CRONOS

Publicity poster for Cronos (© Guillermo del Toro/Fondo de Fomento Cinematográfico/Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía/Universidad de Guadalajara/Iguana Producciones/Ventana Films – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use Basis for educational/review purposes only)

It may come as a surprise to learn that one of the creative consultants for the DreamWorks animated movie Megamind that I watched on 8 May 2020 and reviewed here was none other than Guillermo del Toro, famous for his dark fantasy movies, such as Pan's Labyrinth (reviewed here) and The Shape of Water (reviewed here), both of which I have greatly enjoyed viewing. And so the following day [9 May 2020], that intriguing little fact regarding Megamind inspired me to watch another del Toro movie, the very first one to be written and directed by him, in fact – Cronos.

Directed by del Toro, originally released in 1993 and set in Mexico, most of its characters spoke exclusively in Spanish, with the notable exception of Angel de la Guardia, a sadistically brutal thug played by a young Ron Perlman, but my Cronos DVD had subtitles, although much of this fascinating fantasy was so visual that I scarcely needed them.

A very original take on the vampire theme, Cronos opens in Veracruz during the year 1536 with the legendary alchemist Fulcanelli (in reality an enigmatic  20^th-Century figure) perfecting a curious little construction called the Cronos Device, which by means not revealed at this stage in the movie can theoretically confer immortality upon its inventor – or, in this particular instance, an extended life of 401 years, living on in seclusion until one day during 1937 when a building suddenly collapses, killing several people including Fulcanelli, whose crushed body is discovered among the wreckage with its heart mortally pierced by a shaft from the fallen masonry, and his face as white as marble. Moreover, when his apartment is traced and entered by investigators of the disaster, numerous bowls containing blood are found, lined up all over the floor, plus a human corpse from which the blood in the bowls has been extracted. So far, so weird…

The scene then moves to the present day and to the home and antiques store of an elderly antiques dealer named Jesus Gris (played by Federico Luppi, one of del Toro's favourite actors) and his young grand-daughter Aurora (Tamara Shanath) who lives with him. An old but cheap-looking plaster-like statuette of an archangel standing on a plinth is one of Gris's new acquisitions to sell in his store, but after a host of cockroaches suddenly pours forth from out of one of the archangel's hollow eyes, he wonders if the entire statuette is hollow, and investigates, eventually prising the statuette from its supporting plinth. When he does so, he discovers that the plinth itself is also hollow, and contains a mysterious object.

Taking it out, Gris is very surprised to see that it is an ornate mechanical device, oval in shape and golden in colour, with a winding mechanism, which he duly winds up. Although he has no idea what it is, it is evidently something very unusual, very special, and he tells his grand-daughter that something like this is found only once in a lifetime. After he has wound up the device, it begins to hum and vibrate slightly, then without warning three pairs of jointed insect-like legs shoot forth from the sides of its body so that it now resembles a strange mechanical beetle. They grasp hold of Gris's hand tightly, gripping it so hard that he cries out, but then a scorpion-like sting emerges from its rear end and stabs him, making his hand bleed. The sting and legs then swiftly draw back inside the device's body.

The Cronos Device (© Guillermo del Toro/Fondo de Fomento Cinematográfico/Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía/Universidad de Guadalajara/Iguana Producciones/Ventana Films – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use Basis for educational/review purposes only)

To cut a lengthy story short, this mechanical beetle is none other than the Cronos Device invented by Fulcanelli more than 400 years ago and hidden by him for safekeeping in the cheap statuette's base. Gris is strangely enthralled by the device, winding it up each night and permitting it to sting him, and sure enough, as the days and weeks go by, he begins to look ever younger and healthier. However, he is not alone in being enthralled by the Cronos Device. Dieter de la Guardia (Claudio Brook), a vastly rich but dying businessman, has actually purchased one of Fulcanelli's original diaries, in which the alchemist recorded full details of his miraculous creation, and he is determined to find it in order to confer everlasting life and health upon himself, sending his loutish nephew Angel to purchase any archangel statuette resembling the version illustrated in Fulcanelli's diary.

Consequently, Angel visits Gris's shop and buys the plaster archangel on sale there, not knowing that Gris has already found and removed the Cronos Device from its plinth. But de la Guardia soon realizes the truth and instructs Angel to search Gris's shop, totally trashing it in the process, and thus beginning a deadly cat-and-mouse game with de la Guardia (via Angel) relentlessly pursuing Gris for the Cronos Device, with Aurora assisting her grandfather by concealing it inside her teddy bear.

While all of this is taking place, Gris has come to realize that he craves blood, even licking up some that a man with a nosebleed has spilt upon the floor. Moreover, excruciating pain and even the severest of wounds inflicted upon him by Angel whenever the savage thug tracks him down do not kill him, but his skin begins to rot and peel. Finally, Gris confronts de la Guardia, desperately seeking a way out of his now-horrific situation and promising in return to give the businessman the Cronos Device. De la Guardia informs Gris that the Device's secret is a mysterious insect trapped alive inside it by Fulcanelli (cryptozoological entomology, no less!), who embedded it within the Device's internal gears, and which secretes a miraculous immortality-yielding substance injected by the mechanical sting. He further amazes Gris by telling him simply to peel off his dead skin, because a brand-new layer will be present underneath it, which indeed there is, but then he tries to stab Gris through the heart, which he knows from Fulcanelli's diary is the only way to kill someone who is using the Cronos Device on himself, but Aurora fells him with a pole and escapes with Gris.

However, Gris's new skin is as pale as marble and so sensitive to sunlight that he can now emerge from his shuttered rooms only at night, spending the day lying inside a large coffin-reminiscent trunk that previously contained Aurora's toys. Events reach a climax when Angel kills his overbearing uncle in order to claim his business empire and wealth for himself and then sets forth to do the same with Gris, but fate has other plans for him, as it does for the cursed Gris and the accursed Cronos Device…

Cronos is an extremely engrossing, highly original fantasy, and a very assured debut for del Toro in the world of film direction and screenwriting. As one might expect from the nature of its plot, some scenes are undeniably grisly, but others have a dream-like, unreal quality that make it impossible to lose interest in this grim but truly mesmerizing movie. Here is an excerpt revealing the grim discovery by Gris of the seemingly innocuous Cronos Device's deadly secret; and here is a very atmospheric official trailer offering some rarefied glimpses into the dark delight that is del Toro's Cronos.

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE!

UPDATE - On 18 January 2023, I was kindly informed by one of my Twitter followers, Red Pill Junkie, that del Toro had said the story of Cronos was partly inspired by the insects that women in Mexico wore as jewels in the 1970s. They were kept in little boxes and fed tree bark. Thank you so much for this information! Investigating it further, I discovered that the insect species in question is Zopherus chilensis, a large, wingless, docile species of ironclad beetle. So now we know! Click here for more information concerning this example of living jewellery.

Another publicity poster for Cronos (© Guillermo del Toro/Fondo de Fomento Cinematográfico/Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía/Universidad de Guadalajara/Iguana Producciones/Ventana Films – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use Basis for educational/review purposes only)