Psycho's Movie Reviews #306: Cronos (1993)

Cronos is a 1993 Mexican independent horror drama film written and directed by Guillermo del Toro and starring Federico Luppi and Ron Perlman. Cronos is del Toro's first feature film, and the first of several films on which he worked with Luppi and Perlman. The film was selected as the Mexican entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 66th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. A stand-alone sequel, We Are What We Are, was released in 2010, with the only connection being Daniel Giménez Cacho reprising his role as Tito the Coroner.

Plot

In the year 1536, an alchemist in Veracruz develops a mechanism that can give eternal life. In 1937, an old building collapses and the alchemist, who has marble-white skin, is killed when his heart is pierced by the debris. Investigators never reveal what else was discovered in the building: basins filled with blood from a corpse.

In 1996, an old, somewhat religious antique dealer, Jesús Gris, notices the base of an archangel statue is hollow. He opens it and finds a 450-year-old mechanical object. After he winds the ornate, scarab-shaped device, it unfurls spider-like legs which grip him tightly, and inserts a needle into his skin, which injects him with an unidentified solution. An insect — entombed within the device and meshed with the internal clockwork — produces the solution. Gris eventually discovers his health and vigour are returning, as is his youth. His skin loses its wrinkles, his hair thickens and his sexual appetite increases. He also develops a thirst for blood. This at first disgusts him, but he eventually succumbs to the temptation. He then uses the device later that night, but says his nightly prayer as he does. His granddaughter Aurora notices this, and begins to worry about Gris.

Meanwhile, a rich, dying businessman, Dieter de la Guardia, who has been amassing information about the device for many years, has been searching for the archangel statue with the Cronos device. He has appropriated several archangels already. He sends his thuggish American nephew Angel, who allows his uncle's abuse on a daily basis for an inheritance, to purchase the archangel at the antique shop.

During a New Year's Eve party, Gris sees a man bleeding from the nose and follows him into the men's room and waits for a chance to get his blood off of the sink countertop. Another man comes out of one of the stalls, sees the blood and cleans it up. Gris notices blood on the floor and decides to lick it up, until an unknown man walks up and kicks him in the face, which knocks him unconscious. Gris appears to be asleep in Angel's car and Angel gives him some alcohol and then tries to beat him into giving up the device. When Gris faints, Angel places his body inside a car and pushes it off a cliff. Gris briefly awakens and prays for survival, but seemingly dies. He later revives in an undertaker's establishment and escapes before he can be cremated. He returns to his home where Aurora lets him in. Dieter beats Angel for not ensuring Gris's heart was destroyed, and sends him to check on the body. Gris works on a letter to his wife in which he comments on the changes to his body, and tells her that after completing some 'unfinished business' he will return to her. He notices that his skin burns in the presence of sunlight and sleeps in a box to avoid it.

Eventually, he and Aurora bring the device to Dieter's headquarters, where the businessman offers him a "way out" in exchange for the device. Gris comments on his damaged skin and the businessman tells him to peel it off because he has new skin underneath, which is marble-white like the dead alchemist. Gris threatens to destroy the device, but is told that he will die should that happen. Gris agrees to hand it over in exchange for knowing the "way out", whereupon Dieter stabs him. Before being able to strike the killing blow to the chest, Dieter is incapacitated by Aurora and Gris feeds on Dieter. Angel finds the dying Dieter and crushes his throat with his foot, tired of his abuse and waiting for his inheritance. Angel confronts Gris on the rooftop of the building and beats him severely. Gris throws them both off the roof, killing Angel.

Aurora finds Gris unconscious, and uses the device to wake him. Noticing that her hand is bleeding, Gris is tempted to feed off his granddaughter, but he eventually controls himself. He then painfully destroys the device, despite previous warnings. Surprised to still be alive, he believes God to have saved him because of his attempted self-sacrifice. He returns to his home and lies in bed with Aurora and his wife, waiting for the rising sun to see if he is free of the effects from the device.

