Cronos (Criterion) (Blu-Ray)

When I first watch Cronos, I was sitting in my comfortable chair placed exactly in front of my TV set surrounded by that security feeling only my house can bring me. That feeling disappeared soon. I couldn't believe what I was being witness of.

I'll have to tell you the context I was in when I watched it, for you to understand. I'm Mexican. When I watched this movie I was 15 yrs. old and the Mexican movie "industry" (if you can call it that way) hadn't a reputation for its excellent horror movies.

Cronos is a movie that was released back in a time in which mexican movies were usually flops because of the lack of support from producers, distributors and audiences alike. The movie was released in 10 movie theaters only and only in Mexico City and it was retired because movie owners considered it a failure!!! (How couldn't it be a failure with only 10 theaters showing it? Hello?)

When the movie went to Cannes and won the Critics Week Award, this event didn't change a lot the movie's fortune. I, being an avid film fan and being from a small town called Coatzacoalcos (I dare you to spell it right!)and having read a lot from it in magazines and newspapers had to wait until it's release on VHS to rent it.

It instantly became one of my all time favorites.

You have to understand... Our mexican HORROR movies were of the likes of Ed Wood movies, until Cronos arrived. Ok, I have to admit that there were three other HORROR movies on the seventies ("Even the Wind is Frightened", "The Stone Book" and "As Black as Night" all from the same director, named Carlos Enrique Taboada), but if you watch them today they have lost their FRIGHT FACTOR.

So in a Mexico with a lot of legends and folklore, the complete abssence of HOORROR movies was a curse broken by Guillermo Del Toro a young, fat man from Guadalajara that was an avid comic reader and makeup artist.

If you could read the script (which you can buy here in Mexico), you could read the pretty images that become poetic and that Guillermo handles in a way no one else can.

Poetry and horror mixed? It may sound odd, but it works...

There's a part in which the lead character looks his reflection in the mirror and asks: How do I look? And the writer (Del Toro) answers him:
Horribly.

A great literary scene that you can only appreciate by reading it and then watching the movie again. I swear you can almost hear the writer answering him on film!

The story follows the life of a Jesús Gris (Translated as Gray Jesus... nice game of words, ain't it?) and his discovering of an odd goldlike aparatus. How will it affect his life? Will it bring joy or misfortune? That is for you to find out.

Now... Let me explain something... A lot of people know Del Toro for movies like "Mimic" and "Blade", which I think he directed brilliantly, and I read that an Amazon client complained because on the DVD case of "The Devil's Backbone" (Another Guillermo Del Toro's preciosist film, just number two after Cronos of course, in my list of his movies)there's written:

"Vastly more stylish and frightening than "The Others""

So, he bought it and was dissapointed, because the movie didn't frighten him as much as "The Others" did!!!

Let me say this:

The HORROR genre is not necessarily a genre that will frighten you. You mean HORROR when a film has something, anything involving the paranormal... So, under this parameter, Ghost is a HORROR film. It doesn't scare you but its main premise touches the paranormal aspect. Get it?

So... All this being said...
Buy it! Sit back! And Enjoy!

Feel the security of yous house being torn to shreds...

Currently everybody thinks of him as directing Pan's Labyrinth or the Hellboy movies. But at the very beginning of his career, Guillermo del Toro honed his directorial skills with a truly brilliant, unique movie called "Cronos," which expertly blended alchemy, vampirism and creeping psychological horror.

Antique dealer Jesús Gris (Federico Luppi) is handling an angel statue when he finds an insectile metal object in the bottom. And it bites him, injecting him with a strange fluid. Soon Jesús finds himself addicted to the device, and he finds that it's slowly restoring his youth and strength. And during a party, he also finds that it's giving him a hunger for blood.

Unfortunately, a wealthy but dying businessman is determined to find the device, and he sends out his brutal nephew Angel (Ron Perlman) to find it -- and Angel even kills Jesús when the old man doesn't tell him what he wants to know. Jesús rises again as an undead creature who is still determined to get the device back, but now his young granddaughter is in danger as well.

"Cronos" was the very first movie that Guillermo ever directed, and it's not surprising that it feels a little rough compared to his later work. But expect lots of del Toro trademarks -- mysterious golden items, insects, weird and grotesque vampirism, religious symbolism, and favored actors Luppi and Perlman.

The entire movie is beautifully directed, and del Toro paints every scene with shadows, gold and blood. And rather than going for over-the-top spookery, del Toro mingles vampiric horror (Jesus staring hungrily at his granddaughter) with more visceral psychological horror (Jesús returns to life with his mouth stitched shut). Even the gross-outs are subtle, like when we see that even Jesús' flesh is turning white and larvalike.

Federico Luppi is absolutely brilliant as Jesús -- he starts off as a genial, kindly old man with a love of antiques, but slowly he's eaten away by his lust for blood and addiction to the device. By the end of the movie, you only see a tiny flicker of what he was. Perlman gives a similarly awesome performance as a devious thug, and Claudio Brook is great as the dying businessman.

It took a long time, but this movie is FINALLY coming out in the Criterion catalog -- it will have a restored high-def digital transfer; del Toro's early short film "Geometria"; a tour of de Toro's house; audio commentaries by del Toro and the producers; video interviews with del Toro, Luppi, Navarro and Perlman, a stills gallery; trailer; new English subtitles; and a booklet with not only a Maitland McDonagh essay but del Toro's notes.

"Cronos" is a little more toned-down than Guillermo del Toro's later work, but it's still a powerful, haunting horror movie. An absolute must-see!

Buyers Warming
five stars for a very interesting and intriguing independent film. Now my complain:
Lions Gate got the rights for the distribution Cronos...but I don't believe that they also got the rights for editing and dubbing the introduction of the film. For those of you that aren't familiar with this flick, this is a Mexican film, there after the original language is spanish. The original movie started with a beautiful monologue in spanish that introduced an old enigmatic and important character. Like I said...the original monologue was in spanish, and now has been dubbed in english!!! then as the monologue finishes, the movie continues in its original spanish language. Can somebody explain me why??? This is completely insulting!!!!
This is my only complaint for the Dvd and the movie.
I won't write a review because everybody else have so it would be repetitive....but this movie is a must see for anymore interested in intelligent, visualistic and thought-provoking horror with unique and diferent twists in the Vampirism genre!