#cronos 1993

Horror movies by year:

While some light research of "Guillermo del Toro autism" doesn't get many results, other than complaints and praise for The Shape of Water, it is apparent that many of his characters are autistic.

Aurora || Cronos (1993)

Aurora is near-mute, but has a lot of agency despite this. She isn't afraid to kill a bug or help Jesus defeat De la Guardia. In fact, she's the main heroine of our story, despite her silence. She shows intense feelings, especially of love for her grandfather, shown in scenes such as where she reaveals shes ripped the head off her beloved teddy bear to put the Cronos device inside. She's incredibly smart for her age and very capable, but I believe her (maybe not optional, but definitely not permanent) silence is vindictive of her autism. I cannot figure out what her special interest would be, though.

Chuy || Mimic (1997)

Chuy is another one of Guillermo del Toro's strong children. Shown first playing spoons incredibly skillfully and crafting creatures out of wire, Chuy has unique interests. He can tell the exact type of shoe down to the size because of his grandfather, and he has the ability to perfectly mimic the Judas' cry. He's nearly silent but not always, and he seems unaware of the rules of the world, leaving his home and entering the subways seemingly unaware of the danger. Upon watching a man get sucked into a gutter, he barely reacts. One pivotal scene showing his autism would have to be when he's trapped in the elevator shaft and has a meltdown. He also speaks in a somewhat unique manner. His special interests are obviously playing spoons and shoes.

Ofelia || Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

Ofelia is yes another child character who shows a lot of agency, going against what practically everyone tells her to follow her own path. But she's also very bookish, obsessed with her fairytales so much she believes anything the fantastic tells her. She crawls through the mud and talks back to adults, keeping a somewhat quiet demeanor otherwise. I believe her special interest is fairtales.

Newt || Pacific Rim (2013)

Not a child, but worth mentioning anyways, is Newt. He's obsessed with Kaiju, to the point of drifting with one multiple times (and eventually.. living with one?). He speaks fast and erratically, he knows every indexical fact about Kaiju, and he's obviously insanely smart. He's, however, balanced by his childlike wonder at everything. His love for kaiju is, of course, his special interest.

1. Cronos, Guillermo del Toro (1993) - 💀💀💀💀 (4/5 skull emojis)

🧡🖤👻🪲🩸🧛‍♀️🦇🫀🎃🐈‍⬛💚💜

This is why I love del Toro. He doesn't just do movies about fairies, gillmen, ghosts, or vampires. He takes each concept and makes something that's both a poetic fantasy piece and a study of people in the real world. His films are often set in a specific place and time in history, usually with some kind of trouble and stife going on in the background. His characters suffer in both fantastical metaphor and reality.

And of course, if he's gonna do vampires, he's not gonna do it like anybody else has. Instead of the popular clichés of Dracula and the sexy fantasy of eternal life and youth, he gives us a story about mortality, family, and legacy with a creepy mechanical scarab containing an immortal bug-thing.

Fairly subversively, the protagonist of del Toro's vampire film is an old man, Jesús Gris, an art dealer who stumbles upon the aforementioned metal scarab and proceeds to get too curious about it. He accidentally activates it and gets a nasty stinger in the palm for his trouble. There's a decent amount of Cronenberg-esque body horror that proceeds to happen. It's a bit like Death Becomes Her but more tragic.

Other than the themes of decay and looming mortality, the film's focus is on the relationships between familial generations. There are two patriarchal figures in this film and two orphan children who remain close to them. Jesús has a small granddaughter, Aurora, who recently lost her parents. She is silent and somber and always watches over him. She's dependent on his affection and his stories and stares judgementally on what she instinctually knows are his unnatural urges in relation to the scarab.

Meanwhile the rich antagonist of the story, Dieter de la Guardia, searches relentlessly for the scarab and nags his nephew Angel to do his bidding in this matter. Angel, played by Ron Perlman at his peak, only lets his uncle treat him as his dogsbody because he's impatiently waiting to inherit the sickly old man's money. But unbeknownst to him, of course, Dieter seeks to gain eternal youth and life.

And here we have what it is del Toro has to say about immortality: it only comes through what we pass on to our children. Jesús gives love and devotion to Aurora and gains her total devotion and love in return. Like Angel she becomes a minion of sorts to her father-figure, but does things for Jesús without ever needing to be asked. Dieter only gives Angel hate and abuse, and receives more than the same in return.

This movie doesn't feel like a filmmaker's first film, but del Toro isn't an average filmmaker. The rough edges only show in the budget. The effects aren't quite as polished as they could be, but what he accomplishes is still completely, uniquely del Toro. It's beautiful and strange and dark and subverts everything we expected to see in a vampire tale.

Cronos | Guillermo del Toro | 1993