One of the most consistently remarkable auteurs of the film industry is the Mexican director Guillermo del Toro. He typically tackles the genres of fantasy, science fiction and horror but he often does so with a unique style and a distinct visual flair that make his films stand out from those of many other directors. Another unique thing about him is his crossover appeal. Ever since his indie filmmaking career took off in the nineties he has gotten positive reactions from both critics and fantasy nerds, but his talent was so evident that eventually he was embraced and respected by Hollywood, especially after Pan’s Labyrinth came out. One of the best outcomes of del Toro’s newfound fame and Hollywood status is not only that he is able to pursue his passion projects with more creative control, but also that he shines a spotlight on the artistic merit of other mediums like animation, television and video games, which often do not get the same amount of respect in the entertainment industry as live-action cinema. The closest we have ever come to a high-profile Oscar-winning director doing anything like this was Steven Spielberg, but del Toro pushes this sentiment even further. He literally used his speech at the Oscars as an opportunity to tell celebrities that animation is not a genre – it’s a medium. Which is something that many animation fans have been begging for Hollywood to understand for decades. And this is just one of the many reasons why I like del Toro.

Like many film directors, the Guadalajara-born Guillermo del Toro started out making short films with a Super 8 camera during his childhood. Before he started making feature-length films he even wrote and directed some episodes of the 1988 Mexican sci-fi and horror anthology TV series La hora marcada (a young Alfonso Cuarón worked on that show as well).

Del Toro’s original intention was for his feature film debut to be a stop-motion film called Omnivore, a sci-fi film about a lizard man. But after spending three years building sets and puppets, the studio got burglarized and vandalized and all the puppets and sets got destroyed. So what did del Toro do after that crushing experience? He continued to pursue his filmmaking ambitions by making a live-action film instead.

Guillermo del Toro’s first feature film Cronos (1992) was an indie horror drama about an elderly antique dealer played by Federico Luppi who discovers an ancient device that can grant eternal life. But things get more complicated when an American thug played by Ron Perlman, (who at the time was best known for the TV series Beauty and the Beast) hunts down the device for his boss. Despite mostly getting ignored at the box office, at the time of this film’s release it was considered a modern horror classic by those who saw it, and it was highly regarded for its inventiveness. It also put a promising young Guillermo del Toro on the radars of many film critics.

It would be another five years before del Toro’s next feature film came out. That would end up being the sci-fi horror film Mimic (1997), which tells the story of a genetically modified insect meant to ward off an infestation of cockroaches but eventually evolves and starts hunting humans. The critical response to this film was one of the most middling of del Toro’s career, but that was less his fault and more the fault of notoriously dictatorial film distributor Miramax. Miramax founders Harvey and Bob Weinstein imposed their creative control over the project so much that by the time the theatrical cut came out, del Toro disowned it (he later released a director’s cut in 2011). Thanks to his creative clashes with Harvey Weinstein, Mimic was reportedly the worst experience del Toro ever had while making a film.

After that came the gothic horror film The Devil’s Backbone (2001) which was set in 1939 Spain during the Spanish Civil War and told the story of an orphan boy and the ghost of the deceased boy who haunts him. Critics called it both creepy and moving and by this point del Toro was starting to be seen as a deeply creative and highly respectable master of the horror genre.

Neither Cronos, Mimic nor The Devil’s Backbone were really successful commercially, but in 2002 del Toro had his first box office hit when he directed the superhero movie Blade II, a sequel to the hit 1998 film based on the Marvel comic book character by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan. This movie, which saw vampire hunter Blade (Wesley Snipes) teaming up with a group of vampires to fight an army of even deadlier mutant vampires, received a mixed reception from critics, but it still has its dedicated fans.

He made a much better film based on a comic book two years later when Hellboy (2004) came out. Starring Ron Perlman in the title role and based on the comic by Mike Mignola, the film centered on a half-demon summoned from Hell by Nazi occultists and who later joins the B.P.R.D. (Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense) to help defend the world from dark and evil forces. This film was witty, visually amazing and overall highly entertaining, receiving a positive reception from both critics and audiences. Del Toro even followed it up four years later with a sequel called Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) which was similarly well-received.

One of Guillermo del Toro’s most successful films released between his two Hellboy movies was Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), which has been described as “Alice in Wonderland for adults” and tells the story of a girl (Ivana Baquero) in 1944 Francoit Spain who discovers not only an abandoned labyrinth but also a mysterious fawn (Doug Jones). Universally praised for its writing, direction, acting, artistry, music and effects, it is considered by many to be del Toro’s masterpiece. It was also the first of his films to receive major attention at the Academy Awards, winning Oscars for its art direction, cinematography and makeup and receiving nominations for its screenplay and score as well as getting nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.

