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B E N E A T H

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B O I L I N G

W I T H

M O N S T E R S

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The Abyss

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B E H I N D T H E F E S T I VA L

F I L M O GR A P H Y

AWA R D S & R E C O GN I T ION S

The Realms

DI R E C T OR B IO

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F I L M S C H E DU L E

T H E DE V I L’S B AC K B ON E

H E L L B OY

PA N ’S L A B Y R I N T H

H E L L B OY: T H E G OL DE N A R M Y

PAC I F IC R I M

C R I M S ON P E A K


The End

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F E S T I VA L R E S OU RC E S

C ON TAC T I N F OR M AT ION

The Odyssey

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S A N F R A NC I S C O

MAP

A L L H A L L OW ’S E V E 2 017

F E S T I VA L P E R K S


To learn what we fear is to learn who we are.

Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House (1959)

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the abyss

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EMBRACING CHILDLIKE CURIOSITY

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he most interesting thing about a child’s curiosity is that the stimuli are often widely unexpected, and random. As children, we often indulged in the collected of stories, of heroes, of insectile shells, of coins, gears or even misshapen rocks, because to a child’s unfettered mind, wonder is at the corner of everything mundane or ordinary. In this film festival, Out of the Darkness, our sole objective is to kindle and grow this unbound curiosity of children in those who believe themselves to be part of a world that hides great danger in darkness, to sow the seeds of hope in those who still see the monsters behind fascist grins and gluttonous stares, to strengthen the goodness in those who find themselves chasing dark dead ends to make a better tomorrow.

Welcome, ye strong fellows, to the heart ofyour own darkness. May you find your way out, with the help of one of the greatest directors of the supernatural fantasy, to escape the darkness and return goodness to this world.

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THE MAN WITH A MILLION MONSTERS

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f ilm prodigy dedicated to Latin American cinema even as his success gave him a ticket to Hollywood, Guillermo del Toro earned a place as one of Time magazine’s 50 Young Leaders for the New Millennium before he

The Master of Highbrow Horror The Atlantic

even made his third film. Guillermo del Toro Gómez; born Oct 9, 1964) is a Mexican film director, screenwriter, producer, and novelist. In his filmmaking career, del Toro has alternated between Spanish-language dark fantasy pieces, such as the gothic horror film The Devil’s Backbone (2001), and Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), and more mainstream American action movies, such as the vampire superhero action film Blade

...a lifelong horror fanboy turned A-list director. The New Yorker

II (2002), the supernatural superhero film Hellboy (2004), its sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008),the monster film Pacific Rim (2013), and the most recent supernatural horror Crimson Peak (2015). Del Toro’s work is characterised by a strong connection to fairy tales and horror, with an effort to infuse visual or poetic beauty. He has a lifelong fascination with monsters, which he considers symbols of great power. Del Toro is known for his use of insectile and religious imagery, the themes of Catholicism and celebrating imperfection, underworld and clockwork motifs, practical special effects, and dominant amber lighting.

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He is also a prolific producer, his producing works include acclaimed and successful films such as The Orphanage (2007), Julia’s Eyes (2010), Biutiful (2010), Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011), Puss in Boots (2011), and Mama (2013). He was originally chosen by Peter Jackson to direct The Hobbit films; he left the project due to production problems but was still credited as co-writer for his numerous contributions to the script. In 2009, in an interview with Charlie Rose, del Toro described his Roman Catholic upbringing as excessively “morbid,” saying, “I mercifully lapsed as a Catholic, I say, but as Buñuel used to say, ‘I’m an atheist, thank God.’” He has also responded to the observation that he views his art as his religion by saying, “It is. To me, art and storytelling serve primal, spiritual functions in my daily life. Whether I’m telling a bedtime story to my kids or trying to mount a movie or write a short story or a novel, I take it very seriously.” Del Toro’s favorite film monsters are Frankenstein’s monster, the Alien, Gill-man, Godzilla, and the Thing. Frankenstein in particular has a special meaning for him, in both film and literature, as he claims he has a “Frankenstein fetish to a degree that is unhealthy,” and that it’s “the most important book of my life, so you know if I get to it, whenever I get to it, it will be the right way.” In an interview with Robert K. Elder for his book The Best Film You’ve Never Seen, del Toro explains his careful methodology: “I’m as thorough and as well-prepared as I can be in my filmmaking, and that came from the discipline of having to work as a make-up effects artist many, many, many times in my life.”

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Werewolves, vampires, ogres, this and that. I feel that monsters are here in our world to help us understand it. They are an essential part of a fable.


Del Toro views the horror genre as inherently

filmmakers can work with Mirada’s artists to

political, explaining, “Much like fairy tales,

create and produce projects that span digital

there are two facets of horror. One is pro-

production and content for film, television,

institution, which is the most reprehensible

advertising, interactive and other media. Mirada

type of fairy tale: Don’t wander into the

launched as a sister company to production

woods, and always obey your parents. The

company Motion Theory.

other type of fairy tale is completely anarchic and antiestablishment.”

Del Toro directed Pacific Rim, a science fiction film based on a screenplay by del Toro and

He is close friends with two other prominent

Travis Beacham. In the film, giant monsters

and critically praised Mexican filmmakers

rise from the Pacific Ocean and attack major

Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro González

cities, leading humans to retaliate with gigantic

Iñárritu.The three often influence each

mecha suits called Jaegers.

other’s directorial decisions, and have been interviewed together by Charlie Rose. In fact,

Del Toro directed “Night Zero”, the pilot episode

Cuarón was one of the producers of Pan’s

of The Strain, a vampire horror television

Labyrinth, del Toro’s most prolific movie of

series based on the novel trilogy of the same

the entire career, while Iñárritu assisted in

name by del Toro and Chuck Hogan. FX has

editing the film that then went on to make

commissioned the pilot episode, which del Toro

millions.

scripted with Hogan and was filmed in Toronto in September 2013. FX ordered a thirteen-

On June 2, 2009, del Toro’s first novel, The

episode first season for the series on November

Strain, was released. It is the first part of

19, 2013, and announced that the series will

an apocalyptic vampire trilogy co-authored

premiere some time in July 2014.

by del Toro and Chuck Hogan. The second volume, The Fall, was released on September

After The Strain’s pilot episode, del Toro

21, 2010. The final installment, The Night

directed Crimson Peak, a gothic horror film

Eternal, followed in October 2011. Del Toro

that he co-wrote with Matthew Robbins and

cites writings of Antoine Augustin Calmet,

Lucinda Cox. Del Toro has described the film

Montague Summers and Bernhardt J.

as “a very set-oriented, classical but at the

Hurwood among his favourites in the non-

same time modern take on the ghost story”,

literary form about vampires.

citing The Omen, The Exorcist and The Shining as influences. Del Toro also stated, “I think

On December 9, 2010, del Toro launched Mirada

people are getting used to horror subjects done

Studios with his long-time cinematographer

as found footage or B-value budgets. I wanted

Guillermo Navarro, director Mathew Cullen

this to feel like a throwback.” Jessica Chastain,

and executive producer Javier Jimenez. Mirada

Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska, and Charlie

was formed in Los Angeles, California to be

Hunnam starred in the chilling, horrific tale

a collaborative space where they and other

that is almost classical in deliverance.

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CHRONOLOGY OF MONSTROUS ATTEMPTS Hitchcock and del Toro aren’t similar artists at all, really, except in their common dedication to purely visual, and visceral, storytelling.

F E AT URE F IL MS DIREC T ED (AL SO CREDITED AS PRODUCER)

F E AT URE F IL MS PRODUCED ( NO D I R E C T I O N I N V O LV E D )

1993

Cronos

1998

Un Embrujo

1997

Mimic

2004

Cronicas

2001

The Devil’s Backbone

2007

The Orphanage (El Orfanato)

2002

Blade II

2008

Insignificant Things

2004

Hellboy

2008

While She Was Out

2006

Pan’s Labyrinth

2010

Biutiful

2008

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

2010

Julia’s Eyes

2013

Pacific Rim

2010

Don’t be Afraid of the Dark

2015

Crimson Peak

2011

Puss in Boots

2017

The Shape of Water

2012

Rise of the Guardians

2013

Mama

2014

The Book of Life

2015

The Thin Yellow Line

2016

Kung Fu Panda 3

2017

Rings

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The director Guillermo del Toro won’t have a feature film out in 2016, but his brand—and his spirit—seem to be everywhere. And indeed, his spirit isn’t only contained in his directorial ventures, but also in his collaborations as a producer, artist and writer.

BIBLIOGR APHY

VIDEO GAMES PRODUCED

2009

The Strain

P.T.

2010

The Fall

Silent Hills

2011

The Night Eternal

Death Stranding

2015 Trollhunters

—Guillermo del Toro

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C R I T IC A L M A S T E R P IE C E S Heather Willis

Even as a small boy Guillermo del Toro

and more recently off the stairs of his latest

was fantastically morbid in both his actions

(co-conspired with Matthew Robbins and

anddesires. Lucky for the world, although

Troy Nixey) masterpiece Don’t Be Afraid of the

del Toro has aged, he has not out grown the

Dark, 2011. Venturing within the sewers, the

uniqueoutlook/ideals he has on life and all of

underworld of Guadalajara was not sufficient

its possibilities. It is through these ideals that

at satisfying the young del Toro’s insatiable,

del Toro has been able, successful at bringing

morbid appetite for dissecting insects and

his thoughts, imaginations, and beliefs as to

other creatures to not simply get a better

“what theworld is” out for the rest of the world

understanding of them, but to absorb the glory

to take part in.

of their inner beauty. It was during this time that delToro’s imagination was fed from a

Through maintaining control of his ideas,his

menagerie of sources made available to him.

visions, and the scenes within a film Guillermo del Toro is able to bring his films to life witha

An avid and eager reader, del Toro took full

realism that transcends his personal overtures

advantage of these reference tools and began

(fingerprints) within each film.

to develop andhone the divine, grotesque skills and techniques collected not only through his treasured comic book collection and ancient stories of myths and legends, but as well as through the prolificknowledge he had gained from studying (ancient) art and anatomy from encyclopedias acquired by his father. His father had also won the lottery duringthis stage of his life, allowing him to collect a vast assortment of animals to aid in his studies, his visualization of what was realistically possible among all different types and forms of life. Del Toro’s movies are definitely a

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Although del Toro was quite the typical boy…

bar above the rest of his colleagues as they are

melting sewer slugs with salt for fun, healso

personal to him, to his life, to his story. He is

possessed an unusual uniqueness, with such

not satisfied, nor is he interested in producing

requests as Mandrake Roots for Christmas (at

afilm with the sole purpose of bringing in

the age of 5) so he could conduct some black

money…being a box office hit. He has spent

magic, that has carried him through his life

his entirelife absorbing everything there is

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to know about “monsters”, fantasy and horror; be it from books/novels, comic books, art, legends, mythology or fables…del Toro has no disconcertations about the genre of his source, but rather, in his own words, he “embraces and enshrines it …looking upon it as though it were a cathedral of possibilities.” danger. I feel he has mastered the ability to There is no escaping del Toro’s macabre

manipulate “shadow play”transitioning to/from

fascination with the afterlife when he invokes a

a dark, unlit area.

childhood memory of his time as a volunteer at the local hospital and stumbles upon a stack of

A secret fantasy/magical world in which one

fetuses waiting to be embalmed. It was in this

finds while trying to escape from the day to day

moment that del Toro realized anyone can be

stresses. I believe del Toro uses such fantasy

robbed of life…even the innocence of a baby.

worlds (scenes) to not only spark the imagination within the viewer, but to spark a memory…to

It is also this memory that is used to set the

transport their mind back to a time when they

moodand carry the overall tone of The Devil’s

personally sought such an escape, to evoke a

Backbone through visuals like laparoscopic

pure and primal emotion from within that tends

photos of a baby in utero during the opening

to get lost, buried asthe stresses of adulthood

credits and the jars of embalmed babies, as well

weigh down on us.

as being the basis behind the use of amber fluid in the basement pool…the final resting

And last, the use of “not of this world” creatures

place for two of the stories characters.

that can move without issue within their world of magic, our world of disbelief and ignorance,

Although del Toro boasts that he does not

and the world betweenwhere things rest nearly

want to produce “repeat” films (resembling

in limbo.

another), he openly admits that his films are “personal and vision-driven”, and there are

For del Toro, the film containing a personal

certain themes that he tends to carry with him

overture within it is just as important as

through the films; be it one of “his” films or

maintaining realism within the creatures and

a film that he has signed onto. These themes

settings. He lives to reveal a bit of himself in

invariably include:

his films by taking bits of actual moments from his life and entwining into the story, adding to

The use of bugs, which I believe represents

the personalization, the realism in his films.

his childhood especially that of histime spent

Through fine tuning his beliefs about fables

in the dark, damp sewers. It is there where he

del Toro has become a master of horror and the

likely noticed the way in which shadows dance

macabre arts; it is the creatures del Toro releases

across surfaces adding an air of mystery and

from his brilliant mind that give his films life.

