Cronos (1994)

For his directorial debut, then 28 year-old Guillermo del Toro opted for a surreal, darkly comedic take on the vampire myth. Not only did this cement del Toro as a director to watch, and serve as a great stand alone piece of work, it also set forth many of the elements that would become his trademarks, namely great use of symbolism (often religious in nature), motifs involving machinery/gears and insects, expressive use of lighting (interplay between light and dark), and a tendency towards the gothic, among other things. The plot revolves around a kind old antiques dealer whose relationship with his much younger wife is on the downward slope. He has a much better rapport with his granddaughter, which really doesn't set well with grandmother. One day our protagonist happens upon a mysterious scarab like device which attacks him, and essentially turns him into a vampire of sorts. It'll make more sense when you see it. Anyways, on top of that, this crude American thug comes around looking for the device, as it is sought by his equally trashy industrialist uncle. This all leads to a big mix of the quest for immortality a la the Last Crusade et al with a unique riff on the vampire mythos. This is a really terrific film. It's surprising how polished and realized this is, especially for a feature debut. It's a bit more darkly humorous than I was first expecting, but that's fine. It's still plenty dark and twisted, and the humor actually works fairly well. We get some great performances, interesting characters and situations, and some really neat ideas and cool special effects. Things kinda feel la little rushed towards the end, like it begins to run out of steam and they weren't totally sure how to end it, but even then, the film is still quite enjoyable and good. Federico Luppi is quite good as the protagonist Jesus Gris, but for me, the real highlight was seeing Ron Perlman as the crude American thug Angel de la Guardia. This was the first of many collaborations between him and Guillermo, and he's a real scene stealing delight here, and makes for a memorable antagonist. Besides some good performances there's also some really good music, a great look, and excellent cinematography. I highly recommend this, for del Toro fans, horror comedy fans, and people who appreciate quasi artsy but not totally pretentious stuff. Heck, if you dig off beat stuff, this will satisfy, and of course, it works well for those who like things related to vampirism. I highly recommend the Criterion edition, as the booklet for it has some splendid essays and supplemental material, most notably some of del Toro's original notes for the movie and character bios. Definitely check this out, it's quite a treat.