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
| Format size: | Widescreen |
| Languages: | Spanish |
| Country: | CAN |
| Runtime: | 92 min. |
| Number of discs: | 1 |
| Subtitles: | English, Spanish |