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The real world is where the monsters are.

Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians #1 : The Lightning Thief (2006)

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FESTUM MONSTRAE When it comes to supernatural fantasies, it’s always good to schedule your visits to horror much ahead of time, especially since this is going to be the monsterfest of your life.

08:00 PM

08:00 PM

08:00 PM

SHOWING:

SHOWING:

SHOWING:

OCTOBER 25, 2017

OCTOBER 26, 2017

OCTOBER 27, 2017

The Devil’s Backbone

Hellboy

Pan’s Labyrinth

A boy moves to an

A scientist adopts a

A young girl moves into the

orphanage, only to find that

mysterious child from

middle of nowhere with

he was replacing another

another world, one whose

her mother and step-father,

boy who went missing the

destiny is either destroy or

only to discover whole

day a bomb landed on the

save the entire world.

hidden realms existing

orphanage.

alongside brutal and unforgiving reality.


08:00 PM

08:00 PM

08:00 PM

SHOWING:

SHOWING:

SHOWING:

OCTOBER 28, 2017

OCTOBER 29, 2017

OCTOBER 30, 2017

Hellboy 2: the Golden Army

Pacific Rim

Crimson Peak

Alien monsters invade an

A young, aspiring author’s

An elven prince resents

unprepared earth, forcing

life is turned upside

his father’s decision to

mankind to forge giant

down when she falls in

retain peace in a world

warriors of metal, neurons

love with a mysterious

of cruel humans, and

and electricity. A man who

foreigner. Suddenly, all

mercilessly pursues

has lost a brother, a girl

her childhood nightmares

the ultimate weapon of

whose childhood trauma

come true, and her own

mankind’s annilhilation.

cannot be escaped and

life hangs in balance when

The only thing in his path,

their brave comrades battle

she discovers the terrible

however, is humanity’s

to keep the planet safe.

truths about her new

foremost savior.

family.


What is a ghost? A tragedy condemned to repeat itself time and again? An instant of pain, perhaps. Something dead which still seems to be alive. An emotion suspended in time. Like a blurred photograph. Like an insect trapped in amber. 22

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T HE DE V IL’ S B A C K BONE 2 0 0 1

R ATED “R”

After a 12-year-old, whose father has died in the Spanish Civil War, arrives at an ominous boys’ orphanage, he

FA N TA S Y / D R A M A / WA R

discovers the school is haunted and has many dark secrets that he must uncover.

S PA N I S H / E N G L I S H

M A R I S A PA R E D E S , EDUA RDO NORIEGA, FEDER ICO LU PPI, F E R N A N D O T I E LV E

S C R E E N P L AY / S T O R Y

GUILLERMO DEL TORO

CINE M AT OGR APH Y

G U I L L E R M O N AVA R R O

MUSIC

J AV I E R N AVA R E T T E

EDITING

LUIS DE L A MADRID

20 APRIL 2001

RUNS 106 MINUTES

SUMMARY Also known as El Espinazo del Diablo (Spanish)

DTS | DOLBY DIGITA L

After losing his father, 10-year-old Carlos arrives at the Santa Lucia School, which shelters orphans of the Republican militia

1.85 : 1

and politicians, and is taken in by the steely headmistress, Carmen, and the kindly professor, Casares.

M A D R I D F I L M S . A . , S PA I N

Soon after his arrival, Carlos has a run-in with the violent caretaker, Jacinto. Gradually, Carlos 35 MM (KODAK V ISION

uncovers the secrets of the school, including

250D 5246, VISION 500T

the youthful ghost that wanders the grounds.

5279)

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CAST

CREW

Marisa Paredes

Carmen

Eduardo Noriega

Jacinto

Federico Luppi

Dr. Casares

Fernano Tielve

Carlos

Íñigo Garcés

Jaime

Irene Visedo

Conchita

José Manuel Lorenzo

Marcelo

Francosco Maestre

El Puerco

CASTING

Sara Bilbatua

Junio Valverde

Santi

PRODUCTION DESIGN

César Macarrón

Berta Ojea

Alma SE T DECOR AT ION

María del Pilar Revuelta

COSTUME DESIGN

José Vico

PRODUCTION

Agustín Almodóvar Pedro Almodóvar Rosa Bosch Guillermo del Toro Bertha Navarro Michel Ruben

WRITING

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Adrián Lamana

Gálvez

Daniel Esparza

Marcos

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Guillermo del Toro Antonoio Trashorras David Muñoz


L OC AT IONS

MPA A R AT ING

Talamanca del Jarama, Madrid, Spain

Sex & Nudity : 6/10

Cubillo de Uceda, Guadalajara,

Violence & Gore: 7/10

Castilla-La Mancha, Spain Profanity Alcohol/ Drugs / Smoking Fright / Intense Scenes: 10/10

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S e p t e m b e r

2 0 ,

2 0 1 3

THE VOL ATIL IT Y THAT IS LURK ING IN THIS ORPHANAGE IS MUCH DEEPER THAN THE MERE POL ITICS OF MEN.

A MO S T H A UN T ING TA L E Dorothy Burk, PopMatters

“What is a ghost? A tragedy doomed to repeat

The volatility of the orphanage, like the

itself time and time again? An instant of pain,

volatility of the bomb that lies at its center,

perhaps. Something dead which still seems to

is initially hidden from view. It seems like a

be alive. An emotion, suspended in time. Like a

desperate, sad place, but how else might an

blurred photograph. Like an insect trapped in

orphanage caught in the midst of a civil war

amber.”

seem? No, the volatility that is lurking here is much deeper than the politics of men. From the

—Narrator, The Devil’s Backbone

film’s very opening scenes, where we see young Jaime kneeling over the body of a dying boy, we

“This is The Devil’s Backbone the way the devil

know that there is evil within this place that

intended it to be seen,” says director Guillermo

cannot be easily known or expunged.

del Toro in his introduction to the Criterion Collection release of his weighty, gothic horror

For Carlos, adjusting to life at the orphanage

masterpiece. The Devil’s Backbone (El Espinozo

is tough. No one has told him that his parents

del Diablo) is set in a leftist orphanage in a rural

are dead, but it quickly becomes apparent to

area during the final year of the Spanish Civil

him that he might not be in the orphanage if

War. Young Carlos (Fernando Tielve) is brought

they weren’t. A relatively well-educated child

to the orphanage by his tutor, a republic leftist

who arrived at the orphanage with a tutor,

fighter who can’t care him after the death of the

he also becomes a target for the other boys,

boy’s father in battle.

especially Jaime.

Doctor Casares and Carmen run the home for orphans, where they are also concealing a large stash of the leftist cause’s gold. Because of its strong connections to the resistance movement, the orphanage becomes a target for Franco’s troops. When Carlos arrives in the outer courtyard, he immediately notices a large, undischarged bomb sunken into the ground. While a teacher assures Carlos that the bomb has been defused and won’t explode, it’s power as a signifier remains.

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It’s on this first trip to the kitchen that we hear about the one who sighs, an unknown phantasm that haunts the orphanage at night. Though none of the boys have said as much, Carlos wonders if the mystery of the one who sighs is somehow connected to the disappearance of one of the orphans, Santi. While Carlos begins to investigate the mysterious ghost, the adults around him navigate through a maze of political and relational conflicts. Carmen, whose wooden leg is another of del Toro’s metaphorical devices, struggles to match her leftist idealism against a newer, more totalitarian mindset represented by the orphanage’s groundskeeper, Jacinto. The potency of their growing ideological conflict is matched only by the angst of their secret and rather incestuous relationship. Lovely young teacher Conchita (Irene Visedo) emerges as one of the film’s chief moral victors, but also as one of its most tragic characters. What makes The Devil’s Backbone extraordinary is that it doesn’t rely on the supernatural scare tactics of most horror movies. Instead, del Toro opts for magical realism, where the everyday world is altered by some thing or event that seems explicitly imaginary but has become real. Carlos is guided on his quest to discover some essential kernel of truth about the orphanage by a

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ghost his own age; a child who has obviously been subjected to some brutality. In the end, the horror is not that something otherworldly has violated the innocence of a child, but that it is precisely someone non-magical, someone completely human who is revealed as a beast worse than any monster a special effects artist could dream up. The influence of Spanish gothic romance is clear in many of del Toro’s narrative and creative decisions. By reinventing gothic tropes or employing them in unfamiliar locations, the director is able to make clear ties to the sort of fairytale nostalgia that works as the ideological prop behind magical realism. In an interview on the bonus features disc included with the collection, del Toro reveals that what makes the

nuances and powerful moments of melancholy

fairytale elements in the film powerful is their

float out of each film, striking the viewer with

situation against moments of great darkness.

that indescribable sentiment so often inspired by magical realism.

The Devil’s Backbone ends with the same voiceover with which it began. As the narrator asks us, “What is a ghost?”, we weigh the

THE DIRECTOR’S CUT

description with which he presents us. The words, already powerful at the beginning of the

As with so many of del Toro’s apparently

film, have earned a new melancholy. No matter

fantastical imaginings, the inspiration for Santi’s

how many times you’ve seen what del Toro calls

ghostly presence was drawn from his own real-

his “first film”, you can’t help but feel the shiver

life experience. As a child, del Toro says, he

run up your own backbone as the narrator softly

made a pact with the monsters in his bedroom,

intones that a ghost is “an emotion, suspended

overcoming his night terrors by befriending the

in time”.

apparitions that haunted his waking dreams. So when, at the age of eleven, he heard the sound of

B E H I N D T H E D E V I L’ S B A C K B O N E

his deceased uncle sighing in the room where he had once lived, rather than being terrified by the

The story of a child taken to a new, dangerous

experience, he stored the memory away, keeping

place during the Spanish Civil War is repeated

it, nurturing it, until one day it could be used to

in Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), which del Toro says

creative ends.

is the sister film to The Devil’s Backbone. In

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fact, the director insists that the viewer watch

This has always been a key to del Toro’s work—

them together in order to best understand the

the triumph of sympathy and melancholia

films and their parallel, “rhyming” structure. We

over terror. No wonder critic Roger Ebert

tried this viewing experiment and can assure

described The Devil’s Backbone as “a mournful

you that it pays to listen to del Toro. Surprising

and beautiful ghost story [that] understands

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that most ghosts are sad, and are attempting

are inherently political. As del Toro told Time

not to frighten us but to urgently communicate

magazine in 2011, “Much like fairy tales, there

something that must be known so that they can

are two facets of horror. One is pro-­i nstitution .

rest.” Significant, too, that the ghostly presence

. . the other is completely anarchic and anti-

is here seen through what appears to be a veil

establishment.” Opening with the question

of tears, echoing the watery motif that ripples

“What is a ghost?” The Devil’s Backbone equates

throughout the movie, a nod perhaps to the

the legacy of history with the mythology of the

traditions of the Japanese kaidan-eiga (ghost story

living dead, providing a powerful metaphor for

film), along with the masklike white face of Santi,

the way in which the past informs the present,

which evokes the ghost of Noh theater.

and therefore shapes the future. Within this paradigm, a ghost may be “a tragedy doomed

The critic J. Hoberman has astutely described

to repeat itself time and again . . . An instant of

The Devil’s Backbone as “an experiment in

pain, perhaps. Something dead which still seems

antifascist super­­naturalism,” a phrase that neatly

to be alive.”

encapsulates the recurrent themes that haunt del Toro’s work: the ghosts of history, the freedom of

At the time of its release, many critics compared

fantasy, the imperative of choice, the relationship

The Devil’s Backbone to Alejandro Amenábar’s

between the “real” and the “imagined.” At its

more widely seen war-inflected ghost story The

heart lies the conviction that horror and fantasy

Others (2001), although by the time del Toro was “presenting” J. A. Bayona’s The Orphanage several years later, it had become clear that The

This has always been a key to del Toro’s work— the triumph of sympathy and melancholia over terror.

