For a first effort from a young director, Chronos is spectacular. Some of it feels raw and unpolished but if you have an interest in Guillermo del Toro's filmography, that might be exactly what makes you fall in love with it.
Shot in English and in Spanish, the story begins when an elderly man, Jesús Gris (Frederico Luppi) finds a peculiar wind-up mechanism in the base of a statue. The Chronos Device has the power to grant eternal life but causes strange side effects, and powerful men are after it.
It takes a while to adjust to Chronos due to its surprisingly funny moments. Initially, it's more of a comedy than the horror/drama/thriller it's advertised as. Maybe that’s what makes the Chronos device and the characters' actions so unsettling. The skin-crawling imagery and decisions creep up on you, they feel almost unexpected in this otherwise peaceful existence. You never quite know what to expect.
Written by del Toro, this is reminiscent of a vampire story blended with a dark fairy tale. Not the kind with the Princess that needs rescuing, more like Rumpelstiltskin, where an ordinary person encounters something otherworldly, and a dark bargain has been forged. It executes this in a way that anywhere else would've felt familiar but the way it's done here feels original. The characters makes decisions that are human and personal, rather than those that would be the most shocking or horrific. The choices made are more impactful because you never feel like you're watching a Hollywood production or someone attempting to be anything but themselves.
The film is teeming with symbolism and references to Catholic dogma. If you watch the film and look back at the names of the characters, the sequence in which events take place, the way the Chronos device is used, the relationships between everyone, you will recognize that every element has been meticulously chosen to represent much more than what you see. It's the kind of movie that stays the same but feels different every time you watch it. Not because there’s some big twist in the end, but because you will suddenly realize something about a character, or recognize that this item in the background was put there for THAT reason, and so on. It demands to be watched and then watched again with the director’s commentary, and at least once more so you can grasp everything you missed before. It isn't essential, however. Chronos also works simply on its own. It’s like the difference between watching a game of football and understanding who is winning, and who is losing and having seen the entire season, having followed both teams, knowing all the rules, the plays, the athletes.
Unsure what to make of it at first, Chronos has become a minor obsession for me. The characters are rich and relatable (even the villains on a certain level), the presentation is stylish. The story takes the kind of turns you're not used to seeing. The Chronos device itself is cool and delightfully creepy. There's a lot going on here. The re-watch value is high. I suspect I’ll enjoy it even more a second time. Seek it out but look for a good DVD or Blu-ray, one with a lot of special features so you can get the full experience out of Chronos. (On Blu-ray, March 13, 2015)
