Themes: Time Sleepers, Race Against Time, Haunted By the Past
Main Cast: Federico Luppi, Ron Perlman, Claudio Brook, Margarita Isabel, Tamara Shanath
Release Year: 1993
Country: MX
Run Time: 96 minutes
Plot
This surreal variant on the classic vampire tale is the directorial debut of Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, who garnered international acclaim and several awards. The film tells the story of elderly antique dealer Jesus Gris (Federico Luppi, in a role originally written for Max Von Sydow) who, with his eight-year-old granddaughter Aurora (Tamara Shanath), discovers an ancient artifact secreted within a statue obtained from the estate of a 16th-century alchemist. Unbeknownst to Gris, the device -- which resembles an ornate, gilded mechanical beetle -- houses an immortal parasite which will grant eternal life to its host. Naturally, there is a terrible price for this gift, which Gris is doomed to discover after the object anchors itself to his body. He begins to develop an extreme aversion to daylight, as well as an agonizing thirst for human blood. To compound matters, dying millionaire Dieter de la Guardia (Claudio Brook) has learned of the device's existence -- thanks to an occult tome obtained from its inventor -- and wishes to obtain it for his own use. To this end he employs his vain, brutish nephew Angel (Ron Perlman) to retrieve it for him. Angel's techniques are less than subtle, and he inevitably winds up killing Gris in his futile search for the artifact... but death is not permanent for the host of the Cronos, and he rises from the mortuary slab to reunite with the long-suffering Aurora. Together they confront de la Guardia and his nephew one last time, hoping to find a way to reverse the horrible process before Gris suffers the same monstrous fate as the device's creator. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
Review
The simple, straightforward plot of director Guillermo Del Toro's Cronos is given resonance by a rich, intriguing mythology which emphasizes the grotesque, parasitic aspects of vampirism, stripping away the romantic aspects of the myth to define the vampire as essentially a highly-evolved form of parasitic insect, which the Cronos device itself clearly resembles. Del Toro too often resorts to rather heavy-handed allegory -- the saintly Jesus Gris dies, descends into a "hell" of indignity and base desires (exemplified by a nasty scene where he resorts to lapping blood from a bathroom floor) and rises again to protect his granddaughter from evil -- this wild fantasy is still anchored at a very sensitive, human level, thanks to excellent performances and a low-key, non-exploitative approach. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
Daniel Jiménez Cacho - Tito; M. Martinez - Alchemist; Juan Carlos Colombo - Funeral Director; Farnesio DeBernal - Manuelito; Luis De Icaza - Tango Student; Jorge Martinez de Hoyos - Narrator; Laurencio Cordero - Watchman; Francisco Sanchez - Mimo
Credit
Julio Solorzano Foppa - Associate Producer, Jorge Sanchez - Associate Producer, Rafael Cruz - Associate Producer, Sebastian Silva - First Assistant Director, Guillermo del Toro - Director, Paul O'Brien - Editor, Guillermo Navarro - Cinematographer, Bertha Navarro - Producer, Laurencio Cordero - Special Effects, Guillermo del Toro - Screenwriter
Representative Albums: "Hell to the Unknown: Anthology," "Dancing in the Fire," "Venom"
Biography
Cronos is the occasional solo vehicle for legendary Venom frontman Conrad Lant -- aka Cronos, naturally. With Venom's protracted collapse reaching an insurmountable low point in the late '80s (punctuated by the simply God-awful Calm Before the Storm album), the vocalist/bassist decided it was high time to start fresh. Taking his old band's most recent guitarist team of Mike Hickey and James Clare and replacing Venom drummer Abaddon with relative unknown Chris Pattersonn, the newly christened Cronos -- the band -- set to work on the sessions for 1990's Dancing in the Fire debut. Sounding not unlike Venom, but informed with a more traditional New Wave of British Heavy Metal vibe, the band toured infrequently in years to come because of Cronos -- the man's -- burgeoning interest in professional bodybuilding. But Cronos the band eventually recorded a second album called Rock 'n' Roll Disease, three years later, and, after streamlining down to a trio featuring Cronos, Hickey, and drummer Mark Wharton, managed a final album in 1995, which they ironically titled Venom. Cronos the man has since reunited with his former Venom bandmates on occasion, but has yet to record again under his own name. ~ Ed Rivadavia, All Music Guide
An old antique dealer, Jesús Gris, finds a 450 year old mechanical device in the base of a statue. After winding the ornate, golden, scarab-shaped device, it suddenly exudes spider-like "legs" that grip him tightly and insert a needle into his skin which injects him with an unidentified solution.
The viewer later sees that a living insect is entombed within the device and is meshed with the internal clockwork. This insect produces the solution. However, Gris is unaware of these details.
Eventually, he discovers that his health and vigor are returning in abundance, as is his youth. His skin loses its wrinkles, his hair thickens and his sexual appetite increases. Unfortunately, he also develops a thirst for blood. This at first disgusts him, but he eventually succumbs to the temptation. Later, he dies, but in one of the more gruesome episodes of the movie, he revives in an undertaker's establishment, with his mouth sewn shut.
A rich, dying businessman, Dieter de la Guardia, has been aware of the existence of the device and amassing information about it for many years. He finally discovers that it was hidden in a statue, and sends his thuggish nephew, Angel, to scour the world for it. This is much to Angel's chagrin, as he hates his uncle and awaits the man's death and the inheritance that would bring.
The elderly antique dealer is not willing to give it up, as he has obviously developed a need for it, and senses that a man like de la Guardia would use it for evil. He endangers his young granddaughter in his fight to keep it.
