Sunday, October 07, 2018

31 Days of Halloween - Day 7 - Movie 2




In The Shape of Water (2017) Elisa, a mute cleaning woman at a secret military facility outside of Baltimore, befriends, then falls in love with, the amphibious humanoid that is being kept there for experimentation. He sympathy for the fish-man lead her to wanting to save him from the true monster of the story, Strickland, the creature's keeper. This leads to a daring rescue carried out by the people that society ignores; a mute cleaning woman, a black cleaning woman, a gay man, and a spy with a conscience.

Guillermo Del Toro's romantic fairy tale set in the Cold War era 1962, won pretty much every award there was. Deservedly so. It is probably his best movie (though not my favorite). The script is superb, the art direction flawless, and the cast phenomenal, bringing layers of nuance to their archetypes. Everything comes together to form a perfect love letter to classic monster films and classic cinema in general. If you haven't seen it yet, you need to.

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