Top 10 Guillermo del Toro Movie Monsters/Creatures!

Last Updated on August 3, 2021

How many of you have already seen Guillermo del Toro’s new film THE SHAPE OF WATER? How many of you have tickets in tow with plans to see it this weekend? Well, please do, because if you haven’t heard, THE SHAPE OF WATER is not only one of the absolute best films of the year, it’s easily del Toro’s finest work to date. He even admitted as much himself, also calling it his personal favorite of all his own movies (supplanting THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE). Truly magnificent, masterful and moving, go out and see it as soon as you can!

One of the reasons the film is so great is because of the outlandish and otherworldly Amphibian Man (Doug Jones), one in a long line of imaginative movie monsters and creatures del Toro has conjured and fashioned over the years. Straight up, when it comes to this territory, no one digs further and owns more real estate than Guillermo del Toro. Dude’s the master creator of creepy and lovable creatures alike, and in the following list, we pay tribute to some of our very favorite. Scroll down to peep our Top 10 Guillermo del Toro Movie Monsters/Creatures!

#1. THE PALE MAN (PAN’S LABYRINTH)

Where the hell would Guillermo del Toro be without the great Doug Jones? Where would Doug Jones be without the peerless visionary director? Indeed, a symbiosis of the highest order has culminated in a sixth collaboration between the two via this year’s THE SHAPE OF WATER, and while we could have easily bestowed Jones’ Amphibian Man the top honor (this guy should get an Oscar nod), let’s not sleep on how memorably iconic Jones was as The Pale Man in del Toro’s first bona fide international smash, PAN’S LABYRINTH. Indeed, the odious child-eating ghoul with saggy skin and eyeballs on his hands proved so scary when chasing Ofelia through his dark lair that Stephen King himself was caught squirming by del Toro when sitting next to each other at the film’s premiere. When you move the King, you take the gold!

#2. THE REAPERS (BLADE II)

Well well, take a look at that radiant smile. Gorgeous! Given how del Toro has sort of become a brand name unto himself over the years, it’s easy to forget he was at the helm of a franchise he didn’t create. Alas, BLADE II is a more than competent sequel, in no small part thanks to the mortifying monsters he designed, realized and put square in the aim of Wes Snipes. The primary band of baddies, called Reapers, were a race of bald, alabaster-skinned, foul-mouthed, pointy-eared, artificially enhanced vampires whose immunity to garlic and silver and higher dependency on fresh blood proved a tough task for our hero Blade to jettison. Well, tougher. With a wide opening, triangular maw equipped with a large tube-like tongue for feeding, the Reapers are easily one of the nastiest and gnarliest creatures del Toro’s conjured!

#3. ANGEL OF DEATH (HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY)

No joke, HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY just might have the highest population of mystical monsters and curious creatures of any del Toro film to date. My lord. But one we absolutely could not omit from this here monster mash is the Angel of Death, a character that serves as the benevolent semi-demon HELLBOY’s own personification of death. Whenever the gruff, tough-talking, cigar-chomping badass is this close to biting the bullet, there the Angel of Death shows up the ferry his tortured soul. What stands out here is the eyeless, mushroom-shaped skeletal face, haggard body, and ornate wings festooned with a dozen or so eyeballs. Shite’s both freaky, fanciful and downright frightening at once.

#4. JUDAS BREED (MIMIC)

MIMIC was a notoriously bad experience for del Toro, namely due to Bob Weinstein’s constant nagging and needless studio interference clouding his vision on set. The studio also forced del Toro to reshoot a happier ending after a poor test screening, the result of which led to del Toro never working with the Weinsteins ever again. I think he’s okay with that decision right about now. Just as he should be okay with the decision he made when designing the deadly Judas Breed, the hideous insectile termite-mantis mutation that served as the ferocious foe in MIMIC. Shite’s are as foul as they come! Of course, the notion is taken once step further when the six-legged creatures with prickly pincers develop the ability to literally mimic the likeness of their (often human) prey in order to kill it faster.

