Cronos

Cronos is an intelligent and absorbing psychological horror movie about a small ancient device that sucks blood and its victim, an old grandfather who gradually succumbs to its seductive destruction. Guillermo del Toro had it together early in his career. (03/04/2003)

Del Toro’s feature length debut can have as many positive aspects as it likes (and there definitely has a few). It could be the most interesting (which it is), original (in places we could claim that), well acted and full of movie buff enthusiasm (the Blade Runner bit is excellent). But in my eyes, this still doesn’t make it a good movie and never will. Due to the pace. Chronos works as a sure-fire sleep potion that not even the nighttime streaming from the house of representatives or counting any number of sheep can counter. P.S.: The bonuses on the special edition are more entertaining than the movie itself. (29/05/2008)

If you focus only on the expression on his face, it looks like the old man is pleasuring himself with his palm, but it’s also about what Grey Jesus has in that palm. Entomological elements, completely calm children in the face of potentially traumatic experiences, Hellboy still in skin color and a roll-neck sweater à la Will Ferrell, amusing behavior from a non-cremator of corpses, and a fantasy feeling that became specific with subsequent films. Creative attributes are present, and some details are impressive (the hungry cleaning of men’s toilets), but it still doesn’t have the power to captivate like some future cabinets of curiosities. (21/03/2023)

Del Toro's Spanish-language films have a lot in common – the child at the center of the action who knows more and is generally wiser than the surrounding adult characters, an insect in center frame, or the absence of authorities/environmentalists who have the ability to resolve the situation from an outside pragmatic perspective. Cronos is something of a family horror film (despite a decent bloodiness) with very sensitive cinematography and surprisingly intricate camerawork for a debut. As with all of del Toro's horror films, it's not particularly about fear, but about the interplay between man and the supernatural, with both having something in store for the other. (22/06/2015)