Devil’s Backbone was the more influential work. This willingness to confront pain and to forge his own cinematic dictionary has informed the blend of innocence and brutality that is a trademark of del Toro’s phantasmagorical cinema. From the crushing addictions of Cronos, whose aging antihero is reduced to licking blood from the tiled floor of a public toilet, to the redemptive fantasy of Hellboy, whose titular demon takes an industrial grinder to the horns of his head in a bid to take control of his destiny, del Toro has returned compulsively to these twinned themes. In the case of The Devil’s Backbone, it is the pain and tragedy of the Spanish Civil War that underwrite both the sense of horror and the spirit of defiance that ring throughout the movie. It is a film about repression that celebrates, albeit in heartbreaking fashion, the irrepressibility of the innocent human spirit.

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AWA R D S

ACADEMY OF SCIENCE FICTION,

A L M A AWA R D S

F A N TA S Y A N D H O R R O R F I L M S

2002

2002

Best Horror Film (Saturn Award)

Outstanding Foriegn Film

Guillermo del Toro (nominated)

Guillermo del Toro Agustin Almodรณvar

A M S T E R D A M F A N TA S T I C F I L M

CINร NYGMA: LUXEMBOURG

F E S T I VA L 2 0 0 2

I N T E R N AT I O N A L F I L M F E S T I VA L 2002

Grand Prize of European Fantasy film in Silver

Grand Prize of European Fantasy film in Gold

Guillermo del Toro

Guillermo del Toro

F O T O G R A M A S D E P L ATA 2002

Best Movie Actor Eduardo Noriega

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This film marks as one the purest forms of del Toro’s vision for monsters in the innocent world. It has had it fair share of exemplary reviews and nominations, few notable awards to its girth.

G O YA AWA R D S

G É R A R D M E R F I L M F E S T I VA L

2002

2002

Best Costume Design

International Critics Award. Special Jury Prize,

José Vico

and Youth Jury Grand Prize Guillermo del Toro

Best Special Effects David Martí Montse Ribé

Y O U N G A R T I S T AWA R D S

Reyes Abades

2002

Emilio Ruiz del Río Carmen Aguirre Best Young Actor in an International Film Fernando Tielve

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What makes a man a man? 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. 34

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2 0 0 4

HE L L BO Y

R AT E D “ P G -1 3 ”

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

A C T I O N / FA N TA S Y / H O R RO R

against the forces of darkness.

ENGLISH

RON PERLM AN, DOUG JONES, SELMA BLAIR, JOHN HURT

S C R E E N P L AY / S T O R Y

GUILLERMO DEL TORO

CINE M AT OGR APH Y

G U I L L E R M O N AVA R R O

MUSIC

M A R C O B E LT R A M I

EDITING

PETER AMUNDSON

2 APRIL 2004

RUNS 122 MINUTES

SUMMARY DTS | DOLBY DIGITA L | SDDS

When the Nazis attempt to use black magic during the last days of World War II, a monkey like demon is thrown into the real world.

1.85 : 1

Professor Trevor Bruttenholm discovers the creature and rescues it from any danger. The creature grows up and goes by the name of

PR AGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC

Hellboy. Joining the Allied forces, Hellboy eventually

35 MM (KODAK V ISION2 200T

grows to adulthood, serving the cause of good

5 217, V I S I O N 2 5 0 0 T 5 21 8 ,

rather than evil. Working in secrecy, Hellboy

VISION 250D 5246)

works to rid any supernatural threat. When some familiar faces from the past appear, it’s going to take more than Hellboy to stop them.

35 MM (KODA K V ISION 2383)

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CAST

CREW

Ron Perlman

Hellboy

John Hurt

Trevor “Broom”

Bruttenholm

Selma Blair

Liz Sherman

Rupert Evans

John Myers

Karel Roden

Grigori Rasputin

Jeffrey Tambor

Tom Manning

Doug Jones

Abe Sapien

Brian Steele

Sammael

Ladislav Beran

Karl Ruprecht Kroenen

Biddy Hodson

Ilsa Haupstein

Corey Johnson

Agent Clay

Jim Howick

Cpl. Matlin

Angus MacInnes

Sgt. Whitman

PRODUCTION

Lawrence Gordon Lloyd Levin Mike Mignola Patrick J. Palmer Mike Richardson

WRIT TEN BY

Guillermo del Toro Mike Mignola Peter Briggs

CASTING

Jeremy Zimmermann

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Stephen Scott

SE T DECOR AT ION

Hilton Rosemarin Simon Wakefield

ART DIRECTION

Marco Bittner Rosser Peter Francis James Hambidge Simon Lamont

COSTUME DESIGN

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Wendy Partridge


L OC AT IONS

MPA A R AT ING

Barrandov Studios, Prague, Czech

Sex & Nudity : 1/10

Republic Violence & Gore: 7/10 National Monument, U Památníku 1900, Vitkov Hill, Czech Republic

Profanity 5/10 Alcohol/ Drugs / Smoking: 1/10 Fright / Intense Scenes: 8/10

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A p r i l

2 0 0 5

YES, HE’S THAT R ASPUTIN

S UP E R HE R O F R OM T HE V IL L A IN’S L A IR Roger Ebert

The movie, based on comics by Mike Mignola and directed by the Mexican-born horror master Guillermo del Toro (“Cronos,” “Blade II”), opens with a scene involving Nazis, those most durable of comic book villains. In a desperate scheme late in World War II, they open a portal to the dark side and summon forth the Seven Gods of Chaos—or almost do, before they are thwarted by U.S. soldiers and Prof. Bruttenholm (John Hurt), who is President Roosevelt’s personal psychic adviser. Nothing slips through the portal except a little red baby with horns and a tail; he spits and hisses at the professor, who calms him with a Baby Ruth bar, cradles him in his arms and raises him to become mankind’s chief warrior against the forces of hell. Meanwhile, the psychic practitioner Grigori “Hellboy” is one of those rare movies that’s not

Rasputin (Karel Roden), who is working for

only based on a comic book, but also feels like

the Nazis, is sucked through the portal and

a comic book. It’s vibrating with energy, and

disappears. Yes, he’s that Rasputin.

you can sense the zeal and joy in its making. Of course it’s constructed of nonstop special

We flash forward to the present. The professor,

effects, bizarre makeup and a preposterous

now in his 80s, is told he will die soon. Two

story line, but it carries that baggage lightly;

of his old enemies are inexplicably still the

unlike some CGI movies that lumber from

same age, however: a Nazi named Ilsa (Bridget

one set piece to another, this one skips

Hodson) and a weirdo named Kroenen

lightheartedly through the action.

(Ladislav Beran), who is addicted to surgical modifications on his body. In an icy pass in

And in Ron Perlman, it has found an actor who

Mondavia, they perform ceremonies to bring

is not just playing a superhero, but enjoying

Rasputin back from the other side, and they’re

it; although he no doubt had to endure hours

ready to rumble.

in makeup every day, he chomps his cigar,

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twitches his tail and battles his demons with

Cut to a secret FBI headquarters where

something approaching glee. You can see an

Hellboy lives with the professor and an aquatic

actor in the process of making an impossible

creature named Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) -- a

character really work.

fishboy who got his name because he was born

OU T OF T H E DA R K N E S S F I L M F E S T I VA L


Hellboy’s life is a lonely one. When you are 7 feet tall and bright red with a tail, you don’t exactly fit in, even though he tries to make himself look more normal by sawing his horns down to stumps

the day Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. The professor is showing the ropes to young FBI agent Clay (Corey Johnson) when the Nazis attack a museum and liberate a creature imprisoned inside an ancient statue. This creature, a writhing, repellent, oozing mass of tentacles and teeth, reproduces by dividing and will soon conquer the Earth unless Hellboy can come to the rescue. Which he does, of course, in action sequences that seem storyboarded straight off the pages of a comic book. Hellboy gets banged up a lot but is somehow able to pick himself up off the mat and repair himself with a little self-applied chiropractic; a crunch of his spine, a pop of his shoulders and he’s back in action. Abe the fishboy, who wears a breathing apparatus out of the water, is more of a dreamer than a fighter, with a personality that makes him a distant relative of Jar-Jar Binks. Hellboy’s life is a lonely one. When you are 7 feet tall and bright red with a tail, you don’t exactly fit in, even though HB tries to make himself look more normal by sawing his horns down to stumps, which he sands every morning. He is in love with another paranormal, Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), a pyrokineticist who feels guilty because she starts fires when she gets excited. There is a terrific scene where Hellboy kisses her and she bursts into flames, and we realize they were made for each other because Hellboy, of course, is fireproof. The FBI, which is occasionally accused of not sharing its information with other agencies, keeps Hellboy as its own deep secret; that droll actor

39


Jeffrey Tambor plays the FBI chief, a bureaucrat who is just not cut out for battling the hounds of hell. He has some funny set-up scenes, and indeed the movie is best when it’s establishing all of these characters and before it descends to its apocalyptic battles. Hellboy battles the monsters in subway tunnels and subterranean caverns, as Liz, Clay and Abe the fishboy tag along. I know, of course, that one must accept the action in a movie like this on faith, but there was one transition I was utterly unable to follow. Liz has saved them all from the monsters by filling a cave with fire, which shrivels them and their eggs into crispy s’mores, and then—well, the movie cuts directly to another cave in which they are held captive by the evil Nazis, and Hellboy is immobilized in gigantic custom-made stocks that has an extralarge hole for his oversized left hand. How did that happen? Never mind. Doesn’t matter. Despite his sheltered upbringing, Hellboy has somehow obtained the tough-talking personality of a Brooklyn stevedore, but he has a tender side, not only for Liz but for cats and kittens. He has one scene with the FBI director that reminded me of the moment when Frankenstein enjoys a cigar with the blind man. He always lights his stogies with a lighter, and Tambor explains that cigars must always be ignited with a wooden match. That’s good to know when Liz isn’t around.

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AWA R D S

ACADEMY OF SCIENCE FICTION,

F A N G O R I A C H A I N S AW AWA R D S

F A N TA S Y A N D H O R R O R F I L M S

2005

2005

Best Make Up

Best Make Up/Creature FX

Jake Garber

Chad Waters

Matt Rose

Matt Rose

Mike Elizalde

Mike Elizalde

Best Supporting Actress (2nd place)

B R A M S T O K E R AWA R D S 2005

Selma Blair

Best Score (2nd place) Marco Beltrami

Screenplay (nominated) Guillermo del Toro

Best Actor (3rd place) Ron Perlman

Best Supporting Actor (3rd place) John Hurt

Best Screenplay (3rd place) Guillermo del Toro

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This movie was unlike pretty much another superhero movie out there. If you hadn’t noticed, it is a fantastic comic book franchise, too.

