Last week, I took advantage of the re-release of writer and director Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) in theaters to see it on the big (well, bigger) screen. The strange, sad, dreamy marvel of it bears as many rewatches as a person’s heart can take. Like so much of del Toro’s catalogue, even those movies more firmly in the horror category, it makes no attempt to hide its heart, sometimes unabashedly romantic, sweetly sentimental even in the presence of literal monsters. The use of practical effects and del Toro’s vocal and expletive-filled rejections of AI, equaled only by his denouncing of the current rise of fascism, make him perhaps the perfect director for this moment.
In del Toro’s films, brutal and controlling masculinity — in the form of bullies, military men, bureaucrats and unyielding fathers — is set in opposition to protective and nurturing male figures, like grandfathers, doctors and kind neighbors. We’re shown not only how the spirits and bodies of women and children are crushed under the former, but how they flourish under the care and freedom of the latter. Authoritarianism, as in his films set during the Spanish Civil War, is the same dynamic scaled up.
Here are 10 del Toro movies for the lead-up to Halloween. Barring serious scares and slashers, there’s bound to be something in there to hit the spooky spot.
FRANKENSTEIN (2025). Where better to start than a classic monster movie with lush visuals, epic scale and gothic drama? This adaptation of Mary Shelley’s genre-founding novel starring Oscar Isaac as the wild-eyed scientist, Christoph Waltz as his eccentric benefactor, Jacob Elordi as the tragic creature and Mia Goth as the unhappy object of Victor’s secondary obsession. Gore and gorgeousness in equal measure. R. 149M.
THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE. If you love an old-school ghost story, this is the one. After losing his father in the Spanish Civil War, Carlos (Fernando Tielve) arrives at an orphanage with an unexploded bomb in the courtyard, a boy’s ghost in the cistern and shady dealings going on at night. R. 106M.
PAN’S LABYRINTH (2006). Ready for a good cry and fuel for the revolution? Ivana Baquero stars as young Ofelia, who is uprooted with her pregnant mother to stay with her new stepfather, a merciless Spanish captain (Sergi López) in Franco’s army. She meets a faun (Doug Jones) who tells her she’s a princess of the moon who must pass three tests to reclaim her rightful place and tries to complete them amid the tumult of the adult world. R. 118M.
CRIMSON PEAK (2015). Dark gothic romance fans, light your candelabras for this one and enjoy some of the crossover elements between this film and Frankenstein. Mia Wasikowska plays a sheltered, wealthy aspiring novelist swept off her feet by the smooth talk and cheekbones of an inventor (Tom Hiddleston). Moving to his crumbling estate to live with him and his enigmatic sister (Jessica Chastain) soon gets scary. (See if you can spot Doug Jones.) R. 119M.
HELLBOY (2004). Ron Perlman takes the lead in heavy makeup and horns as the titular adopted demon raised by John Hurt to fight evil despite his supposedly destructive destiny, with his band of preternaturally talented misfits, including the amphibious Abe (Doug Jones) and Selma Blair as a fire starter. Humor, practical effects and surprising sweetness make this closer to Mummy material than standard Marvel fare. PG13. 122M.
HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY (2008). The main characters return to face off with Luke Goss as an otherworldly prince out to reclaim the earth from humans. Del Toro lets loose in this one with high fantasy, monsters, angst, goofiness and special effects. PG13. 120M.
BLADE II (2022). The Black, samurai sword-wielding half-vampire keeping the flat-top alive and the undead on their toes (Wesley Snipes, who turns out to have been the worst) is assisted by a team of vamps in frog suits, a bald Ron Perlman and Leonor Varela among them, the oft reincarnated Kris Kristofferson, Norman Reedus and is that Donnie Yen? It is. And del Toro has described his turn helming a Blade movie as something like “a cocaine movie,” so if that’s where you’re at, lock in. R. 117M.
PACIFIC RIM (2013). If you’re looking for larger monsters of, say, Godzilla proportions, you’ve come to the right movie. Kaiju are popping up all over the globe, and humans are defended by pairs of giant robot operators. Idris Elba, Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi (whose Mako Mori inspired her own Bechdel-style test for female characters) suit up for battle, while Charlie Day and Burn Gorman play odd couple scientists and Ron Perlman flashes onscreen as a gangster named Hannibal Chau because why not? PG13. 131M.
