’s good to live your own life well and treat yourself better, because only you can fight the cold world. On the one-way car of life, take a good look at the scenery along the way. You can never go back after you have walked. The scenery you have walked through, the various states of the world you have experienced, are compressed and stored in the album of memory.

“The source of your pain is the false heart residing within your heart. I’ll remove it for you. be who you really are. —Hai Hsiang Lang

The darkness of the world is only through oneself, the pain that must be experienced only through oneself, and the unavoidable loneliness can only be tested through oneself, through the darkness, the dawn will be introduced, and sunlight will be introduced. The pain experienced will definitely become the peak of growth. Tasting loneliness will definitely bring you the depth of your soul. Everything is not too late, as long as you can do it with your heart, the tears may not necessarily be understanding, and the smile maybe happiness.

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Then, once again, you’ll be able to

FOUR

THE FEELING OF WISDOM I T ’ S

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L I K E

T H E

B L A C K

140

OASIS CHURCH

H O U S E

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RESOURCES

“I love Oasis, it’s such a warm and welcoming place. The messages by the pastors are really impactful and it’s one of the most diverse churches I’ve ever been to.”

The church began as a Bible-study group of ten people in Beverly Hills, California. From

“I tried out Oasis for my first time today. What a beautiful place and I loved the worship! I ll definitely be returning.” “The worship here is so amazing, it’s so legitimate and real. People’s lives are changed here for the better and it encourages families

LOS ANGELES PUBLIC LIBRARY 630 W 5th St, Los Angeles, CA 90071 Public domain knowledge. Multimedia sales. Information guides

that community, Philip and Holly Wagner decided to found a church, which had about thirty initial parishioners. One of the original members of the Bible-study group was singer Donna Summer, and more recent members

OASIS CHURCH 634 S Normandie Ave Los Angeles, CA 90005 Festival location/office, festival merchandise, lost & found, customer care personnel

include Viola Davis. The congregation moved to the Oasis Theatre in the 1990s, and to the Wilshire Christian Church during the 2010s.

to come together. I found my home. I have met so many

THROUGH THE DARKNESS FESTIVAL HEAD OFFICE 79 New Montgomery St, San Francisco, CA 94105 Detailed information about the festival, schedule, tours, multimedia, design & administrative departments.

By the 2010s, the church had more than three thousand members. It is known for the

wonderful people here, people I now call my friends. There are so many different ways

diversity of its fellowship. The church issues funds to support international poverty

you can give back and serve people through this church and I think that allows you to grow so wonderfully as a person. In each area

initiatives, including care for widows, orphans, as well as clean drinking water projects. The church also sponsored the star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Jesus Christ, unveiled in 1998, with the intention of creating a “Walk of Faith”. The star was

of the church, it’s growing and I don’t ever see it stopping. Let this church be a light amidst the darkness.”

CONTACT:

TICKETS:

SOCIAL MEDIA:

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located in front of one of the church’s previous locations. Integrity, authentic faith and authentic friendships are built from integrity. Faith that has integrity is personal and integrates our beliefs with our lifestyle. Relationships are built on trust and integrity is a key factor in that trust. If we live with integrity, nothing else matters, if we don’t live with integrity nothing else matters.

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HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN MONSTER CHARACTER For centuries, monsters have been the subject of many stories, movies, TV shows, cartoons, and comic books and this sort of thing has

fascinated mankind and left a lasting impact.

Come up with a name for your monster character. The first step is to think of a name for your monster, it can be as cool, crazy or scary as you like or you can give it a name like Bob or Billy.

Think of what kind of monster it is. When

Choose a place for your monster friend to live. It can be almost anywhere, it can even be in your own neighborhood, there is no limit when it comes to monster making. Write up a profile for your monster. Write up a profile for your monster including his/her appearance, personality, traits, skills/powers, monster friends, enemies, hobbies and where it lives - or if they are a bad guy monster you can replace the hobbies bit with ‘Strategy’ and put ‘Weakness’ at the bottom and write down what their weaknesses are.

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Do a design of what they would look like. You can either do a drawing or painting of what they look like.

MONSTER

Think of some friends or enemies for your monster. If there is more than one monster in your story, you can make them either a friend or enemy of your monster. You can make up your own bad guy monsters for your monster character to fight if he/she is a hero, or his/her own minions if he/she is a villain or villainous.

coming up with a monster character it is important to think about what kind of monster it is, it could be a vampire, a Were-creature, an alien, a zombie or even a wacky monster species of your creation. The only limit is your imagination.

CREATE YOUR OWN

Write stories about your monster. Storytelling is a great visual medium, you can use this to write up lots of stories about your monster and his friends. Touch up the things that need fixing. If there are a few things that need fixing like spelling errors and such, it doesn’t hurt to give it up a touch-up.

Share your creation with the world. Now that you have created your very own monster it is time that you share him/her/it with the world, you can do this by printing out the various different stories you have written about them and reading them with your friends.

And the most important rule is...have fun.

By:

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POSTER DESIGN The poster uses the festival theme which is the mad scientist journal. The poster shows one of the spreads of the journal which also connect to the Monster catalog.

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ADVERTISEMENT DESIGN The Advertisements are a mix of ads for newspapers, magazines, train station, and subways. The ads contain essential information for users to know more about the festival and the way to contact us.

BUSINESS SYSTEM This is the business / stationary system for the Film festival. It communicates the visual system and the theme of the films.

DVD PACKAGE These are the DVD packages for Through the Darkness Film Festival. The festival presents 8 feature films with a total of 8 discs in 4 boxes. The filmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s order in the discs follows the same order as the festival.

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

SIGNAGE SYSTEM The signage system follows the system of the festival. I use the scratch element throughout the system as long as the mysterious atmosphere to show the theme of the festival.

SOUNDTRACK The Soundtrack contains 8 songs from the 8 feature films at the festival. It is a special soundtrack edition with all the songs re-recorded in different studios in LA. Working with Choir groups to present the true soul of Guillermo del Toroâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s films.

TICKETS These are paper tickets. I found that paper tickets give our visitors a good sense of memory. They can use the tickets as bookmarks or just a memorable item to keep. The E-ticket can be found in the App.

SKETCHBOOK The sketchbook is the other sell item. We encourage our visitors to draw or write down their thoughts or imagination of their true monsters. The sketchbook cover uses leather just like the catalog. Inner pages use textural high-quality paper.

WEBSITE The website offers users to get essentials information for the festival and let visitors purchase the tickets. Website Prototype: https://xd.adobe.com view/66a2b118-d1d8-498b-8bf6-5ddbf8b8cf49-33f1/?fullscreen

APP The app showcases the same system as the website, but simplifies the layout and navigation for better user experience. Based on the research the sandwich menu is on the bottom right for better user experience.

SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN Social media campaign contains Twitter, facebook, and Instagram.

FACE MASKS Other items that can have long lasting value to users are masks. These masks are another limited edition item for the festival.

VINTAGE CAMERA This is Through the Darkness signature camera. The camera has special filters that make photos look mysterious.

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POSTAGE STAMPS

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CANVAS BAG

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An Annot at ed P rocess Journal name: project: course: Instructor:

Hai Hsiang Lang (Alex) The Guillermo del Toro Film Festival GR 425 01: Visual System 2 Hunter Wimmer

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