G O L D E N S C H M O E S AWA R D S

I M A G E N F O U N D AT I O N AWA R D S

2004

2004

Best Sci-Fi Movie of the Year (2nd place)

Best Director : Feature Film

Guillermo del Toro

Guillermo del Toro

Mike Mignola

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A long time ago, in the underground realm, where there are no lies or pain, there lived a Princess who dreamed of the human world. She dreamed of blue skies, soft breeze, and sunshine. 46

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2 0 0 6

PA N ’ S L A B Y R IN T H

R ATED “R”

In the falangist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an

FA N TA S Y / D R A M A / WA R

eerie but captivating fantasy world.

S PA N I S H / E N G L I S H SUBTITLES

I VA N A B A C Q U E R O , S E R G I LÓPEZ, DOUG JONES

S C R E E N P L AY / S T O R Y

GUILLERMO DEL TORO

CINE M AT OGR APH Y

G U I L L E R M O N AVA R R O

MUSIC

J AV I E R N AVA R E T T E

EDITING

BERNAT VIL APL ANA

27 M AY 20 0 6

118 M I N U T E S

DTS | DOLBY DIGITA L |

SUMMARY

SDDS

Also known as El Laberinto del Fauno 1.85 : 1

Set in the times of the Spanish Civil War, this is the story of a young girl named Ofelia. She is IMAGE FILM S.A., B A R C E L O N A , S PA I N

a girl who has a passion for fairy tales, which causes her to see one during her trip to a forest that is not quiet. Left to her own devices, Ofelia

35 MM (KODAK VISION2 2 0 0 T 5217, V I S ION 2 5 0 0 T 5218, V ISION 250D 5246)

creates an imaginary world of her own to escape the cruel and harsh realities of the world. When she encounters a faun named Pan in this other world, she must complete three tasks in order to

35 MM | D-CINEMA

obtain immortality according to the legend of a long lost fairy princess.

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CAST

CREW

Ivana Baquero Ofelia

PRODUCTION

Victor Albarran Belen Atienza

Sergi López Vidal

Alvaro Augustin Alfonso Cuaron

Maribel Verdú Mercedes

Guillermo del Toro Bertha Navarro

Doug Jones

Fauno / Pale Man

Frida Torresblanco David Ebner

Ariadna Gil Carmen

Edmundo Gil Elena Manrique

Álex Angulo

Doctor Ferreiro S C R E E N P L AY

Guillermo del toro

STORY

Guillermo del toro

CINE M AT OGR APH Y

Guillermo Navarro

MUSIC

Javier Navarette

EDITING

Bernat vilaplana

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Eugenio Caballero

SE T DECOR AT ION

Pilar Revuelta

COSTUME DESIGN

Lala Huete

CASTING

Sara Bilbatua

Manolo Solo Garcés César Vea Serrano Roger Casamajor Pedro Ivan Massagué

El Tarta

Gonzalo Uriarte Francés Eusebio Lázaro Padre Francisco Vidal

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Francisco Vidal

DA R K N E S S


L OC AT IONS

MPA A R AT ING

Belchite, Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain

Sex & Nudity : 2/10

Segovia, Castilla y Leon, Spain

Violence & Gore: 9/10

Sierra de Guadarrama mountain

Profanity 6/10

range, Madrid, Spain Alcohol/ Drugs / Smoking: 5/10 Fright / Intense Scenes: 8/10

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A u g u s t

2 5 ,

2 0 0 7

EMBR ACING THE DARKNESS, SORROW AND BRUTALIT Y OF PAN’S L ABYRINTH

A S P INE - C HIL L ING FA IR Y TA L E Multipe Authors

Del Toro intended Pan’s Labyrinth to be a

Del Toro said. “He represents fascism and the

thematic complement to The Devil’s Backbone,

church eating the children when they have a

his 2001 film set in Spain in 1939. The movies

perversely abundant banquet in front of them.”

have a lot of similarities in their structure and setup, but del Toro says on the Pan’s Labyrinth

The director has also reiterated many times

DVD commentary that the events of September

that while a story can mean different things

11, 2001—which occurred five months after The

to different people, “objectively, the way I

Devil’s Backbone opened in Spain, and two

structured it, there are clues that tell you ...

months before it opened in the U.S.—changed

that it’s real.” Specifically: the flower blooming

his perspective. “The world changed,” del Toro

on the dead tree at the end; the chalk ending

said. “Everything I had to say about brutality

up on Vidal’s desk (as there’s no way it could

and innocence changed.”

have gotten there); and Ofelia’s escape through a dead end of the labyrinth. Pan’s Labyrinth

Del Toro told an interviewer that he was

is one of the greatest of all fantasy films, even

appalled by the Catholic church’s complicity

though it is anchored On

with fascism during the Spanish Civil War. He said the priest’s comment at the banquet table,

There is this initial turmoil of emotions when

regarding the dead rebels—”God has already

the movie progresses, but Pan’s Labyrinth is

saved their souls; what happens to their bodies,

one of those stories you can’t look away from

well, it hardly matters to him”—was taken from

until it’s over, no matter what.

a real speech that a priest used to give to rebel prisoners in the fascist camps. Furthermore, “the Pale Man represents the church for me,”

The fauns and fantasies are seen only by the 11-year-old heroine, but that does not mean she’s “only dreaming;” they are as real as the fascist captain who murders on the flimsiest excuse. The coexistence of these two worlds is one of the scariest elements of the film; they both impose sets of rules that can get an 11-year-old killed.

R O G E R E B E R T, C R I T I C “Pan’s Labyrinth” (2006) took shape in the imagination of Guillermo del Toro as long ago as 1993, when he began to sketch ideas and images in the notebooks he always carries. The Mexican director responded strongly to the horror lurking under the surface of classic fairy tales and had no interest in making a children’s film, but instead a film that looked

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horror straight in the eye. He also rejected all the hackneyed ideas for the creatures of movie fantasy and created (with his Oscarwinning cinematographer, art director and makeup people) a faun, a frog and a horrible Pale Man whose skin hangs in folds from his unwholesome body. The time is 1944 in Spain. Bands of anti-Franco

an empty frog skin behind. Meanwhile, Vidal

fighters hide in the forest, encouraged by news

plays records on his phonograph, smokes,

of the Normandy landings and other setbacks

drinks, shaves as if tempting himself to slash

for Franco’s friends Hitler and Mussolini. A

his throat, speaks harshly to his wife, threatens

troop of Franco’s soldiers is sent to the remote

the doctor and shoots people.

district to hunt down the rebels, and is led by Capitan Vidal (Sergi Lopez), a sadist under

Del Toro moves between many of these scenes

cover as a rigid military man.

with a moving foreground wipe: an area of darkness, or a wall or a tree that wipes out the

Ofelia encounters a strange insect looking like a

military and wipes in the labyrinth, or vice

praying mantis. It shudders in and out of frame,

versa. This technique insists that his two worlds

and we’re reminded of Del Toro’s affection for

are not intercut, but live in edges of the same

odd little creatures (as in “Cronos,” with its

frame. He portrays most of the mill interiors in

deep-biting immortality bug). The faun seems to

a cold blue-grey slate, but introduces life tones

be both good and evil; what are we to make of a

into the faces of characters we favor, and into

huge pile of used shoes, especially worrisome in

the fantasy world. It is no coincidence that the

the time of the Holocaust? But what he actually

bombs of the rebels introduce red and yellow

offers is not good or evil, but the choice between

explosions into the monotone world they attack.

them, and Del Toro says in a commentary that Ofelia is “a girl who needs to disobey anything

What makes Del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” so

except her own soul.” The whole movie, he says,

powerful, I think, is that it brings together two

is about choices.

kinds of material, obviously not compatible, and insists on playing true to both, right to the end.

The film is visually stunning. The creatures

Because there is no compromise there is no

do not look like movie creations but like

escape route, and the dangers in each world are

nightmares (especially the Pale Man, with

always present in the other.

eyes in the palms of his hands). The baroque organic look of the faun’s lair is unlike any

Del Toro talks of the “rule of three” in fables

place I have seen in the movies. When the giant

(three doors, three rules, three fairies, three

frog delivers up a crucial key in its stomach, it

thrones). I am not sure three viewings of this

does so by regurgitating its entire body, leaving

film would be enough, however.

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MIKE PERSCHON, MOVIE BUFF I’ve met a number of people who cannot imagine someone subjecting themselves to an encore viewing, let alone so many they lose count. These viewers dislike Pan’s Labyrinth for its darkness, for the sorrow and tragedy of its ending. They find the brutality of Captain Vidal abhorrent (and well they should). Like Stephen King, they are terrified by the Pale Man. For many, the film’s darkness overshadows the light; consequently, viewers are often repulsed by it. I love Pan’s Labyrinth for its darkness, sorrow, and brutality. Without those harsh elements the film would be a milquetoast modern fairytale, as tame as The Lady in the Water: a tale of wideeyed wonder without the wolf. Fairy tales are often stripped of their darkest and most threatening elements, or transformed into complex morality tales to mirror current values, the victim of an overprotective industry of children’s literature. This is not a new development. To make fairy tales more suitable for young audiences, editors in Victorian England altered the tales, omitting events or elements they deemed too harsh. While many children’s fairy tale collections include a version of Little Red Riding Hood in which the huntsman comes to the rescue before the wolf attacks, the Brothers Grimm’s tale of Little Red Cap describes the “dear little girl whom everyone loved” being “gobbled up” quite suddenly. The wolf eventually meets his demise following an abrupt caesarean section rescue, compounded by a lethal case of massive gall stones courtesy of Little Red Cap, while in another version, Little Red Cap baits the wolf into drowning. In some modern versions of Little Red Riding Hood, the wolf’s violent demise is replaced by a hasty getaway. Patricia Richards, in an article titled “Don’t Let a Good Scare Frighten You: Choosing and Using Quality Chillers to Promote Reading,” notes that the alteration

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Captain Vidal is Del Toro’s gender reversal of the wicked step mother.

Vidal is the giant toad, who has entered the tree out of lustful appetites, slowly killing the tree through its “insatiable appetite” for the pill bugs within. Vidal is a subtle Bluebeard—while he does not actively cannibalize Ofelia’s mother, his obsession with a male progeny is effectively her undoing. The tree was once a shelter for the magical creatures of the forest, as Ofelia’s mother once was shelter for her. Ofelia’s tasks can be seen both as trials to secure her return to her Faerie kingdom, as well as reflections of the harsh realities she experiences. Captain Vidal is Del Toro’s gender reversal of the wicked step mother. Marina Warner notes that in many traditional fairy tales “the good mother dies at the beginning of the story” only

of the wolf’s fate from execution to evasion is

to be “supplanted by a monster.” Here, the

perceived as “less violent and less frightening,

good father is dead, leaving the beast father to

but children found it scarier because the threat

fill the void. From his first moment onscreen

of the wolf remains unresolved.” Rather than

Vidal expresses an authoritarian patriarchal

finding gory or horrific details of devoured

presence, exuding a classic machismo partnered

heroes or drowned villains terrifying, children

with the harsh male violence expressed with

reported they found “stories with no endings as

multiple visual cues: his immaculate fascist

frightening.

military uniform and a damaged pocket watch, allegedly rescued from the field of battle where

If ambiguity over the demise of the villain is

Vidal’s dying father smashed it, so his son would

maintained, then a sense of horror remains.

know the hour of his violent death in combat;

This is a standard trope of the horror movie,

Vidal tells his officers that to die in battle is

utilized for the utilitarian possibility of the

the only real way for a man to die, as he storms

money-making sequel, but artistically for

confidently into a hail of rebel bullets. His

a sense of lingering dread. As a director,

blind confidence that his unborn child is a son

Guillermo Del Toro is well suited to dealing with

bespeaks his utter patriarchy: when the local

horror in his fairy tale; his filmography prior to

doctor asks how Vidal can be so certain that

Pan’s Labyrinth, without exception, depicts a

the unborn child is a boy, Vidal places a ban on

struggle between good and evil, from the subtle

further discussion or inquiry by replying, “Don’t

and nuanced Devil’s Backbone to the comic book

f**k with me.”

morality of Hellboy, to the monstrous villains of Cronos, Blade II, and Mimic.

