Real Weird: Guillermo del Toro saw a disappointing UFO

Last Updated on July 21, 2021

I've seen a lot of people, including Kurt Russell, report that they've spotted UFOs of some sort, but I can't say that I've ever seen someone criticize the design of a UFO before. Not until filmmaker Guillermo del Toro.

It was during a talk at Loyola Marymount University's School of Film & TV last month that del Toro revealed he has seen a UFO, and the detail that seems to have stuck with him the most over the years is how crappy the thing looked.

He said, 

I saw a UFO. I know this is horrible, you sound like a complete lunatic, but I saw a UFO. I didn't want to see a UFO. It was horribly designed. I was with a friend. We bought a six-pack. We didn't consume it, and there was a place called Cerro del Cuatro, "Mountain of the Four," on the periphery of Guadalajara. We said, ‘Let's go to the highway.’ We sit down to watch the stars and have the beer and talk. We were the only guys by the freeway. And we saw a light on the horizon going super-fast, not linear. And I said, ‘Honk and flash the lights.’ And we started honking. 

The UFO went from 1,000 meters away [to much closer] in less than a second — and it was so crappy. It was a flying saucer, so clichéd, with lights [blinking]. It's so sad: I wish I could reveal they're not what you think they are. They are what you think they are. And the fear we felt was so primal. I have never been that scared in my life. We jumped in the car, drove really fast. It was following us, and then I looked back and it was gone."

It's a good thing del Toro made sure to say that he and his friend hadn't consumed the alcohol before they saw the UFO, otherwise I'd be thinking their minds were less than clear during this encounter.

The director also mentioned that he has heard a ghost, 

a sighing ghost, [with] a really sad sigh."

I'm sure experiences like these have helped him craft the genre movies he's made.

The latest film by Guillermo del Toro, THE SHAPE OF WATER, is now in theatres.