Vampire movies were once very popular among fans, especially during the turn of the 21st century. It was so in demand that the industry became oversaturated with storylines centered on hot and brooding bloodsuckers. Ask anyone if they’ve seen or heard about Twilight, and more often than not, the answer is yes.
Years before the arrival of Edward Cullen, we had Guillermo del Toro introducing a different kind of vampire that we’ve never seen before—no handsome guy glistening under the sun and no s*xual undertones that most gothic films portray whenever they feature vampiric characters.
Guillermo del Toro’s Cronos deviated from Hollywood’s erotic vampire trope
Guillermo del Toro has taken us inside his magical world of monsters, and those who have followed his works through the years are aware of his experimentations when it comes to modern folklore. Vampires in stories have been around for years, and in 1992, he decided to make an inventive narrative that tackled the myth of these creatures but not in an erotic way.
Cronos was del Toro’s first feature film which starred Federico Luppi and Ron Perlman. It follows an elderly antique dealer who discovers a 460-year-old mechanism that would change his life. The device grips his skin and inserts a needle, with the insect inside filtering his blood. Soon, he noticed the changes in his body as he became invigorated with life. The catch is that he also developed a thirst for blood.
In his interview with The Guardian, del Toro agreed that the movie is a unique take on the vampire genre, but instead of focusing on the elements of eroticism, it discussed human addiction. “I don’t like to think about vampirism as just an erotic alternative,” he said. Jesús Gris, the main character, initially resisted the temptation but eventually succumbed to it. The religious contrast was also prevalent as he used the device at night while uttering his prayers.
Critics lauded del Toro for the film’s originality, especially in terms of its allusion to religion. The perfect balance of gothic horror and drama, as well as overcoming addiction towards the end of the film, was noteworthy.
Guillermo del Toro’s theory on people’s obsession with vampires
Over the years, Hollywood pushed for vampire movies with attractive creatures as evident in 1994’s Interview with the Vampire with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. Before Twilight, it was perhaps the most erotic mainstream film centered on vampires with a s*xual emphasis on blood-sucking rather than an explanation of why they needed to do so.
Del Toro explained via WNYC that people’s fascination and disgust for vampires go back to the olden times. “My own theory is that we, as anthropoids, at some point, were cannibalistic, and when we became social, we created this mythology to deal with our past,” he noted.
He said that in oral tradition, vampires never had elements of seduction as what we’ve usually seen in modern movies. The romantic vampire was only born in Western literature.
Cronos is currently available to watch on Max.
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