Vidal’s external brutality proves to be the

The connection between the Tree and Ofelia’s

either the Monstrous Toad or Pale Man could

mother is overt, and intentional, on Del Toro’s

conjure. Friends avoided seeing the movie

most horrific in the film, eclipsing any terror

part. These images are symbolic markers for the

based only on descriptions of Vidal bashing in

sexual union between Ofelia’s mother and Vidal.

a peasant’s face with a bottle, or performing

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torture on a captured rebel, (This second

would lose their significance: her rebellious

atrocity is performed offscreen; the audience

spirit would be nothing more than adolescent

only sees the result of Vidal’s labors). “You

acting-out, a temper tantrum rendered fantastic.

can either make it spectacle or dramatic,” says

However, it is the double-resistance of both

Del Toro in the director’s commentary. In

Ofelia and the rebels in the hills that provide

film, a cut on the cheek or on the temple has

the thematic thrust of Pan’s Labyrinth, the

become commonplace enough that it doesn’t

resistance of Fascism in all its forms. Discussion

even register for the average filmgoer. The

of this film often centers on whether or not

mutilation of Vidal’s face by Mercedes, the

Ofelia’s quests into the realm of Faerie are real.

rebel-sympathizing housekeeper and surrogate

Those who conclude she has imagined them

caretaker of Ofelia, is the sort of violence

conclude her victory is an empty, illusory one.

that “immediately elicits a reaction.” Del Toro deliberately designed the hyperbolic violence of

This misses the point entirely.

Pan’s Labyrinth to be “off-putting, rather than spectacular … very harrowing … designed to

Real or imagined, Vidal and his avatars

have an emotional impact.”

are symbols of Fascism, of unrestrained oppression. Ofelia and the rebels in the

The only time Del Toro utilizes violence for

hills exist to resist. In the smallest action of

spectacle is in the scene where the Captain

refusing to call Vidal her father, to the life-

sews his mutilated cheek back together. The

risking act of kidnapping her infant brother,

camera never turns away from the spectacle of

Ofelia displays a refusal to be cowed in the

the Captain driving in the needle and pulling

face of monstrous evil. This is what Del Toro is

it through, over and over, to illustrate how

concerned with, and it is why his villains are

relentless a monster Vidal is: like the Big Bad

so monstrous.

Wolf (or the Terminator) he will not stop until In the world of Pan’s Labyrinth, disobedience

he is killed.

is a virtue: when Vidal learns of the Doctor’s If the Big Bad Wolf must die to make the horror

betrayal, he is confounded, unable to

a fairy tale, so too must Captain Vidal. While the

understand the Doctor’s action. After all, he

Captain is an imposing onscreen threat, there

is the monstrous Vidal. The Doctor knows

is no question as to the ultimate outcome. The

this man’s reputation—he must realize the

villain cannot simply die, for the violence must

consequence of his action. And yet, he calmly

be hyperbolic: the monstrous toad explodes; the

replies, “But Captain, to obey – just like that –

Pale Man is left to starve in his lair. Mercedes’

for obedience’s sake… without questioning…

reply to Vidal’s request that his son be told the

That’s something only people like you do.” And

time and place of his death is, “He will never

to disobey, to resist the monster, is something

even know your name.” At the end, the Captain

only people like Ofelia, Mercedes, and the

is not merely killed; he is obliterated. Vidal

rebels do. To have them defy anything but a

and his avatars receive their “just reward,” as

true monster would cheapen their resistance.

dictated by the tradition of the fairy tale.

And this is why, despite the difficulty in witnessing the darkness, the sorrow, and the

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To have toned down Vidal and his monstrous

brutality of Pan’s Labyrinth, I would never

twins would be to tone down the layers of

trade the Big Bad Wolf of Captain Vidal for the

menace. Real or imagined, Ofelia’s actions

toothless lawn-dogs of Lady in the Water.

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AWA R D S

A C A D E M Y AWA R D S

B A F TA

2007

2007

Best Achievement in Cinematography

Best Film not in the English Language

Guillermo Navarro

Alfonso Cuarón Bertha Navarro

Best Achievement in Art Direction

Frida Torresblanco

Eugenio Caballero (art director)

Guillermo del Toro

Pilar Revuelta (set decorator) Best Costume Design Best Achievement in Makeup

Lala Huete

David Martí Montse Ribé

Best Make Up & Hair José Quetglás Blanca Sánchez

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This movie won over 97 awards and garnered over 99 nominations. The awards won includes 3 Oscars, 3 BAFTAs, and about every category of award for fantasy, story and make-up

A R I E L AWA R D S ( M E X I C O )

ACADEMY OF SCIENCE FICTION,

2007

F A N TA S Y & H O R R O R F I L M S 2007

Best Direction (Mejor Dirección)

Best International Film

Guillermo del Toro Best Performance by a Younger Actor Best Actress (Mejor Actriz)

Ivana Baquero

Maribel Verdú

Best Cinematography (Mejor Fotografía) Guillermo Navarro

Best Original Score (Mejor Música Compuesta para Cine) Javier Navarrete

Best Art Direction (Mejor Diseño de Arte) Eugenio Caballero Ramón Moya Pilar Revuelta

Best Costume Design (Mejor Vestuario) Lala Huete

Best Make-Up (Mejor Maquillaje) José Quetglás Blanca Sánchez

Best Special Effects (Mejor Efectos Especiales) Reyes Abades Ángel Alonso David Martí Montse Ribé

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It is said that at the dawn of time, man, beast, and all magical beings lived together under Aeglin, the Father Tree. But man had been created with a hole in his heart, a hole that no possession, power, or knowledge could fill. 60

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HE L L BO Y II : T HE GOL DE N A R M Y

2 0 0 8

R ATED “R”

An Elven prince rises out of self-exile to steal a powerful crown to unleash a formidable army against humankind.

FA N TA S Y / D R A M A / WA R

The only thing in his way: a good demon.

ENGLISH

RON PERLM AN, DOUG JONES, SELMA BLAIR, JOHN HURT

S C R E E N P L AY / S T O R Y

GUILLERMO DEL TORO

CINE M AT OGR APH Y

G U I L L E R M O N AVA R R O

MUSIC

DANNY ELFMAN

EDITING

BERNAT VIL APL ANA

11 J U LY, 2 0 0 8

RUNS 120 MINUTES

SUMMARY In this continuation to the adventure of the

DTS | DOLBY DIGITA L |

demon superhero, an evil elf heir breaks an

SDDS

ancient pact between humans and creatures, as he declares war against humanity. Prince Nuada is on a mission to release The Golden

1.85 : 1

Army, a deadly group of fighting machines that can destroy the human race, not even hesitating to kill his own race and father in the pursuit of

D E LU X E , H O L LY W O O D

being all-powerful in his course.

(CA), USA

As Hell on Earth is ready to erupt, Hellboy and his crew set out to defeat the elf prince before 35 MM (KODAK V ISION2

The Golden Army can destroy humanity’s

2 0 0 T 5 217, V I S I O N 2 5 0 0 T

existence, overcoming hurdles of love, loyalty

5218, V ISION 250D 5246)

and destiny. every step of the way.

35 MM (KODAK V ISION 2383)

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CAST

CREW

Ron Perlman

Hellboy

Selma Blair

Liz Sherman

Doug Jones

Abe Sapien / Angel of

Mike Richardson

Death

John Swallow

PRODUCTION

Lawrence Gordon Lloyd Levin Mike Mignola

Chris Symes Seth MacFarlane

Johann Krauss

Luke Goss

Prince Nuada

Anna Walton

Princess Nuala

Jeffrey Tambor

Tom Manning

John Hurt

Trevor “Broom”

Brian Steele

Wink / Cronie / Troll

Roy Dotrice

King Balor

Andrew Hefler

Agent Flint

Iván Kamarás

Agent Steel

Mike Kelly

Agent Marble

Montse Ribé

Young Hellboy

WRIT TEN BY

Guillermo del toro Mike Mignola

CASTING

Jeremy Zimmermann Zsolt Csutak

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Stephen Scott

SE T DECOR AT ION

Elli Griff Zsuzsa Mihalek

ART DIRECTION

Anthony Caron-Delion Peter Francis John Frankish Paul Laugier Csaba Stork Mark Swain Judit Varga

COSTUME DESIGN

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Sammy Sheldon


L OC AT IONS

MPA A R AT ING

Sóskút, Pest, Budapest, Hungary

Violence & Gore: 5/10

Giant’s Causeway, County Antrim,

Profanity: 6/10

Northern Ireland, UK Alcohol/ Drugs / Smoking: 4/10 London, England, UK Fright / Intense Scenes: 8/10 Korda Studios, Etyek, Hungary

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J u l y

1 4 ,

2 0 0 8

HELLBOY RETURNS TO FIGHT FOR MANKIND, BUT THE LINES AREN’T AS CLEAR ANYMORE

S P IR I T U A L I T Y T HR OUGH N A R R AT I V E Ted Pigeon, Slant Magazine

Demon. Born from a womb

While a number of critics are positioning

of shadows, sent to destroy

Hellboy II: The Golden Army in relation to

their world, and you still

director Guillermo del Toro’s forthcoming

believe you belong?

venture into Middle-earth (the director was involved in directing the Hobbit movies at

—Prince Nuada, Hellboy II: The Golden Army

this point), the film sits more comfortably as a companion piece to the director’s last film, Pan’s Labyrinth. The 2006 Oscar-winner was not just formally beautiful, but resonated with deeply realized themes of spirituality

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and the necessity of storytelling. Structurally

of color and movement is the same

and aesthetically, del Toro rendered two

commitment to narrative that ran through

worlds—fascist Spain and a magical fairy

Pan’s Labyrinth. You may not be overwhelmed

world—that couldn’t thrive, grow, or exist

by the thinly drawn Shakespearean character

without the other. He carefully denied the

dynamics or the predictably action-heavy

viewer the pleasure of escaping into myth or

denouement, but this movie is about the

narrative, while also establishing a disjointed “reality,” with persistent intrusions of the

moments in between—the simple, seamless unfolding of narrative energy.

fantastic. This was precisely his purpose: to illustrate that these two worlds are mutually

The film begins similarly to Pan’s Labyrinth,

constitutive and inseparable from one another.

with Professor Broom (John Hurt) reading

By contrast, Hellboy II more outwardly revels

(visualized in silhouettes and weightless

to young Hellboy about a long ago world in its fantasy. It serves up a delicious menu of

figures) filled with elves, trolls, and monsters

goblins, trolls, armies, and angels of death, all

whose tense relationship with humans tees up

brought to life with unparalleled vision. But

both the backstory and the conflict for the film.

even though del Toro is steadfastly focused

The fairy tale creatures and humans settled

on populating his world (which he established

their differences with a truce that would

in Hellboy II’s 2004 predecessor) with as

ensure that humans remain in cities, while

many odd creatures as his mind can dream up,

elves and other like creatures dwell in the

evident also in the film’s swirling compositions

forests. But humans would eventually falter on

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their end of the deal, compelling Prince Nuada (Luke Goss) to return from exile to seize control of the Golden Army. Cut to present-day New York where Nuada and his ill-tempered brute of a minion, Mr. Wink, begin their crusade to reclaim the King’s crown and wage war on humankind. These opening sequences have a sense of mystery and fear about them that, unfortunately, isn’t sustained throughout the film. Here we are granted a glimpse into del Toro’s twisted imagination. His first batch of goodies: Tooth fairies. “It’s kind of cute, actually,” one of the expendable BPRD agents [that’s Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, in case you’re wondering] notes before being devoured alive by a swarm of these creatures. But this is just overture to the symphony of weird slimy beasts Hellboy II will introduce. These visions are interspersed throughout the expository first hour of the film, in which del Toro finely balances character, story set-up, and weird distractions. At Headquarters, Hellboy (Ron Perlman) and Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), now living together, bicker constantly, while “fishstick”

