Fox Searchlight Pictures has released the first trailer for The Shape of Water, the latest film from director Guillermo Del Toro. It arrives this December and stars Doug Jones, Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Octavia Spencer, and a further assortment of notable players. What’s it about? Find out below before you view the trailer!
An other-worldly story, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1963. In the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa (Hawkins) is trapped in a life of silence and isolation. Elisa’s life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda (Spencer) discover a secret classified experiment.
This film looks like the answer to the question, “What if the Gill-man actually got the girl in Creature from the Black Lagoon?”. It is definitely another dark fairytale from Del Toro, falling more in line with his Spanish-language films (i.e. The Devil’s Backbone, Pan’s Labyrinth) than his Hollywood blockbusters (Hellboy, Pacific Rim). Naturally a Hellboy connection nonetheless exists, given the inclusion of an otherworldly aquatic creature with a penchant for eggs. Still, it lacks the bombast of genre films like Blade 2 and Mimic, opting more for a weird love story.
This direction very much appeals to me, but I have to wonder how interested the public at large will be in seeing this on the big screen. While I enjoy Del Toro’s bigger Hollywood films, movies such as this are where he most feels himself. Smaller films where he can retain full creative freedom. I hope it pans out for him and we get even more such films from him going forward.
The Shape of Water is an original fantasy-romance film. It is directed by Guillermo Del Toro, from a screenplay by Vanessa Taylor and Guillermo Del Toro. The picture is produced by J. Miles Dale and Guillermo Del Toro. The film stars Sally Hawkins as ‘Elisa’, Michael Shannon as ‘Strickland’, Octavia Spencer as ‘Zelda’, Lauren Lee Smith as ‘Elaine’, Richard Jenkins as ‘Giles’, and Doug Jones as the creature. Nick Searcy, David Hewlett, and Michael Stuhlberg also appear.
The Shape of Water arrives in theaters on December 8th, 2017.