Release/Reception/Box Office

The film received acclaim by critics for its acting, originality, mythology, religious references, and its balance of horror and drama. When the film got the attention of international film critics including those from United States, it has since been recognized as one of the greatest horror films and Spanish language films of all-time. Rotten Tomatoes reports an 89% approval rating based on 55 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The critical consensus reads: "Guillermo del Toro's unique feature debut is not only gory and stylish, but also charming and intelligent." It was also entered into the 18th Moscow International Film Festival.

In the early 2010s, Time Out conducted a poll with several authors, directors, actors and critics who have worked within the horror genre to vote for their top horror films. Cronos was placed at number 96 on their top 100 list.

The film has become part of The Criterion Collection. The film's Blu-Ray disc includes the film with both the introduction in English, and a version in its original Spanish language. In the website's plot synopsis of the film, it's described as "A dark, visually rich, & emotionally captivating fantasy". The film is sold separately, and as part of a movie collection named, "Trilogía de Guillermo del Toro", which includes del Toro's other Spanish language horror films The Devil's Backbone & Pan's Labyrinth.

In North America, the film was given limited release to only 2 theatres where it grossed $17,538 its opening weekend and grossed a total of $621,392 playing at a total of 28 screens. After many critics viewed the film, they felt it deserved a wider release.

Budget $2 million

Box office $621,392

My Review

Guillermo del Toro's first feature as a director is a vampire movie with a difference. After spending five minutes explaining the mechanics bind his plot, we witness Federico Luppi purchase the Cronos, a golden, egg-shaped piece of craftsmanship. Suddenly, it moves, becoming a golden spider that pierces his skin. Leaving a gaping wound.... and a taste for blood. A thoroughly disagreeable Ron Perlman is his link to reclusive Claudio Brook, who talks of alchemists and immortality and demands the Cronos. When Luppi refuses, Perlman kills him..... but Luppi doesn't stay dead.

Del Toro's movie is full of stylish touches, like the design of the Cronos, and shots that move through its mechanisms, but it's not just a horror movie of jump scares. For all the talk of immortality, Luppi doesn't want to live forever. He's tied to his time and place, his wife and his grand daughter. He's human. It's not the thirst for blood that makes a vampire, even though Luppi possesses it; it's the desire to be more than human.

This vampire yarn is successful because of its unusualness - it has a certain kind of style which stops it becoming boring, even though it's a case of seen-it-all-before. This similar artistry from foreign directors in recent years has also stopped The Fifth Element, Leon, and even Alien Resurrection from being totally irredeemable. Unfortunately, while Cronos was made out to be this big, original splash from a previously unheard-of director, it's not as brilliant as you might think, as a lack of originality and thoroughness of ideas make it become fairly average (I found the same to be true with the same director's Mimic), but still a breath of fresh air for a dead genre.

Guillermo del Toro brings something special to this film, there's no denying that. There's a warmth to the central characters involved which acts like a breath of fresh air, when we see the human spirit shining through the darkness. The idea of the Cronos device is clever, and it's a brilliantly designed little creation, a bit like Hellraiser's puzzle box but more sophisticated and stylish. Other concepts such as a vampire shedding his skin add to the bizarreness of this film, but ultimately it is the human players who dominate the proceedings.

Luppi is wonderful as the old man who has to struggle with the strange urges filling his body as he becomes addicted to the device. He portrays a mixture of disgust and lust at his actions (the scene where he licks blood off the floor in desperation springs to mind) in a skilled manner. Ron Perlman enjoys himself in a wowzer role as a heavy, making his character funny, human and difficult to dislike. Indeed the other actors involved - Brook as the desperate old man, Isabel as the daughter - do their best to bring their own idiosyncrasies to the proceedings, giving this film an odd and very real edge.

The only flaw is in the climax, which drags things out into an old goodie vs. baddie battle to the death, the likes of which are hardly original. Also I disliked the inconclusive ending which manages to be arty and anti-climatic at the same time. As a recent horror film that doesn't rely on gore (there is little) and captures some of the old magic that Mario Bava and Dario Argento used to fill their films with, this proves to be both thoughtful and interesting - providing you're in the right mood, that is. Ever see a curate's egg? This is the one for you. 6.9/10