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Although the film depicts surprisingly

Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) tries to mediate.

few humans, del Toro frames humans as

Meanwhile, Agent Manning (Jeffrey Tambor)

a central element in the conflict between

is still trying to keep Hellboy out of public

Hellboy and Prince Nuada, with one bent

sight, despite the big red guy’s craving for

on the destruction of humanity and the

attention and, more importantly, acceptance

other on saving it. (Guess which.) This is all

from the people he protects. These scenes are

standard comic book stuff, for sure, but the

mostly light, sometimes funny, and almost

film occasionally, even subtly hints at the

completely dependent on one having seen

disturbing truth that humanity not only cannot

the first film, which is somewhat refreshing,

be saved, but doesn’t want to be saved. Despite

actually. Del Toro intercuts these (re)

his desire, Hellboy feels little connection

introductions with Prince Nuada’s conquest

to those who he protects; he does not swing

to bring the human world to an end, fiercely

through crowded streets and pose in front

cutting down anyone standing in his way.

of the American flag like Spiderman, or hold

The contrast will undoubtedly not work for

up falling buildings with a smile on his face

some, but these scenes economically establish

like Superman. He does put his life on the

different tones, tensions, and characters that

line for the occasional kitten, though. And the

will eventually collide.

acceptance he craves from the people he works

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sprouts constellations of flowers and white petals, Hellboy realizes that his place among nature and humanity is more complicated than he knows. This scene is the emotional core of the movie and del Toro handles it with a delicate lyricism that is rarely seen in studio cinema. A.O. Scott observed that it has an aura similar to that of a Hayao Miyazaki film, which I take to mean that it locates the sublime in the most intangible, yet profoundly simple images.

The film comes down somewhat after this sequence, never recapturing the same sense of magic. Ultimately, the personal conflicts of the latter half of Hellboy II don’t exude the same energy, nor do they possess the same rhythm that assisted in establishing the film’s more abstract ideas and direct sensations. One could say that Hellboy II misses out on its opportunity to mold Luke Goss’ character into a villain for the ages, especially after the strong opening. Nevertheless, the performances are all excellent, and del Toro still has a few icky creatures up his sleeve to protect is short-lived, until he discovers

near the end—most notably an opportunistic

that he is not so different from the villains he routinely wards off from destroying the world. These themes coalesce midway through the film’s second act, beginning with a giant plant rampaging through the streets of Brooklyn and ending with an unexpectedly hard affective punch. “It’s the last of its kind,” Nuada tells Hellboy as the plant dies before him, a tragically beautiful interlude wherein, for the first time in his life, Hellboy becomes aware of the implications of his choices and his responsibility. He learns, much to his surprise, that there are sides to himself that he was previously unaware of, the kinds of ambiguous shadings that del Toro explored in Pan’s Labyrinth. As the plant shrivels up and

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little goblin dragging a wheelbarrow behind

does define the film, as well as the skill

him and a creepy angel of death whose many

and passion of its creator. In Guillermo

eyes gaze upon Hellboy and Liz from its wings.

del Toro’s worldview, storytelling is not

While the plotline of Liz’s hesitancy to tell

about structure, cohesion, or resolution, but

Hellboy that he is to be a father resonates

about the experience of being in a world, a

effectively enough, the sense of focus begins

place, a mind, and feeling it from the inside

to wane on Nuada’s plotline. It doesn’t help

out. It’s essentially about sensation and

that there are a variety of other subplots that

encountering magic in the everyday world,

must come together, including another love

where such things are often thought to have

thread; this one involving Abe. The sense of

no place. Del Toro believes that storytelling

urgency is also not present in the latter half,

is worth fighting for simply because it is the

and what little of it that there is feels artificial.

defining element of humanity. We may draw distinctions between reality and fantasy, but

While these aspects might seem to detract

del Toro wants to shatter that divide and revel

from the film, Hellboy II’s aesthetic wonders

in the pure experience and immediacy of

put me in too joyous a state to be all that

narrative.

dissatisfied. The film’s highlights aren’t limited to the incredible creature design, but

The elements of his narrative in Hellboy II

extend to its every frame and movement. Del

may not be real, or even deep for that matter,

Toro has a unique ability to create a sense

but del Toro allows them to fill the screen

of space, both in the larger notion of the

and the imagination, reminding that the

film’s “world,” and in its many locales. He

fantasy can become real as much as the real

manages the economy of each shot, conveying

can become fantasy. They bleed into each

necessary story and character details while

other and inform one another. It is in this

also creating a sense of place and atmosphere,

connection that del Toro’s envisioning of

and he does this in the most subtle of ways.

spirituality resides. His sensibilities toward

He assembles such a vivid palette of colors,

the spiritual come through not in the narrative

smoke, and structures, which is most evident

itself, but in his conviction in storytelling and

in the early troll market sequence. Here del

locating the sublime in the strange. Stories are

Toro exhibits his penchant for dreaming up

almost always born out of the same elements,

fantastic characters, but he also shows off his

but the ways in which those elements are

utter mastery with the camera. Moving up and

given life are infinite. In short, Guillermo del

down the crowded streets, through the smoke

Toro’s movies represent an exploration of the

and shadow, all the while immersed in an orgy

possibilities of narrative and the imagination,

of color, his camera (aided by the stunning

where visions both dark and hopeful will

cinematography by Guillermo Navarro) makes

flourish, simply, by the telling of a tale.

sense of it all economically and whimsically. It’s an absurdist’s dream that brings together the imaginative capacity of Terry Gilliam and the formal precision of Alfred Hitchcock. The troll market sequence doesn’t necessarily represent Hellboy II’s narrative stretch or thematic depth (or lack thereof), but it

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AWA R D S

ACADEMY OF SCIENCE FICTION,

F A N G O R I A C H A I N S AW AWA R D S

F A N TA S Y & H O R R O R F I L M S

2009

2009

Best Horror Film

Best Supporting Actor

Guillermo del Toro

Doug Jones

Best Actor Ron Perlman

Best Make Up / Creature FX Mike Elizalde David Marti Montse Ribe Cliff Wallace

Best Wide-Release Film

Best Screenplay (2nd place) Ron Perlman

Best Supporting Actress (2nd place) Anna Walton

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Ever considered a dream project as the one you grew up thinking you’d work on? This was del Toro’s continued fascination for unusual superheroes playing out on big screen, without care or concern if it would be a blockbuster; it had already done what it was supposed to, for him.

G O L D E N T R A I L E R AWA R D S

MOTION PICTURE SOUND EDITORS

2008

2009

Best Action (Nominated)

Golden Reel Award (Nominated)

Hellboy II: The Golden Army Trailer Best Sound Editing: Music in a Feature Film Shie Rozow

Best Sound Editing: Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue and ADR Scott Martin Gershin Martín Hernández Tom Bellfort Robert Shoup (additional adr supervisor) Dave McMoyler (supervising foley editor) Christopher Barnett (sound designer) Bryan Bowen (sound designer) Sergio Diaz (lead dialogue editor) Naiki Rossell (dialogue editor) Paul Conway (adr editor) David Stanke (sound effects editor) Harry Barnes (foley editor) Dominique Devoucoux (foley editor) Nicolas Becker (foley artist) Peter Burgis (foley artist)

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There are things you can’t fight, acts of God. You see a hurricane coming, you have to get out of the way. But when you’re in a Jaeger, suddenly, you can fight the hurricane. You can win. 74

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2 0 1 3

PA C IF IC R IM

R AT E D “ P G -1 3 ”

As a war between humankind and monstrous sea creatures wages on, a former pilot and a trainee are paired up to

ACTION / A DV ENTURE / SCI-FI

drive a special weapon in a desperate effort to save the world from the apocalypse.

ENGLISH

CHARLIE HUNNAM, IDRIS ELBA, RINKO KIKUCHI

S C R E E N P L AY / S T O R Y

GUILLERMO DEL TORO

CINE M AT OGR APH Y

G U I L L E R M O N AVA R R O

MUSIC

R A M I N D J AWA D I

EDITING

PETER AMUNDSON, JOHN GILROY

1 2 J U LY, 2 01 3

RU NS 131 M I N U T E S

SUMMARY DOLBY DIGITA L | DATA SAT | SDDS |

When monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju,

DOLBY ATMOS | DOLBY SU R ROUN D

started rising from the sea, a war began that

7.1

would take millions of lives and consume humanity’s resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon

1.85 : 1

was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge.

T E C H N I C O L O R , H O L LY W O O D (C A ), U S A WA R N E R B R O S . M O T I O N

But even the Jaegers are proving nearly

PICTURE IM AGING, BURBA NK (CA),

defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju.

USA

On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes - a washed up former pilot and

35 M M (SPH ER IC A L) (KODA K

an untested trainee - who are teamed to drive a

V ISION 2383), 70 M M (HOR IZONTA L)

legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from

( I M A X D M R B L O W-U P) ( D UA L -

the past. Together, they stand as mankind’s last

STR I P 3-D) (KODA K V ISION 2383),

hope against the mounting apocalypse.

D-CIN EM A (A LSO 3-D V ERSION )

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CAST

CREW

Charlie Hunnam

Raliegh Becket

Idris Elba

Stacker Pentecost

Rinko Kikuchi

Mako Mori

Charlie Day

Dr. Newton Geizler

Burn Gorman

Herman Gottlieb

Max Martini

Herc Hansen

Rob Kazinsky

Chuck Hansen

Clifton Collins Jr.

Ops Tendo Choi

Diego Klattenhoff

Yancy Becket

Ron Perlman

Hannibal Chau

Mana Ashida

Young Mako

Ellen McLain

Gipsy Danger AI

Robert Maillet

Lt. S. Kaidanovsky

Heather Doerksen

Lt. A. Kaidanovsky

PRODUCTION

Chen On Chu Guillermo del Toro Callum Greene Jon Jashni Mary Parent Jillian Share Thomas Tull

WRIT TEN BY

Guillermo del Toro Travis Beacham (story)

CASTING

Margery Simkin

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Andrew Neskoromny Carol Spier

SE T DECOR AT ION

Peter P. Nicolakakos

ART DIRECTION

Elinor Rose Galbraith Richard L. Johnson Andrew Li Sandi Tanaka

COSTUME DESIGN

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Kate Hawley


L OC AT IONS

MPA A R AT ING

Papenburger Meyer Shipyard, Lower

Sex & Nudity : 1/10

Saxony, Germany (Factory, where the Jaeger are built)

Violence & Gore: 6/10

Pinewood Toronto Studios, Port

Profanity: 4/10

Lands, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Alcohol/ Drugs / Smoking: 3/10 Fright / Intense Scenes: 6/10

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2 0 1 3

GUIL L ERMO DEL TORO CRE ATES A SCI-FI UNIV ERSE YOU’L L WANT TO E XPLORE

E P IC , A MB I T IOU S A ND A C C E S S IB L E Todd Gilchrist, The Verge

Whether or not it sounds like damning the

Jaegers, robots of equivalent size that are

film with faint praise, the greatest virtue of

piloted by two people via a sort of mindmeld

Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim may be that

called a “neural bridge.” The fraternal bond

you can always understand what’s happening,

between Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam,

what the characters are doing, and why they

Sons of Anarchy) and his brother Yancy (Diego

are doing it. After what seems like years of

Klattenhoff) makes them the best monster

convoluted megamovies whose pretzel-like

killers in the Jaeger program — that is, until

twists, turns, and double-crosses confound

Yancy is killed in battle, prompting Raleigh’s

logic and confuse audiences, it’s incredibly

early retirement.

refreshing to watch a film where the setup is simple, the mythology straightforward, and the

Five years later, the Jaeger program lives on

execution consistently clear.

as a shadow of its former self: only a handful of the machines remain, and even fewer

Working on his biggest canvas to date, the

pilots. But when commanding officer Stacker

director of Hellboy and Pan’s Labyrinth

Pentecost (Idris Elba) turns up to re-enlist

introduces an entirely new world to audiences

Raleigh for a final all-out assault on the portal

with a robots-versus-monsters scenario that

in the hopes of saving humanity once and

includes the same sort of nerdy details and sci-

for all, the disillusioned soldier finds himself

fi jargon as its overcomplicated brethren, but

paired up with ambitious novice Mako Mori

under del Toro it all makes sense — and even

(Rinko Kikuchi), whose own past traumas may

better, he makes us care about it.

prove to be the key that unlocks the program’s greatest partnership yet.

