Cronos

Written and directed by Guillermo del Toro in 1992, Cronos was the work of a filmmaker who understood the parameters of the horror genre yet very willing to tinker with them.

Cronos is by and large a variation of the vampire film with the owners of a device that once activated leaves them craving blood. It’s also a sort of monster movie – albeit featuring a small one - which is another horror staple that del Toro would play with in Mimic (1997).

The film’s opens with an alchemist and his invention moving swiftly through the centuries to 1937 where (possibly) the same man is found in a collapsed building. He’s incredibly old with marbled blue skin on the verge of death, the device – Cronos - however has been lost.

The film then moves to an antique shop owned by Jesus (Federico Luppi) into which a stranger arrives looking for something quite specific. Later on Angel de la Guarida (Ron Perlman) enters and makes an offer of a particular statuette of an archangel.

La Guardia knows what to expect but unfortunately for him Jesus has already found the Cronos which punctured his hand drawing blood. The effects are almost immediate as he physically begins to change; he feels and looks younger. More troubling he is tempted by raw meat and then blood.

Meanwhile Angel is getting ever more frustrated with his uncle De La Guardia (Claudio Brook) who is after the machine for himself and is fully conversant with the strict lore that surrounds it. Something that Jesus is not aware of.
The film has its moments of horror and some disgust as when Jesus’s blood cravings force him to lick blood off a toilet floor, and when the Cronos finally has control of him.

It’s quite loosely directed which gives the actors a lot of space to work in. This is something Perlman makes good use of as an archetypal villain and Luppi whose contented life is ruined by his discovery. Through all the violence Jesus still has a good heart and loves and is loved by his granddaughter Aurora (Tamara Xanath) who remains loyal to him throughout.

This is not a complicated story and doesn’t carry the sort of symbolism that would mark out these early films specifically those set during the Spanish civil war. This is far more straightforward with Gothic overtones and quite Hammerish in places.

What it was, was statement of intent from a burgeoning talent acknowledging but not beholden to the past or conventions of horror or indeed mainstream cinema.

Cronos will be re-released in cinemas in the UK & Ireland on 15 May 2026.