With del Toro’s first feature film, we can already see hallmarks of future movies.

When a shopkeeper comes into possession of an unusual antique, he unwittingly becomes victim to a means of renewed vitality and immortality. But the cost is great, and others want what he has found…

Cronos is the 1992 film written and directed by then newcomer Guillermo del Toro. It stars Federico Luppi, Claudio Brook, Tamara Xanath, and Ron Perlman. Having made short films previously, Cronos would pick up smaller awards and nominations from Cannes, Saturn Awards, among others. It had a ballooning budget during development, which in part led to Perlman accepting a salary cut, while del Toro himself had to choose between eating and finishing the movie.

The result though, is an intriguing, metaphor-laden, and unique movie.

The movie starts with narration, introducing the titular Cronos Device. A piece of clockwork, sized to fit in the palm, created in the 1700s by an alchemist in Mexico. This device was lost to time. Its supposed ability to halt death lost after its creator’s death in a building collapse.
Centuries later, an antique dealer comes into possession of a statue. But hidden within a compartment is a strange, gilded device. Upon studying it, it pierces his skin, and over the coming days he has experienced youthful vigour. But at the same time, a mysterious man comes looking for the statue… and the shopkeeper now has an insatiable thirst.

Years and years ago now, I watched Cronos. It was just after seeing Pan’s Labyrinth, in which my love for del Toro’s visions manifested. Luckily, the film got a digital re-release in cinemas this year (2026) with the director himself working with the restoration team. Perhaps more fortunately still, I couldn’t remember a great deal; so I could approach it with relatively fresh eyes.

As many debut projects are, Cronos has a lot of creativity. But even more of the creative’s hallmarks. Our signature device is clockwork; and del Toro’s movies are riddled with clockwork. From Pan’s Labyrinth to Hellboy. There’s even monster design in Cronos that is extremely familiar to the director’s 2025 Frankenstein adaptation. What Cronos is lacking, it does make up for in paving the way forward for a visionary director.

The film is of two parts, and each have different tones. The first half is a slow, methodical unwrapping of the premise. After the rather clunky narration, we are introduced to Mr Gris (Luppi), and his granddaughter Aurora. They take care of shop bursting with antiques. Already, del Toro’s love for mysterious artefacts, trinkets, and symbology are at play. The two characters have neat chemistry, even with the young Aurora (who is a split of Ophelia from Pan’s Labyrinth) played virtually mute. There is trepidation and concern over their discovery of the device.

The gears shift in tone with escalation as Ron Perlman’s Angel arrives. The nephew of a rich dying man who knows of the Cronos Device’s existence. Angel is kept in the dark, and proceeds to aggressively bumble into situations like a bull in a china shop. Or an antique shop, perhaps. But the film is suitably creepy throughout, although not overtly horror. A lot of the focus is on the device itself, an ornate, sophisticated object. It still looks convincing today.

This tonal shift is welcome. Without Perlman’s aggressive, comical antics and expressions, Cronos would be incredibly dour and simply too macabre. Del Toro does enjoy infusing some levity into the movie, not just with Angel, but through unspoken, visual humour.
His love for monsters is front and centre, something that only magnifies across his filmography. Aurora becomes the only friend Gris has as his addiction to the device progresses. The imagery of monster and child, fledging and raw here, is both a classical draw for del Toro, but also a recurring visual.

The film is heavy with religious metaphor, but also the significance of time. It is set during Christmas time. It features a literal resurrection, angels, a character named Angel, and our main character is literally called Jesus. Okay, that last one is too far, del Toro. You don’t need to beat us over the head with the metaphor.

As mentioned, the film had a ballooning budget, outside the team’s capacity. But the movie only runs at ninety minutes. One is left imagining what more could have been added. The middle act feels a bit vacant of character development, which leaves the finale’s climax feeling a little underwhelming. The resolution is still effective, but the penultimate beat is a little lacking.

If you are a fan of del Toro’s works, I highly recommend watching Cronos. It is rough around the edges, but the vision and ideas that make his movies his creations are already present.

It was great to see on the big screen.