Directors of the Decade: Guillermo del Toro

With end of the decade rolling up on us, I've been thinking of the filmmakers that have come into their own over the last ten years and really proven themselves to be the directors of the decade. Rather than do a list and try to rank these excellent filmmakers, I've decided to break this up into installments and give each director the full treatment they deserve.

First up, one of my personal favorite filmmakers of all time, Guillermo del Toro. After starting a buzz about his talent with his 1993 take on the vampire mythos, Cronos, and breaking into Hollywood (albeit with much studio interference) with 1997's Mimic, del Toro still spent most of the 1990's as an obscure Mexican director with potential. It was in 2001, with The Devil's Back Bone, the story of a young boy in a haunted orphanage during the Spanish Civil War, that his talents truly became apparent. The dark and atmospheric film gave only hints at the tremendous visuals that del Toro was capable of committing to film, and also only scratched the surface of his writing abilities and off-kilter sense of humor.

The next year, he would get another crack at a Hollywood blockbuster, this time with far greater success, with his contribution to the Blade franchise, 2002's Blade II. Beautifully Gothic with amazing use of color and texture, the film displays del Toro's uncanny sense of artistry with celluloid, while at the same time showing off his formidable story telling skills. Blade II stands as the best of its series, mainly due to del Toro's unique visual sense. The film also foreshadows his coming career as he directs Ron Pearlman (the man who would be Hellboy) in a meaty role. Also of note is del Toro's skill with character and romance juxtaposed through the horror medium, which would be further elaborated in the future Hellboy series. I've said it before and I'll say it again, when you're rooting for monsters to fall in love, you're either watching a Guillermo del Toro movie, or a James Whale movie, and James Whale is dead.

In 2004, del Toro finally realized his near decade-long dream of bringing Mike Mignola's Hellboy to life on the big screen. Del Toro takes the universe of the comic and makes it his own, and in doing so displays a world of Lovecraftian monsters, demons with hearts of gold, evil monks, loveable fish men and clockwork Nazis. All this in a pallet of rich colors, stark settings, and masterful camera set-ups. To put it simply, how much more del Toro could it be? None, none more del Toro. Or so we thought.

Pan's Labyrinth (2006) Is the the clincher, if you will. It is the film that, if you like del Toro, makes you LOVE del Toro. Everything about the dark fairytale is simply and totally of the piece, and all of del Toro's talents are on full display. The world is rich, frightening and beautiful. The creatures breathe on screen, with del Toro's preferance for make-up and animatronic effects over CGI paying off in spades. Frequent del Toro collaborator and man-in-suit extraordinair, Doug Jones delivers incredible performances as both the film's titualr Faun and the eyeless "Pale Man". However, it is the human characters that elevate the film; Sergi Lopez's turn as Captain Vidal brought audiences one of the greatest cinematic villains in recent history, while Ivana Baquero transended the title of child actor and creates a nuanced, beautiful performance as main character, Ofelia. In all aspects, Pan's Labyrinth is a work of art that dispalys all of del Toro's skills as a filmmaker.

With 2008's Hellboy II del Toro manages to accomplish the nearly impossible by crafting a sequel that surpasses the original in almost every way. Del Toro's firm grasp on off-beat humor and his love of monsters are both paid off in two amazing sequences. The former when Hellboy and Abe Sapien get nice and boozed up and sing along to Barry Manilow's "Can't Smile Without You", a bizarre scene that is so very perfect it borders on euphoric. Del Toro's love of monsters and intense attention to detail are paid off in the unforgettable "troll market" sequence.

The past 10 years have seen Guillermo del Toro break out of relative obscurity and become a true auteur and a superstar in his own right, with his slate full enough to last into the next decade. First up will be his adaptation of The Hobbit for producer Peter Jackson, and a slew of other pictures that will hopefully count his adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness" among them. Here's hoping for many more years from one of the filmmakers of the decade, Guillermo del Toro.