It's easy to forget that behind del Toro's acclaimed masterpieces, before the Oscars and worldwide fame, he was making strange, intimate, almost homemade films—ones where you could already spot his signature dark style taking shape.
The director turned 61 on October 9, and it's the perfect time to revisit his early work—the films almost nobody talks about today.
One's about mechanical immortality, the other about mutant cockroaches deciding they want to be human.
Cronos (1993)
Cast: Federico Luppi, Ron PerlmanRotten Tomatoes Score: 88%
Mexico, a modest budget, and 29-year-old del Toro deciding to flip vampire mythology on its head.
In 1536, an alchemist creates a device called the "Cronos"—a strange mechanical contraption that looks like a golden spider. It grants eternal life, but demands payment: blood.
Critics didn't know what to make of it then. They still don't, really. Some wrote that "the film falls apart in the second half," others called it "a brilliant debut that should be required viewing in film schools." And some, like the Philadelphia Inquirer on RT, simply said: "It's a different take on vampires. Cool."
Cronos won the Critics' Prize at Cannes and marked del Toro's first statement of intent: dark fairy tales where the monsters aren't the real monsters—people are.
Today, the film feels a bit naive, but you can already sense the future master at work—the one who'd later make "The Devil's Backbone" and "Pan's Labyrinth". Even Ron Perlman's here—the beginning of their long creative partnership.
Mimic (1997)
Cast: Mira Sorvino, Jeremy Northam, Giancarlo GianniniRotten Tomatoes Score: 67%
In the '90s, Guillermo makes his Hollywood debut—and immediately runs into producer Bob Weinstein.
A script about giant cockroaches mutated through genetic modification gets turned into an action-horror hybrid, and del Toro has to fight for every frame.
The plot's straightforward: scientists create a special breed of insects to stop an epidemic. But the "Judas breed" turns out smarter than expected.
Three years pass—and underground, new mutants emerge that haven't just survived, but learned to mimic humans.
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Fun fact: according to IMDb, del Toro and Weinstein clashed constantly during production. Weinstein kept demanding additions, the director kept pushing back. They never worked together again.
Over time, "Mimic" became a cult favorite among horror fans. Some call it "del Toro's weakest film," others "an underrated horror with perfect '90s atmosphere." But almost everyone agrees: without this film, there'd be no "The Devil's Backbone" or "Crimson Peak".
Both "Cronos" and "Mimic" are uneven, sometimes strange, but beautiful and atmospheric films. They already contain everything the world would later love del Toro for: the ability to tell scary stories with warmth. Earlier on zoomboola.com, we covered "Maelström": Denis Villeneuve's strangest film, where a fish narrates the story.