THE SHAPE OF WATER (2017). That Sally Hawkins, as a mute cleaning woman, and a non-speaking Doug Jones in a rubber fish suit, build a credible romance onscreen is somewhat astounding on its own. It’s also a story of rebellion against tyrants and, like so many of del Toro’s films, questions what makes one a monster. Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon and Richard Jenkins deliver wonderful performances as well. R. 123M.
NIGHTMARE ALLEY (2021). Cate Blanchett, Bradley Cooper and Toni Colette star in what’s got to be the darkest of del Toro’s movies. The story of uptown con artists and lowly sideshow frauds gives us some of his cruelest and most monstrous characters with nary a rubber suit in sight. R. 150M.
Jennifer Fumiko Cahill (she/her) is the managing editor at the Journal. Reach her at (707) 442-1400 ext. 106 or jennifer@northcoastjournal.com. Follow her on Bluesky and Instagram @JFumikoCahill.
NOW PLAYING
CALIFORNIA SCHEMIN’. Docu-comedy about a pair of young Scottish scammers (Samuel Bottomley, Séamus McLean Ross) who faked their way into a rap recording deal before getting busted. R. 107M. BROADWAY.
CRAWLERS. Killer spiders take over an apartment building in a horror movie clearly timed for pumpkin spider season. R. 86M. BROADWAY.
DIGGER. Tom Cruise dons makeup to look his actual age as an oil mogul who triggers an eco-apocalypse and makes an unrepentant power grab at saving the world from it. R. 128M. MINOR.
FLYWHEEL: IGNITION OF THE SOUL. Brazilian movie about a shady used car salesman (Mario Bregieira) trying to turn his life around. PG. 110M. BROADWAY.
FORGOTTEN ISLAND. Animated adventure about besties stranded in a magical world. PG. 109M. BROADWAY.
HEART OF THE BEAST. Brad Pitt fights for survival in the Alaskan wilderness with only his combat dog because Lord knows his kids aren’t talking to him. PG13. 101M. BROADWAY.
HISTORY OF CONCRETE. Comedy/documentary about a filmmaker trying to sell a movie about concrete with Hallmark marketing tips. NR. 102M. MINOR.
MUSK. Documentary about the feckless billionaire charisma void making cars uglier and the world worse. R. 232M. BROADWAY.
OTHER MOMMY. Jessica Chastain gives us all issues as a creepy doppelganger emerging from a girl’s closet and making ball pits even scarier. R. 93M. BROADWAY.
PRACTICAL MAGIC 2. Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman return as witchy sisters trying to break the family curse but like, could they also, you know? PG13. 110M. BROADWAY (3D), MINOR.
PRIMETIME. Drama about the To Catch a Predator guy (Robert Pattinson), who seems to have missed a few in and around the White House. R. 110M. BROADWAY.
RESIDENT EVIL. Director Zach Cregger takes a shot at the zombie action franchise with a medical courier (Austin Abrams) headed for Raccoon City. R. 93M. BROADWAY,.
SENSE AND SENSIBILITY. Adaptation of the Jane Austen novel with Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esmé Creed-Miles starring. PG. 131M. BROADWAY.
THE SOCIAL RECKONING. Drama based on the Facebook whistleblower who revealed the company’s dirty secrets to the Wall Street Journal. R. 112M. BROADWAY.
SPIRITED AWAY. Hayao Miyazaki animated fantasy about a girl whose parents are transformed before she’s brought to work in a supernatural spa. PG. 125M.BROADWAY, MINOR.
STREET FIGHTER. Andrew Koji, Noah Centineo and Callina Liang reboot the classic video game-spawned action movie about a life-or-death tournament. PG13. 120M. BROADWAY, MINOR.
VERITY. A writer (Dakota Jackson) takes a job ghostwriting the end of a book after an accident leaves its bestselling author (Anne Hathaway) comatose. R. 114M. BROADWAY.
WHALEFALL. Diver meets whale, whale swallows diver with an hour of oxygen in the tank. Starring Austin Abrams. PG13. 106M. BROADWAY.
YOU CAN’T LEAVE. Four friends in search of a missing woman get stuck in a haunted cabin in the woods. R. 92M. BROADWAY.
For showtimes, visit catheaters.com and minortheatre.com.
This article appears in Big Backyard Visitors.