#5. THE FAUN (PAN’S LABYRINTH)

As only he could, the great Doug Jones pulls double duty in PAN’S LABYRINTH, both roles proving as vital cogs that churn the story forward toward perpetual beauty. As El Fauno (The Faun, aka Pan), Jones gives a neutral, almost bipolar role as a creature that tows the line between light and dark, good and evil. While there to help shepherd Ofelia through the various tasks she must complete in order to reunite with her real parents in the Underworld, it’s the Faun the critically informs the young girl of her true identity as Princess Moanna. Visually striking, The Faun has animalistic features that include a cross-section of dear-ears, large ram horns, a leonine nose and catlike eyes…all perched atop a humanoid body. Definitely one of del Toro’s most memorable creatures!

#6. KARL RUPRECHT KROENEN (HELLBOY)

Since it’d be too easy and obvious to simply cite the titular demon half-breed himself, HELLBOY, why not go the other way and hail del Toro’s adaptation of Dr. Karl Ruprecht Kroenen instead? But it’s true friends, Guillermo gave the disgraced doctor a massive makeover from comic-page to screen by turning Kroenen into a “mechanical clockwork Nazi zombie,” as he described it to Collider in the past. Going from a meek, mild-mannered yes-man in the comic to a cold-blooded assassin in the film, Dr. Kroenen fortifies himself with a metal prosthetic hand, a steel spinal rod, and a clockwork wind-up heart to go along with his trusty gas-mask.

#7. MR. WINK (HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY)

The benevolent beast known as Mr. Wink in del Toro’s HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY is one of the most lovingly huggable of all the filmmaker’s creations. Technically codified as a cave troll, Mr. Wink serves as the protective pal and right hand man of Prince Nuada. Speaking of right hands, check out Mr. Wink’s giant mechanical fist, which he can launch a good distance at any opposing force before retracting back via a long chain that tethers to a socket on his arm. Too bad Mr. Wink met his ultimate maker when getting into an ill-advised tussle with HELLBOY himself. RIP Mr. Wink!

#8. CATHEDRAL HEAD (HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY)

No, that isn’t one of those creepy ass masks from the EYES WIDE SHUT orgy-ball, but damn it’s not far off is it!? Sheesh. Only the imagination of Guillermo del Toro could give us a creature called Cathedral Head, a map-shop owner found in the Troll Market of HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY, who literally rocks an ornately detailed, double-towered cathedral for a forehead and hairdo. Even amid a sea of otherworldly beasts and beings sloshing about the market, Cathedral Head can’t help but stick out with its lit-up stained glass windows for eyes. And that wasn’t even the full extent of what del Toro wanted. “Originally the idea was to have little humans running around the ramparts, but the budget wouldn’t allow it,” reported del Toro about Cathedral Head around 2008.

#9. TRESPASSER KAIJU (PACIFIC RIM)

PACIFIC RIM is easily del Toro’s least appealing film to date. That said, it’s nearly impossible for even an inferior film of the Mexican fantasist to NOT feature at least one superior movie monster. And sure, we could have easily opted to favor the electromagnetic charging Leatherback Kaiju, the Swiss army knife Otachi Kaiju, or hell, even that bullish Scunner mofo, but since the Trespasser Kaiju was the first in the film to emerge from the breach and attack humanity, we’ll ride with that big bastard all the way to the end. Given an unclassified category of Kaiju, the 302-foot tall mega-monster arrived after a 7.1 earthquake hit the Bay Area, giving way to it utterly destroying the Golden Gate Bridge and everything on it. After a 6-day battle with the military, it took 3 nuclear missiles to finally end the Trespasser for good!

#10. GHOSTS (CRIMSON PEAK)

While CRIMSON PEAK is among my favorite del Toro flicks, its baleful brand of maddening monsters and killer creatures are admittedly of a different breed altogether. They’re of the ghastly, ghostly and ghoulish variety, none of which more resplendently macabre than than the one depicted above. Look at that stunning shade of rouge, so plush, so vibrant, so integral to the thick red clay on which the mysterious mansion in the film is founded. In fact, every shade of red seen or worn has a direct correlation to the ghosts in the film. Ghosts that, you may have noticed, do more helpful admonishing and protecting of Edith than physically threatening her. A horror film? More of a classical Gothic romance with apparitions on the periphery!