The film takes place in the not-too-distant

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future, where a portal unexpectedly opens at

Although all of that might seem complicated,

the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, unleashing

once you know the words “kaiju,” “jaeger,” and

a wave of monstrous, building-sized beasts

“neural bridge,” you understand all you need to

called Kaiju upon the world. (The term

know about Pacific Rim — at least at the outset.

comes from the Japanese movie genre of

What’s interesting about this film’s seeming

the same name, which gave birth to such

simplicity is that it highlights an odd truth

iconic characters as Godzilla, Mothra, and

about cinematic mythologies in general: the

the Cloverfield monster.) In order to combat

more immediately digestible they are, the more

these creatures, humankind overcomes its

interested audiences seem to be in examining

geographic and political differences to create

their edges, uncovering their details, and

OU T OF T H E DA R K N E S S F I L M F E S T I VA L


expanding the world. For example, all we needed to know about Star Wars in 1977 was the Rebels, the Empire, the Death Star, and the Force, and suffice it to say that a couple of universes worth of characters, species, technologies, and even philosophies have since been developed. Compared to the updates and reinventions in Star Trek, Man of Steel, and The Lone Ranger, del Toro’s film is mercilessly streamlined, an exercise in restraint in spite of the fact that all its machinery (literal and metaphorical) was created from whole cloth. Speaking of that machinery, the action — no small part of the film’s appeal — is phenomenal. Each fight evolves from the previous one, feels suitably epic, and actually serves a narrative purpose. After an opening sequence introduces the basic science of each Jaeger, the movie mostly avoids too many unnecessary expository details, instead unleashing the established foundation of technique and technology upon whatever odd-shaped monster might be in a Jaeger’s way. Raleigh’s machine Gipsy Danger, for example, uses an energy cannon, a retractable sword, and a rocket-powered haymaker to combat its opponents. But unlike a James Bond film where the hero advertises a cool gadget, uses it once, and

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then loses or discards it, Gipsy returns to

quality that differentiates Raleigh’s initial

each of them multiple times. It serves as an

swagger from his subsequent humility.)

ongoing reminder that these destructive ‘bots

Meanwhile, the relationship between Martini

are not sentient beings a la Transformers, but

and Kazinsky’s characters, or Mako and

machines with the skills and personalities of

Stacker, reinforces deeper themes within the

the humans piloting them.

film — about parents and children, loss and redemption, and the intangible bonds that

The repetition also gives the Jaegers a certain

form between the unlikeliest people.

kind of believability — a palpable physicality that suggests there are finite limitations to the

Admittedly, del Toro’s film is the sort you

ways they can move, much less to the number

go to in order to watch giant monsters fight

of missiles they can fire.

giant robots, and then incidentally stay for all of that character development and thematic

Like some of the most iconic sci-fi

complexity. Certainly fans of those Japanese

blockbusters, Pacific Rim also has the

kaiju eiga that inspired Pacific Rim will find

advantage of appealing, archetypal

much to enjoy amidst its wanton destruction,

characters and a story that’s both viscerally

which marvelously includes the sight of a robot

and emotionally engaging. Whether or not

scoring a home run off a monster’s forehead

you care deeply about Raleigh, the film’s

with a bat improvised out of a battleship. But

Maverick-esque rule-breaker, del Toro and

again, the beauty and straightforwardness

his co-screenwriter Travis Beacham populate

is deceptive, the simplicity of the film’s

the world of the film with a rich ensemble of

bruising physicality hooking you into its more

different characters, each of whom not only

sophisticated underpinnings.

serve an important function in the narrative, but also provide a dramatic (or comedic)

Ultimately, all Pacific Rim really needed to

counterpoint to one another.

be was a clear-eyed, proficient example of high-concept thrill-ride storytelling, whether

Max Martini and Robert Kazinsky play father-

or not its “original” premise was particularly

and-son Jaeger pilots whose generational

original. But del Toro accomplishes that

contentiousness conceals the importance

task and then some, making one of the most

of deep-rooted connections within a world

satisfying movies of the summer — and one of

largely defined by loss, while Charlie Day and

the best of his career — by creating not just a

Burn Gorman feature as a pair of bickering

new world, but one whose mythology actually

scientists — offering a wealth of scientific

deserves a universe.

mumbo-jumbo, but also exemplifying how people make different, equally significant contributions to a war effort even without stepping onto a battlefield. Raleigh is comparatively the weak link: bland, blonde heroism whose conventional journey provides a nucleus for the more dynamic characters to orbit. (It doesn’t help that Hunnam lacks, or fails to communicate, the

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AWA R D S

A N N I E AWA R D S

AWA R D S C I R C U I T C O M M U N I T Y

2 0 14

2 0 13

Outstanding Achievement in Animated Effects in

ACCA 2nd Place

a Live Action Production

Visual FX team

Michael Balog Ryan Hopkins Pat Conran Florian Witzel

H U A D I N G AWA R D 2 0 14

K E Y A R T AWA R D S

Best Global Director for a Motion Picture

2 0 13

Guillermo del Toro

Best Audio/Visual Technique (2nd place) Warner Bros. Buddha Jones

Best Trailer: Audio/Visual (3rd place) Warner Bros. Buddha Jones

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Even though this film seems slightly non-mythological in its production genre, the monsters and the humanity are still on-point with del Toro’s fairytale heromonster narrative style.

GOLDEN SCHMOES

VISUAL EFFECTS OF THE YEAR

2 0 13

2 0 13

Best Sci-Fi Movie of the Year (2nd place)

Visual Effects of the Year Josh Knoll

BestSpecial Effects of the Year (2nd place)

Best Action Sequence of the Year (2nd place) Every kaiju vs. jaeger battle

INTERNE T FILM CRITIC SOCIE T Y 2 0 13

Best Line of the Year “Today, we are cancelling the apocalypse” Best Action Film Guillermo del Toro Warner Bros

L AS VEGAS FILM CRITICS S O C I E T Y AWA R D S 2 0 13

Best Horror/ Sci-Fi Film Guillermo del Toro

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The things we do for love like this are ugly, mad, full of sweat and regret. This love burns you and maims you and twists you inside out. It is a monstrous love and it makes monsters of us all. 86

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2 0 1 5

C R IMS ON P E A K

R ATED “R”

Trying to escape the ghosts of her past, an aspiring author is swept away by a mysterious stranger to a house that

FA N TA S Y / DR A M A /

breathes, bleeds—and remembers.

HORROR

ENGLISH

M I A WA S I K O W S K A , J E S S IC A C H A STA I N,T OM

S C R E E N P L AY / S T O R Y

GUILLERMO DEL TORO

CINE M AT OGR APH Y

DAN LAUSTSEN

MUSIC

FERNANDO VEL ÁZQUEZ

EDITING

BERNAT VIL APL ANA

HIDDLESTON

16 OCTOBER 2015

119 M I N U T E S

SUMMARY DTS | DOLBY DIGITA L | SDDS

Edith Cushing’s mother died when she was young but watches over her. Brought up in the

1.85 : 1

Victorian Era she strives to be more than just a woman of marriageable age. She becomes

DELUXE, TORONTO,

enamored with Thomas Sharpe, a mysterious

CANADA; FOTOKEM

stranger. After a series of meetings and

L A B OR AT OR Y, B U R B A N K

incidents she marries Thomas and comes to live

(CA)

with him and his sister, Lady Lucille Sharpe, far away from everything she has known.

35 M M (SPHERICA L) (KODAK VISION 2383)

Hardly has she moved in than Edith’s

D-CINEMA

nightmares become quite vividly real, being haunted by ghoulish apparitions. It’s as if the house doesn’t want her there... 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.

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CAST

CREW

Mia Wasikowska

Edith Cushing

Jessica Chastain

Lucille Sharpe

Tom Hiddleston

Thomas Sharpe

Charlie Hunnam

Dr. Alan McMichael

Jim Beaver

Carter Cushing

Burn Gorman

Holly

Leslie Hope

Mrs. McMichael

Doug Jones

Edith’s mother /

PRODUCTION

Guillermo del Toro Callum Greene Jon Jashni Mary Parent Jillian Share Thomas Tull

WRIT TEN BY

Guillermo del Toro Matthew Robbins

CASTING

Robin D. Cook

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Thomas E. Sanders

SE T DECOR AT ION

Jeffrey A. Melvin

Lady Sharpe

88

Shane Vieau

Johnathan Hyde

Ogilvie

Bruce Gray

Ferguson

ART DIRECTION

Brandt Gordon

Emily Coutts

Eunice

COSTUME DESIGN

Kate Hawley

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L OC AT IONS

MPA A R AT ING

Kingston, Ontario, Canada

Sex & Nudity : 7/10

Pinewood Toronto Studios, Port

Violence & Gore: 9/10

Lands, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Profanity 8/10 Victoria College, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Alcohol/ Drugs / Smoking: 2/10

Casa Loma, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Fright / Intense Scenes: 9/10

Dundurn Castle, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

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J u l y

1 4 ,

2 0 0 8

T HIS IS A GOT HIC ROM A NCE T H AT TA K E S US BACK TO T HE F EMININE E A RLY DAYS OF HORROR

A DA R K R OM A NC E , NO T T E R R OR Chloe Bucklet, The Conversation

“Ghosts are real. This much I know. The first time I saw one I was 10 years old. It was my

garb – and when it does, it is frequently looked down on, and labelled a perversion.

mother’s. Black cholera had taken her. So Father ordered a closed casket, asked me not

Take Twilight. Both the books and their

to look. There were to be no parting kisses. No

(female) readers were derided as lacking

goodbyes. No last words. That is, until the night

credibility. Although an inheritor of the

she came back.”

tradition of the gothic dating back to the 18th century, it faced criticism in a contemporary

—Edith Cushing, Crimson Peak

culture for whom the word “romance” has come to signify cliché and naivety, lacking artistic

Horror comes in many guises. Psychological,

credibility. Twilight was sidelined, considered

violent, gothic, sure. But rarely – in

unauthentically gothic in attempt to bolster the

contemporary culture – romantic. Romance (in

genre’s reputation.

the modern sense of the word) doesn’t tend to crop up in much modern horror, or in gothic The same is true of Guillermo del Toro’s keenly anticipated film, Crimson Peak. Indeed, Forbes’ review suggests that it is little better than Twilight, so disappointed are they with the film’s lack of horror. What Crimson Peak reminds us, though, is that gothic romance is the originator of modern horror: gothic and romance are inextricably related. Crimson Peak is set at the turn of the 20th century and follows the fate of the American middle-class Edith (Mia Wasikowska) as she is seduced by the English baronet, Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) and travels with him to his crumbling Cumberland ancestral home, Allerdale Hall.

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As she explores the gothic mansion, which is slowly sinking into the oozing red clay of the family’s now defunct mines, Edith realises that the Sharpe family hide a host of unsavoury secrets. Ghosts, unburied bodies and secret wax recordings by the house’s former residents reveal the Sharpe family to be morally corrupt and psychologically unstable. Trapped by a raging winter storm, Edith searches desperately for an escape.

