Cronos (1993)

   

Produced, Directed & Cinematography by: Guillermo del Toro

Starring:

Federico Luppi .... Jesus Gris
Ron Perlman .... Angel de la Guardia
Claudio Brook .... De la Guardia
Tamara Shanath .... Aurora
Margarita Isabel .... Mercedes


Release Dates:
Toronto Film Festival: September 12, 1993; Fantasporto Film Festival: February, 1994; New York Directors and New Films Festival: March 24, 1994; Limited Theatrical: March 30, 1994 (USA); Thessaloniki International Film Festival: November 19, 1995

 

Rating:

 

Faced with his own morality, an ingenious alchemist back in 1535 tried to perfect an invention that would provide him with the key to eternal life. It was called the Cronos device which is a little metal golden machine shaped like an insect.
When he died more than 400 years later, he took the secrets of this remarkable device to the grave with him.

Present day an elderly antique dealer named Jesus Gris (Federico Luppi) runs a shop with his wife Mercedes (Margarita Isabel) and his granddaughter Aurora (Tamara Smith) as he found this hellish machine inside a small statue as he studies it but it laches onto him and becomes younger.

Jesus is also troubled by a criminal named De la (Claudio Brook) who sets his hulking nephew Angel (Ron Perlman) to vandalsie his shop and will do anything to get it away from him even if it means killing him but however, Jesus can't seem to die but his skin is starting to peel off and needs to feed on blood to heal his pain.

 

The film is a little slow but does have some amusing moments too. There are nice moments between Jesus Gris and Aurora portraying grandfather and granddaughter.
A nice shot on Jesus holding the golden type metal insect figure as it pokes at him and he acts aroused which was passable too.
Good shot down on him pointing an accusation along with a good shot up on Angel de la Guardia.
There's a good shot on Jesus on a washroom floor lapping up some blood which looked believeably gross along with a good kick in the head shot which makes you jump a bit.
A nice shot on a vehicle falling off a cliff.
There's great aggressions coming from De la Guardia towards Angel as it almost looks like a dysfunctional moment between uncle and nephew working together in a hitman businesslike.
A good shot closing in on Jesus looking dazed after being a victim in a car that fell off the cliff.
A good discussion between De la telling Jesus what is happening to him when Jesus himself realises that his skin is peeling off and what he needs to do.
A nice creepy look with Jesus attacking De la and then him drinking his blood.
A good battling sequence between Angel and Jesus on top of a roof with Angel sounding dark.
There's a perfect shot on Jesus looking dazed and hungrylike while grabbing onto Aurora.
Bottom line: Well I had a hard time following the story of this sort of vampire like tale as at first I found the story to go nowhere and I found it unexplainable on how this person became a blood sucking freak only to be poked by this metal type of insect object.
There's the odd funny one liners here and there but other than that I found this movie to be a bit of a drag although many others adored it and was a winning succes at film festivals. Maybe I'm not used to too many foreign films.

The acting is average although it is mostly spoken in Spanish as we have lead actor Federico Luppi (Jesus Gris) pulling off his character not too bad as a troubled grandfather having to live the lifestyle of a vampire type of role. Reacts well in a scene when sunlight hits him from a holey type roof acting in pain.
Ron Perlman
(Angel de la Guardia) stole the film with his nutty and comedic performance as a sort of hitman type of character proving himself to be quite a ham and menacing too. Does well in a scene by throwing someone around as well as punching him along with a good close up shot swinging his fist showing a menacing expression. Did a nice cackly laughter in another spot of the flick.
Claudio Brook
(De la Guardia) seems to be good at being loud and grgressive as the nasty uncle type mobster but is a little too persistent with it.

There's some blood dripping as well as some skin torn off.

The music is very well composed by the likes of Javier Álvarez as he delightfully composes some polka type music along with the nice violin soundings and the dark intensity sound effects too.