The Transnational Fantasies of Guillermo del Toro

Offering a multifaceted approach to the Mexican-born director Guillermo del Toro, this volume examines his wide-ranging oeuvre and traces the connections between his Spanish language and English language commercial and art film projects. Offering a multifaceted approach to the Mexican-born director Guillermo del Toro, this book examines his many roles: as special effects meister, screenwriter, comic fan, and horror guru. The contributors marshal their expertise in the fields of horror, fantasy, the gothic, and Spanish and Latin American cinema to provide a comprehensive account of del Toro's work and its impact on Mexican, Spanish, and American film production. Examining his wide-ranging oeuvre (fiction writing, filmmaking, special effects), the contributors trace the connections between his Spanish language and English language commercial and art film projects Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Introduction....Pages 1-8 Front Matter....Pages 9-9 “There Is No Such Thing”: Del Toro’s Metafictional Monster Rally....Pages 11-28 Guillermo del Toro’s Monsters: Matter Out of Place....Pages 29-43 Myth and Monstrosity: The Dark Realms of H. P. Lovecraft and Guillermo del Toro....Pages 45-60 Front Matter....Pages 61-61 “This Is Something New ... or—Something Very, Very Old”: The Strain Trilogy in Context....Pages 63-82 Adapt or Die: Mimicry and Evolution in Guillermo del Toro’s English-Language Films....Pages 83-97 Of Monstrous Masses and Hybrid Heroes: Del Toro’s English-Language Films....Pages 99-120 Pacific Rim: Reception, Readings, and Authority....Pages 121-139 Front Matter....Pages 141-141 Reflected Horrors: Violence, War, and the Image in Guillermo del Toro’s El espinazo del diablo/The Devil’s Backbone (2001)....Pages 143-159 Transnational Political Horror in Cronos (1993), El espinazo del diablo (2001), and El laberinto del fauno (2006)....Pages 161-182 Between Fantasy and Reality: the Child’s Vision and Fairy Tales in Guillermo del Toro’s Hispanic Trilogy....Pages 183-197 Back Matter....Pages 199-210 Offering a multifaceted approach to the Mexican-born director Guillermo del Toro, this book examines his many roles: as special effects meister, screenwriter, comic fan, and horror guru. The contributors marshal their expertise in the fields of horror, fantasy, the gothic, and Spanish and Latin American cinema to provide a comprehensive account of del Toro's work and its impact on Mexican, Spanish, and American film production. Examining his wide-ranging oeuvre (fiction writing, filmmaking, special effects), the contributors trace the connections between his Spanish language and English language commercial and art film projects. --Provided by publisher