CRONOS

Mexico, 1993, 93 minutes, Colour.
Federico Luppi, Ron Perlman, Claudio Brook, Margarita Isabel, Tamara Shanath.
Directed by Guillermo del Toro.

Cronos won a great number of awards on its first release in 1993. However, it has grown in reputation given the subsequent career of its writer-director Guillermo del Toro. In Hollywood, he made Mimic but was hampered by studio restrictions. He made a big impact with his version of Blade and then, by way of contrast, his mysterious story of the Spanish civil war, The Devil’s Backbone (also a winner of many awards). He returned to the comic book style with Hellboy, again receiving critical acclamation. However, with Pan’s Labyrinth, he combined the comic book style with his concern about Spanish issues. Pan’s Labyrinth was set in 1944 during World War Two, showing a world of fantasy but also a world of grim reality. Winner of many awards and Oscars for cinematography, make-up and costumes.

Cronos is science fiction, a film about an extraordinary machine from mediaeval times which enabled people to have an experience of eternal youth. However, the machine is also sinister because of its creating a bloodlust, a vampiric thirst, which leads to the ability to live forever.

The film is very well acted by Federico Luppi as an old man who discovers the machine, is scratched by the machine causing him to bleed – and acquiring a thirst. This is difficult for his family, especially in his confrontation with his young granddaughter. However, the machine is also being sought by an old man who wants to live forever (Claudio Brook) and his agent with the ominous name of Angel – and the old man’s name is Jesus – played by Ron Perlman who appeared as Hellboy in the two films del Toro made of that comic.

While the film has frights, has a chase across roofs, the atmosphere of fright and terror is more important than mere shocks.

1. The imagination of Guillermo del Toro? Science fiction? Fantasy? Horror? Alchemy?

2. A Mexican production, production values, atmosphere? The city? The shop, its interiors? The atmosphere of the house? The international cast, moving from English to Spanish? The musical score?

3. The prologue, the machine, 1536? Alchemy and the creation of the machine? The transition to 1937, the earthquake? Death?

4. The device itself, in the form of the scarab, its nature, energy, its reaching out, gripping the humans, the blood, the claws? The promise of immortality?

5. The character of Jesus? In himself, his age, his antiques, his work in the shop? His relationship with his wife? His relationship to his granddaughter, Aurora? The visitors? The machine, the effect? The charge and the smash?

6. Jesus and the machine, its gripping him? His bleeding? His addiction to the scarab? The threat of the search and Angel as the messenger – of life and death? The increasing horror? The effect on Jesus? With his wife? The build-up the confrontation with his granddaughter? The good man and his being corrupted?

7. Jesus’ wife, her work with him, his changing? Aurora, her age, her relationship with her grandfather? The touching scenes between them? Giving more power to the threats?

8. Dieter de la Guardia, old, demented, his power, wealth? Angel and his being commissioned to find the machine? Angel and his mission, confrontation with Jesus? The threats? The chase across the roof? The loss for Angel and for Dieter?

9. The background of the other characters, supplementing the world of Jesus, of Dieter de la Guardia?

10. The machine itself, the close-ups, the detail of the mechanism?

11. The mythology of the film? The theme of the living dead, the desire for the fountain of youth, immortality? Lifeblood? The symbolic names?

12. A satisfying horror film? Horror atmosphere rather than shock? A portrait of insidious evil?