Guillermo del Toro Reflects on Pan's Labyrinth at 20, Blade 2, and His Creature-Centric Cinema
In a wide-ranging interview, the filmmaker discusses the 20th anniversary re-release of Pan's Labyrinth, his philosophy of practical creature design, working with Wesley Snipes on Blade 2, and his unrealized BioShock adaptation.
Guillermo del Toro is marking the 20th anniversary of Pan's Labyrinth with a return to theaters this weekend, and the filmmaker used the occasion to reflect on a career defined by monsters, handmade craft, and a lifelong belief that creatures should be seen, not hidden.
Speaking during a sit-down conversation, del Toro explained that his approach to creature design is rooted in the fables and parables he loved as a child. «Everybody says, 'Oh, don't show the creature.' I think, show it, please. I'm seven years old. I want to see it. I want to love it,» he said. For del Toro, the creature is never merely a visual effect. It is the conceptual heart of the story — the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood, the embodiment of good, evil, purity, or tragedy. The Pale Man in Pan's Labyrinth, he noted, represents «a blind veracity,» while the Creature in Frankenstein embodies «a tragic humanity.»
That philosophy has made del Toro one of the most distinctive visual stylists in modern film, and it has also made him a reference point for other directors. He confirmed that Christopher Nolan showed him an early cut of his upcoming film in IMAX, and that Nolan cited del Toro as an inspiration for the practical effects used to create the Cyclops. «I loved it,» del Toro said of the sequence. He described Nolan as «absolutely laser-focused» and someone whose vision has remained consistent over the roughly 15 years they have known each other.
Del Toro also placed his own work in a broader conversation about how filmmakers approach technology. He pointed to Nolan's commitment to shooting on negative and to James Cameron's exploration of performance capture, describing each director as being on a personal quest. His own quest, he said, is «handmade by humans for humans» — a principle that extends from his model kits to his Cabinet of Curiosities and into the massive set pieces he built for Pan's Labyrinth on a stretched budget.
The interview also touched on del Toro's experience directing Blade 2, the 2002 vampire sequel starring Wesley Snipes. He described what it was like working with Snipes on the film, which remains a cult favorite among comic-book movie fans and helped establish del Toro's reputation in Hollywood before he moved on to projects like Hellboy and The Shape of Water.
Among the unrealized projects del Toro discussed was a BioShock movie, an adaptation of the acclaimed video game that he was at one point attached to direct. The project never came to fruition, but del Toro's account of how close it came adds another chapter to the long list of ambitious films that almost made it to the screen under his direction.
Del Toro's monster-kid sensibility traces back to the Universal classics and the creature designers he admired as a child, including Milicent Patrick, who designed the Gill-man for Creature from the Black Lagoon and the Metaluna Mutant for This Island Earth. He recalled recognizing her signature in the designs the way another child might recognize a movie star. That early fascination with the artists behind the creatures — Jack Pierce, Dick Smith, the Westmore family — shaped his conviction that creature design «ushers a different reality» and deserves to be celebrated rather than obscured.
With Pan's Labyrinth back in theaters, audiences have another chance to see that conviction on the big screen. The film's return also offers a reminder of how del Toro's handmade aesthetic has remained consistent even as the industry around him has shifted toward digital tools. He acknowledged that other filmmakers are pursuing different paths, but framed his own as a deliberate choice rather than a rejection of technology. For del Toro, the creature is still the point — and after two decades, Pan's Labyrinth remains one of the clearest statements of that idea.
7
