Uillermo del Toro's first feature as a director is a vampire movie with a difference. After spending five minutes explaining the mechanics bind his plot, we witness Federico Luppi purchase the Cronos, a golden, egg-shaped piece of craftsmanship. Suddenly, it moves, becoming a golden spider that pierces his skin. Leaving a gaping wound.... and a taste for blood. A thoroughly disagreeable Ron Perlman is his link to reclusive Claudio Brook, who talks of alchemists and immortality and demands the Cronos. When Luppi refuses, Perlman kills him..... but Luppi doesn't stay dead.
Del Toro's movie is full of stylish touches, like the design of the Cronos, and shots that move through its mechanisms, but it's not just a horror movie of jump scares. FOr all the talk of immortality, Luppi doesn't want to live forever. He's tied to his time and place, his wife and his grand daughter. He's human. It's not the thirst for blood that makes a vampire, even though Luppi possesses it; it's the desire to be more than human.
Del Toro's movie is full of stylish touches, like the design of the Cronos, and shots that move through its mechanisms, but it's not just a horror movie of jump scares. FOr all the talk of immortality, Luppi doesn't want to live forever. He's tied to his time and place, his wife and his grand daughter. He's human. It's not the thirst for blood that makes a vampire, even though Luppi possesses it; it's the desire to be more than human.