Del Toro adapts this familiar format replacing “savage” medieval Europe with “savage” fin de siècle England. The decaying wilderness of

This might sound horrific, but critics remain

Cumberland provides an apt backdrop for a

divided as to the legitimacy of the film as a

tale of child abuse, incest and murder. This

piece of gothic horror. For Digital Spy, it is the

is contrasted with Edith’s bustling modern

fact that the film is so overtly a romance – and

hometown of Buffalo, New York.

not horror – that renders it a failure. What these reviews reveal is a split in our cultural

In 18th century gothic it is possible to identify

consciousness between forms of fiction deemed

female tropes (entrapment and incarceration)

masculine (horror), and those deemed feminine

alongside male ones (exile and isolation) in the

(romance). But Crimson Peak divides critics

same works. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – a

precisely because it presents an ambiguous

classic work of masculine gothic focusing on

mixture of both: it refuses to entirely disavow

the transgressions of the anti-hero – is also

the feminine in favour of the masculine. And

intimately concerned with the feminine in

this is its triumph.

its exploration of motherhood and familial relationships.

THE BIRTH OF HORROR Crimson Peak’s portrayal of the sinister Sharpe The genre of gothic romance held court

family contains the tropes of monstrosity

between 1760 and 1830. Walpole initiated the

and transgression that are associated with

trend with The Castle of Otranto in 1764, a

the “masculine” gothic. But Crimson Peak

self-styled “Gothic Romance” featuring many of

also explores what Kate Ferguson Ellis dubs

the tropes we see in Crimson Peak. Following

the “female gothic”; a story concerned with

the publication of Walpole’s Otranto, stories

the way female subjects are incarcerated and

of virtuous heroines incarcerated in the

confined by the repressive ideologies and

crumbling ruins of medieval Europe, pursued

structures of patriarchal society. The horror of

by degenerate aristocrats hiding gruesome

Crimson Peak lies as much in its exploration

terrible family secrets, were eagerly consumed

of the characters’ emotions, in its “feminine”

by a bourgeois English reading public.

concerns, as in its depiction of gruesome violence and sexual transgression.

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FEMALE HORROR Initially, Crimson Peak is a little squeamish

heroine is laudable indeed, but it accompanies

about the idea of romance. Edith writes ghost

a feminine tragedy. Though our plucky heroine

stories but does not want to be seen as a women’s

will escape, her antagonist cannot. The most

writer and baulks at the idea of inserting a

horrifying and haunting image of the film

romance plot into her manuscript. She also

is that of Lucille – now a ghost – inescapably

rejects the idea of romance for herself, reminding

incarcerated in the shadow of her mother’s

friends that Jane Austen died a spinster and

portrait, while Edith escapes through the

Shelley a widow.

castle’s gates.

Some critics have found that the subsequent

Crimson Peak is a gothic romance intimately

romance between Edith and Thomas somewhat

concerned with the emotional burden of

stilted, but this is the point. The unsatisfying

familial and romantic relationships – and with

interactions between Thomas and Edith

the psychological cost that care demands take

reveal the film’s feminine concerns: Edith’s

on women. It is also a film that is interested in

arrival at the rotting Allerdale Hall brings

sexual transgression, monstrosity and excess.

with it a sickening sense of regret and dismay

Del Toro’s entangling of horror with romance

as she realises that not only is she trapped in

refuses to privilege one form over the other.

the crumbling castle, but that she has fatally

Subsequently, the film’s horror is located both

misjudged her lover’s intentions and feelings.

in the grotesque ghosts and brutal violence and

It is Thomas’s sister Lucille who most entangles

register produces. And as such, it takes horror

the masculine with the feminine. Transgressive

back to its beginning.

in the claustrophobia its feminine emotional

and violent, Lucille is the film’s anti-hero, taking the masculine role from her brother once the action moves to Cumberland. Yet she is also incarcerated, confined by her domestic role as daughter and sister, consumed by bitter disappointment and regret. Lucille’s homicidal madness is a necessary gothic trope, as well as a nod to Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca (1938). But it is also a result of the particular psychological demands made on women in the patriarchal family. We find out that both Sharpe children were neglected and abused by their parents: Lucille had to care for Thomas and sit by her mother’s bedside, nursing her abuser back to health. One review of the film applauds its “feminist” climax, which sees Edith and Lucille locked in physical battle, the male characters nowhere to be seen. The decisive action of the plucky

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AWA R D S

ACADEMY OF SCIENCE FICTION,

F A N G O R I A C H A I N S AW AWA R D S

F A N TA S Y & H O R R O R F I L M S

2 0 16

2 0 16

Best Horror Film

Best Supporting Actress Jessica Chastain

Best Supporting Actress Jessica Chastain

Best Wide-Release (2nd place) Guillermo del Toro

Best Production Design Thomas E. Sanders

Best Actor (2nd place) Tom Hiddleston

Best Score (2nd place) Fernando Velรกzquez

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Guillermo del Toro’s showmanship is evident from the off in this addictively watchable, macabre Hitchcockian fantasy. Crimson Peak is a triumph of production design that attempts to cover for a generic story with little in the way of complexity or incident.

F R I G H T M E T E R AWA R D S

T H E J O E Y AWA R D S , VA N C O U V E R

2 0 15

2 0 16

Best Special Effects

Best Actress in a Feature Film Suppporting/

Guillermo del Toro

Principal Role Age 5-11 Sofia Wells (young Edith)

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A journey is a fragment of hell Bruce Chatwin, The Songlines

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the odyssey

THREE

A

D

H

U

M

A

N

I

T

A

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THE CITY WITH DARK, DARK ROOTS

T

he San Francisco Bay is known for a lot of things: piers, sailboats, beautiful beaches and quaint towns. But it also has a deeper, darker history of hauntings all along the coastline. Founded all the way back in 1776, the city of San Francisco, California offers a storied past featuring prominent roles by such groups as Spanish missionaries, gold miners and immigrants from around the world. Due to its rich background, San Francisco offers its fair share of haunted history tours that explore ghostly stories and tales of the past inhabitants of the city. Supernatural, paranormal entities are, of course, scientifically at a proven inexistence, but if you’re a true fan of the horror and the mystery of the dark unknown, San Francisco’s gothic past and everinquisitive inhabitants will always keep you busy. The next few pages will keep your eyes and ears open to all things you could learn about the monsters of San Francisco.

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THE PATHWAYS TO ENLIGHTENMENT 8.

4.

6.

3.

10.

2. 1.

9. 5.

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FESTIVAL PERKS (FREE WITH PURCHASE OF FESTIVAL TICKETS)

AT&T PA R K

1.

DARK PRAYERS

2.

THE CRAWLOWEENIE

3.

KAIJU SUSHI WEEK

4.

MONSTERBALL NIGHT

5.

TERRORTRERO

6.

SFMOMA’S FREAKSHOW

7.

DOGPATCH DYSTOPIA

8.

NIGHTMARES & NOVELAS

9.

A HAUNTED ALAMO

10.

CIVIC UNDERGROUND HORROR

10 . 2 5

THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE

10 . 2 6

HELLBOY

10 . 2 7

PAN’S LABYRINTH

10 . 2 8

HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY

10 . 2 9

PACIFIC RIM

10 . 3 0

CRIMSON PEAK

10 . 31

ALL HALLOW’S EVE 2017

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ALL HALLOW’S EVE 2017

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10 . 31 7 PM – MIDNIGHT

AT & T PA R K 24 WILLIE MAYS PLAZA, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94107

Sometimes, it is natural to be supernatural, mythical, curious and a sociopathic monster—on Halloween. As part of Out of the Darkness Film Festival, every one with a ticket to any of the days of the festival has full access to the Halloween celebrations at San Francisco’s famed At&T Park. From sundown, till midnight, the venue will be filled with the vestiges of Guillermo del Toro’s magnificent work to be viewed, purchased and stupefied by. On All Hallow’s Eve at the At&T Park, every member of the festival will be eligible to indulge in the following:

THE FACE OF FRIGHT: AN EXHIBIT OF THE LIFE-SIZED MONSTER COSTUME DESIGNS FROM THE FILMS OF GUILLERMO DEL TORO MONSTERS AMONG US: A SERIES OF SHORTS FROM DIRECTORS OF THE SUPERNATURAL FANTASY ABOUT THEIR INSPIRATIONS CABINET OF CURIOSITIES: GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S SKETCHBOOKS, MONSTER MINIATURES AND FILM PARAPHERNALIA ALL HALLOW’S EVE FIESTA: FREE FOOD AND DRINKS FROM THE SPONSORS OF THE FILM FESTIVAL

M A N D AT O R Y F O R ACCESS:

F E ST I VA L T IC K E T P OUC H

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FESTIVAL PERKS 10 . 2 5 – 10 . 31

F U L L D AY A C C E S S

D I F F E R E N T L O C AT I O N S , DOWNTOWN SAN FRANCISCO

The best part about a festival is the experience that comes along with it. As a ticket-holder to Out of the Darkness Film Festival, you have earned yourself credit to 1 free meal and drink a day at any of the events/venues listed in the perks on the right. Be it the cobwebbed corners of The Chapel bar, or the Kaiju week at Geary Street, the whole city will be filled with remnants from Guillermo del Toro’s legacy of monsters among the face of humanity. Have brunch in the dystopian truck park at Dogpatch, or sip champagne at the SF Museum of Modern Art while gazing into the display of horror film props. Dress up as your favorite Troll Market monster on Monsterball Night at Local Edition, or curl up and listen to San Francisco’s real life horror stories at the Alamo Square. No matter what you want to do, the festival has you covered for the biggest monsterfest of your life in one of the most eerily haunted cities in the country. Don’t forget to bring your favorite monsterfighting weapon along!

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EVENT

VENUE

PERKS

DARK PR AYERS

THE CHAPEL, 777 Valencia Street

Free meal and drinks

THE CR AWLOWEENIE

BOTTOM OF THE HILL, 1233 17th Street

Free guided tour, refreshments

K AIJU SUSHI WEEK

389, 430, 705 Geary Street (3 Sushi stops)

Free platter in any one sushi bar

MONSTERBALL NIGHT

LOCAL EDITION, 691 Market Street

Free drink and small platter

TERRORTRERO

TRIPLE VOODOO BREWERY, 2245 3rd Street

Free beer-tasting tour

SFMOMA’S FREAKSHOW

SF Museum of Modern Art, 151 3rd Street

Free lunch and drink

DOGPATCH DYSTOPIA

POTRERO HILL RECREATION, 801 Arkansas Street

Free lunch/dinner

NIGHTMARES & NOVEL AS

NOVEL A BAR, 662 Mission Street

Free artisan cocktail drink

A HAUNTED AL AMO

AL AMO SQUARE, Hayes & Stiener Street Junction

Free dessert and guided campfire

CIVIC UNDERGROUND HORROR

CIT Y HALL, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place

Free brunch and guided tours

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RESOURCES

S A N F R A N C I S C O P U B L I C L I B R A R Y, Larkin Street Public domain knowledge, Multimedia files, Festival information guides

V I C T O R I A T H E AT R E , Mission Street Festival staff office, festival merchadise, lost & found, customer car personnel

S A N F R A N C I S C O M U N I C I P A L O F F I C E , Market Street Accomodation & travel services, guided tours at the City Hall & Alamo Square districts

O U T O F T H E D A R K N E S S F E S T I VA L H E A D O F F I C E , Hyde Street Detailed information about festival, schedules, tours, merchandise, design & administrative departments

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C O N TA C T:

info@ofthedarkness.com 415 206 0443

TICKETS:

ofthedarkness.com

SOCIAL MEDIA :

facebook.com/outofthedarkness @darknessmonsterfest #ootdsf

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