44/28
Ron Perlman attempted this, but Guillermo del Toro found his reading completely unusable
Line of Events
A mysterious device designed to grant its owner eternal life resurfaces after four hundred years, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. In an interview included in the Criterion edition of this film, Ron Perlman talks about how Angel was supposed to speak fluent Spanish. So the character was changed to an American expat who hates being in Mexico so much that what little Spanish he speaks is deliberately broken. When Jesús searches for Aurora after she has taken the Cronos, as he passes two doors, he stops.
shit and piss all day, and he wants to live longer?
Behind him, reflected in the glass of the door, are the crew and equipment. [discussing why Deiter wants the Cronos] Jesus Gris: He thinks it will help him live longer. Some explicit nudity was added for the US release of the video. While the primary American theatrical version contains a prologue and snippets of dialogue in English, a secondary-market version will be entirely in Spanish.
Featured in Masters of Horror (2002)
Die Schöne MüllerinFranz SchubertArreglov: Charlotte Georg (as Lee Ashley) BMIEditor: Software Music BMICourtesy of Capitol Productions Music – Ole Georg. Severely underrated on this site, Cronos is an engaging tale that captivates the viewer throughout its running time. Guillermo Del Toro’s first film is a thoughtful and moving story that, above all, manages to be fresh, intriguing and unique, while also managing to capture the horror movie feel in the same vein as The Shining, being a family film first and a horror film second. Cronos is definitely not associated with the slasher side of the horror market, nor is it anywhere near the filthy assault on the senses provided by goreography.
There are some things that stand out in this film and that undoubtedly make it worth watching
What Cronos achieves is an assault on the mind and soul, the essence of what a horror film must be able to do if it is to leave a lasting impression. Given this, I can, to some extent, see where the mediocre rating comes from; it’s not a gore-fest, it doesn’t give you a jump scare every second, and it doesn’t have gratuitous scenes of eyes being probed with rusty pickaxes, but as any true horror fan knows, these are merely sideshows to superior horror films like The Shining, like The Fog, and Cronos, if not quite at the top, is very close. The most subtle is the commentary on US-Mexico relations that Guillermo Del Toro sprinkles throughout his film. It provides an interesting portrait of how he, and no doubt many Mexicans, feel about their encounters with the US, which is always trying to dominate them and that they must fend for themselves in order to fight for success.
The most obvious is the highly notable Christian references and intentional play on names
Our protagonist, the antique dealer, is called Jesus for simple reincarnation purposes, but there is plenty of “my God,” “my Lord,” and “my Lord” and more such comments in the film, there is undoubtedly a parallel plot on the part of the director in pointing out the good that still emanates from our protagonist. Jesus’ granddaughter and wife are named Aurora and Mercedes respectively, and knowing the meaning of their names which are “dawn or first light” and “mercy” gives the end of the film a sense of closure. Lastly, noteworthy is the acting of Federico Lupi and Tamara Shanath, who provide the necessary gravitas even in motion, if not through vocals, to convey the deep emotional bond between grandfather and granddaughter that, when everything else is stripped away, is the main driving force of this story, and the one that will keep you coming back for more.