Five years after Hellboy II (and an unsuccessful effort to get Hellboy III made), Guillermo del Toro teamed up with the companies Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures to direct Pacific Rim (2013), an homage to Japanese anime and the kaiju and mecha genres starring Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba and Rinko Kikuchi that tells a story set in the future about an army of human-operated robots (the Jaegers) that are tasked with combatting sea monsters emerging from the Pacific Ocean through an interdimensional portal. The response from critics was positive and audiences made it a hit internationally, despite its underperformance domestically (you can thank Chinese audiences for that).

Crimson Peak (2015) is a gothic romance set in Victorian England that tells the story of an aspiring author (Mia Wasikowska) who visits the mansion of a baronet (Tom Hiddleston) and his sister (Jessica Chastain) and is haunted by strange visions upon her arrival. It was generally well-received by critics but disappointingly unpopular with the public.

Guillermo del Toro’s most successful film since Pan’s Labyrinth was the period fantasy romance The Shape of Water (2017) starring Sally Hawkins as a mute janitor at a secret government laboratory who falls in love with a humanoid fish man and tries to rescue him from captivity. The Critics thought it was emotionally moving as well as visually beautiful, so it basically represented del Toro at his artistic best. It also pulled off an impressive haul at the Academy Awards that surpassed that of Pan’s Labyrinth, becoming del Toro’s first film to win the Oscar for Best Picture (the first fantasy film to pull that off since The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King) as well as an Oscar winner for Best Production Design, Best Original Score and Best Director.

Nightmare Alley (2021) was a psychological thriller based on the 1946 American novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham that starred Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Rooney Mara and Willem Dafoe, but despite that impressive cast and generally positive reviews, it flopped at the box office. Although it did receive an Oscar nomination for Best Picture and Martin Scorsese gave it the ultimate praise by calling it one of the best modern film noirs ever made and much more than just an homage to the genre.

Del Toro’s stop-motion animated fantasy musical version of Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio (2022), co-directed by animator Mark Gustafson and co-written by Patrick McHale (Over the Garden Wall), was a longtime passion project for del Toro. He first announced he was making it back in 2008, and that was 14 years before it finally came out. Stuck in development hell for much of that time, the biggest hurdle came in 2017 when production came to a halt after they ran out of funding and no studio wanted to back it financially. That is until Netflix picked it up in 2018. Despite the limited theatrical release that often accompanies Netflix’s productions, the film was widely praised and it ended up winning the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Shortly after this film was released, del Toro even expressed a desire to make animated films exclusively once his few remaining live-action projects are finished, so don’t be surprised if you hear about more animated GDT films on the horizon.

Another longtime passion project (and I mean he literally wanted to make this movie ever since he was a kid!) is his version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (2025) which Netflix also helped distribute and which stars Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth and Christoph Waltz. The film received a lot of praise when it premiered at the Venice International Film Festival for its lavish production and for Elordi’s performance as the Creature. Making the story of Frankenstein feel fresh again is no small feat but if any filmmaker can accomplish that, it’s one as passionate for the source material as del Toro clearly is.

In addition to making these films, Guillermo del Toro also created a few television shows, including the vampire-themed horror drama The Strain which was co-created by Chuck Hogan and ran for 4 total seasons on FX from 2014 to 2017; the animated Netflix series Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia (2016-18) based on the 2015 novel written by del Toro and Daniel Kraus, in addition to the follow-up series 3Below: Tales of Arcadia (2018-19) and Wizards: Tales of Arcadia (2020); and Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (2022), a Netflix horror anthology series. All three of these shows received positive reviews.

As for his producing efforts, del Toro produced Carlos Cuarón’s Rudo y Cursi (2008), the well-received psychological thriller Julia’s Eyes (2010), Jorge Gutierrez’s animated fantasy The Book of Life (2014), Pacific Rim Uprising (2018) and the supernatural horror film Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019). He also co-wrote (and was originally hired to direct) the Hobbit trilogy (2012-14) and he was an executive producer on the modern gothic horror classic The Orphanage (2007), the sci-fi horror film Splice (2009), Andy Muschietti’s Mama (2013) and while consulting at DreamWorks Animation he executive produced Puss in Boots (2011), Rise of the Guardians (2012) and Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016). But I’m mostly looking forward to seeing what springs from his imagination when he’s in the director’s chair.