Cronos 1993

Cronos (Guillermo del Toro, 1993) Okay, Cronos is not Citizen Kane. Nothing is. But, for the feature film directorial debut of a new film-maker, it is very, very impressive. That the film-maker's previous film, a short called Geometria, looks as amateurish as can be. But, Cronos is lush, complex, and fascinating to watch. That it is also a vampire movie (of a sorts) makes it a curiosity. That it is the product of Guillermo del Toro, and one of his original works (rather than an adaptation) makes it quite essential to watch.  

It begins with a prelude, setting a historical, supernatural context to its modern story of greed and selfishness.

"In 1536, fleeing from the Inquisition, the alchemist Humberto Oganelli disembarked in Veracruz, Mexico. Appointed official watchmaker to the viceroy, Oganelli was determined to perfect an invention which would provide him with the key to eternal life. He was to name it the Cronos device. Four hundred years later, one night in 1937, part of a wall in a building collapsed. Amongst the victims was a man of strange skin, the color of marble in moonlight, his chest mortally pierced. His last words: Sua tempore. This was the alchemist. The authorities located the residence of the dead man. What they found there was never fully revealed to the public. After a brief investigation, the mansion and its contents were sold at public auction. Never on any list or inventory was the Cronos device mentioned. As far as anyone knew, it never existed."

Nor did anyone know that a bizarre, grisly tableau was found in the mansion: a man hung like a rack of meat, his body drained of blood that was contained in bowls on the floor. But, one man knows the story. Industrialist-millionaire Dieter de la Guardia (Claudio Brook) is dying and has been acquiring statues of archangels that have been rumored to contain the Cronos device that for so many centuries had kept Oganelli alive. Confined to a private hospital room in his complex, de la Guardia dispatches his ruthless American nephew Angel (Ron Perlman) to hunt down any archangel statue he can find that might have come from the Organelli ruins in order to prolong his life. Despite desiring his inheritance does his bidding, if only to maintain the lifestyle he feels he deserves—and for a nose-job operation he craves.

Which brings Angel to the humble antique shop of Jesus Gris (Federico Luppi), a humble religious man who has just been sent a parcel containing an archangel statue for dispensation. Angel throws his weight around the antiguery and tries to wheedle the statue from Snr. Gris, but the parcel has only just arrived and he won't let it go until he's examined it and tried to determine its worth. Angel leaves reluctantly, but threatens to be back.

Examining it, Gris realizes that the statue is hollow and opening its base finds an ornate gold watch-like device, which fascinates both him and his mute granddaughter Aurora (Tamara Shanath). It is very old and piques his curiosity and he becomes determined to find out its secrets. In the meantime, Angel comes back and acquires the statue, thinking he's now obtained the Cronos device.

Alone in his shop, Gris examines the mechanism for the device and engages a fob on it. Six mechanical legs pop out of it, making it resemble a scarab. All well and good, but the old man is surprised when the legs suddenly clamp down on his hand painfully. Then, to his horror, the mechanism unfolds a large needle out of its pattern and jams it into his flesh. Unbeknownst to him—but revealed to the viewer—inside the Cronos, living among its gear-works is a pulsing grub-like creature which injects Gris with a liquid that weakens him. He is tended to by his mistress Mercedes (Margarita Isabel), who worries about the wound but tends to it, removing a stinger, and bandages it.

That night, Jesus can't sleep. Thirsty and feverish, he can't slack his thirst with water. He's drawn to the Cronos and engages it again and, despite the pain, feels better. He goes back to bed, but in the morning, the light is blinding and he draws the curtains. But, looking in the mirror, he appears younger, some of his wrinkles having disappeared. Inspired, he shaves off his mustache, and Mercedes is surprised at how more youthful he appears. He moves better, too, and is more energized. 

But, going to his shop, he finds it vandalized. The Cronos not being found in the archangel statue, de la Guardia has stepped up efforts and doing so less circumspectly. Jesus is brought to the millionaire and feigns ignorance, but de la Guardia gives him a history of the device and of his own worsening condition. Jesus is determined to not let the Cronos go, but the efforts to get them escalate, even as Jesus begins to be stronger to survive them. He even survives Angel locking him in the trunk of a car and tossing it off a cliff. Although appearing to be dead, Jesus survives, but his skin has begun to peel off, exposing a paler, shinier skin underneath. And, as he's discovered before the murder attempt, he has developed a taste for human blood.

Although at times grisly and a bit perverse at times, Cronos fascinates. Del Toro turns the old vampire story on its pointed ear by taking the victimization out of it and any faux-romantic niceties that have perfumed the animalism of it for decades. Oh, there is blood-letting and an instance of neck-sucking, but the violence by the particulars has more to do with common greed and selfishness than with any acquiring of blood. In fact, a lot of blood here goes to waste. It would make a vampire fangs rattle in fear.

But, the artistry with which its done is so far ahead of what others have, that one could see that del Toro would be a unique film-maker with a future that he seems to be living up to.