Cronos (1993) review

22. Cronos (1993)

Directed by: Guillermo del Toro

Produced by: Arthur H. Gorson, Bertha Navarro, Alejandro Springall, Bernard L. Nussbaumer

Screenplay by: Guillermo del Toro

Starring: Federico Luppi, Ron Perlman, Claudio Brook, Margarita Isabel, Tamara Shanath

Have you ever wondered how Guillermo del Toro got his start? After directing a series of short films, as well as a few episodes of “The Marked Hour,” a Mexican TV show in the vein of “The Twilight Zone,” del Toro came out with “Cronos” in 1993. For such an early and largely overlooked effort in his career, this is a somber, smart and captivating piece of work. It’s about this old mechanical device called the Cronos, which was developed by a 16th-century alchemist as a way of achieving eternal life; in the present time, it’s discovered inside an archangel statue by aging Mexican antique dealer Jesús Gris (Federico Luppi). While he’s fiddling with it, an insect entombed inside injects him; shortly after, Gris realizes that his body is de-aging; but he also gains a thirst for blood, and to complicate matters, there’s a dying businessman named Dieter (Claudio Brook) who desperately wants the Cronos, and sends his brutish American nephew Angel (Ron Perlman) to retrieve it by any means necessary.

On the surface, this doesn’t sound especially interesting; you’d think it’s just some garden variety comic-book style vampire plot about a man becoming a monster. But it’s surprising just how tender and emotional they make this situation; when we see Gris thirst for blood, he doesn’t look deranged, but more desperate, like someone constantly at war within themselves. There is some blood and gore in this movie, but it’s just the right amount; I feel like if this had a big-budget Hollywood production, especially for the time period, they would have made Gris an over-the-top growling beast, with really bombastic effects and music to match. But when you watch him pull off his own bandages or lick someone else’s blood off a bathroom floor, it’s uncomfortable in an authentic and appropriate way; it’s smartly understated directing by del Toro, and a nuanced performance by Federico Luppi as Gris.

Aside from Luppi, the cast is solid; Claudio Brook plays Dieter as a menacing foil, while Margarita Isabel has this humble sweetness as Gris’s wife Mercedes, and Daniel Giménez Cacho makes the most of his brief scenes as Tito the Coroner. Meanwhile, a revelatory performance comes from Ron Perlman as Angel; today, he’s compiled an impressive portfolio of film and television work, becoming probably one of the best voice-over actors of our time, but this was one of his earliest movie roles, and he has a magnetically layered presence. Angel despises his uncle, putting up constant nagging abuse in hopes that he’ll eventually die and leave a hefty inheritance, so to see him frequently swap between snarling, profanity-laden mutters and phony pleasantries is pretty funny; he has this undeniable energy, despite not really having the best-defined motivations.

Unfortunately, this does become a recurring problem, in that some of the characters are little more than plot devices. Mercedes has very little to do, and I didn’t even mention their granddaughter Aurora (Tamara Shanath); the film builds up this bond between her and Gris as something that keeps him grounded while all this craziness is happening, but their scenes just don’t support it. It simply feels like cheap pandering by way of the innocent little girl with the sad eyes who barely says anything; there’s a way to make this trope work, but Aurora is just way too underdeveloped as a character. That’s how numerous plot threads feel, like there are concepts that would’ve added more interesting drama; why not dive further into Dieter’s obsession with trying to cheat death with the Cronos, or have Mercedes play more of a part in the climax? But it seems like the movie is more concerned with the mythology and the affliction regarding Gris, which it does well; I just feel like there’s a more complete story that could be told here.

Overall, the manner in which “Cronos” executes its themes makes it more of an addiction drama than a standard spook fest, and it’s complemented by the performances, cinematography and screenplay. Most of the issues I have are fairly nitpicky; I guess I just see how this movie could’ve been outstanding, even though it’s still a solid effort. There actually was a sequel called “We Are What We Are” that came out in 2010 that featured Cacho reprising his Tito role, but had little relation and no involvement from del Toro; maybe I’ll get to that one sometime, as it is worth talking about for how domestically demented it is, but let’s wrap this up. I haven’t loved all of Del Toro’s films, but you can always find his passion for cinema and its many subtleties all over the screen; even then, he knew how to take horror and turn it into something quite tragic, so you have to give him credit for that.

My rating: 8/10