Practitioner Research for FMP. Unfinished

1. FMP-Practioner Research
Jack Hickman

2. Horror Film Directors

3. Guillermo Del Toro
(Symbolism)

4. Bio
Guillermo Del Toro was born on the 9th October 1964 in Guadalajara Jalisco, Mexico. He became interested in
filmmaking in his early teens and was even trained by film makeup artist Dick Smith who had done the makeup
in the film ‘The Exorcist’. His early film career was spent working in the makeup department as a supervisor
before he created his own company which he named Necropia. This is interesting as the word necro is greek for
dead which hints at his passion for the horror genre. Around the time the company was formed, he directed
and produced mexican tv programs and taught film to university students as well as teach it through public
talks about films. After the success of his feature film ‘Cronos’ he made his first Hollywood film titled ‘mimic’
however he had some problems with Hollywood during the films production so he went his own way and
created a film company called the Tequila gang. After the success of one of his film called ‘The Devils Backbone’
he decided to go back to Hollywood where he would direct the sequel for the blade film series as well as make
a film adaptation of the DC comic ‘Hellboy’. He is also known fro creating the film ‘Pans Labryinth’ which
garnered critical acclaim and good reviews. One of his more recent films titled ‘The Shape of Water’ won many
oscars with some of them being best picture, best original score, best production design and best director.

5. Trademarks
• Del Toro has a habit of using insect imagery and symbolism in his films. The fairies in ‘Pans Labyrinth’ are
shown to be insects that can turn into beings resembling fairies. In the film ‘Cronos’ the cronos device is
shaped like an insect and has a living insect trapped inside it; this device has the power to grant people
immortality. In the film ‘Mimic’ the insects are referred to by one of the characters as “gods favoured
creatures” and there is some imagery showing a godlike figure with insect features.
• Del Toro also uses a lot of religious imagery and symbolism however, this is only limited to Catholicism as
his grandma, who happened to raise him, was catholic. From the sets to the design of some of his
monsters and the idea of human imperfection, his religious beliefs seem to be linked with most of the
films he directs and even take a major role when providing the theme and mood of the film.
Characteristics that are also present with most biblical creatures such as wings and horns seem to be quite
common as well on monster designs; the angel of deaths wings in ‘Hellboy The Golden Army’ and the
Fauns horns in ‘Pans Labyrinth’.
• Most of Del Toro's films have scenes that take place in dingy and dirty areas/areas that are considered to
be dirty. This is most likely done to elicit disgust or the feelings of discomfort in the audience as dingyness
is not a denotation of safety of comfort but, is more of a juxtaposition instead. Examples of these are the
subway in ‘Mimic’ and ‘Hellboy’, the sewers that appear in ‘Blade 2’ and the inside of the tree in ‘Pans
Labyrinth’.
• Some of his films also use the Amber colour quite a bit as well. The colour has connotations with
confidence, safety and energy. The colour is also described as being a warmer, more golden hue of the
colour yellow and goes well as an accent to design work. The colour crops up in ‘Blade 2’, ‘Hellboy’ and
‘Pans Labyrinth’. The colour is possibly used for its connotation or for symbolic purposes such as in ‘Pans
Labryinth’ where the colour is used as a visual tint