Born in Guadalajara, Jalisco,Guillermo del Torodeveloped a passion for cinemaat a very young age. By the time he was eight years old, he began shooting short stop-motion films using toys and his dad’s Super 8 camera. In high school, he made short films and taught Claymation classes. After attending the University of Guadalajara’s film studies program, he spent much of the ’80s working as a special effects makeup artist.
Following his switch to filmmaking, he got his big break withCronos(1992), which won nine Ariel Awards, the Mexican equivalent of the Oscars, and gained international recognition. Since then, he’s gone on to write and direct numerous incredible films,most notably,The Devil’s Backbone(2001),Pan’s Labyrinth(2006),Crimson Peak(2015), andThe Shape of Water(2017). The Mexican native is among the most creative and visionary artists of his generation. Known for his unique ability to see beauty in all things dark, he’s often praised for his intricate storytelling, distinct visual style, and his blending of fantasy andhorrorin tales with emotional depth.
Throughout his career, he’s been extremely vocal about the films that have inspired his work, as well as those he deeply admires,recommending a plethora of movies to his fans. It comes as no surprise that he has often cited works in the horror genre. While there are too many of his favorites to be contained in a single list, these are 10 of the best of his most beloved horror movies.
10’Frankenstein' (1931)
Frankenstein
Directed by James Whale, an early pioneer in horror and the filmmaker instrumental to the feel ofUniversal’s classic monster movies,Frankensteinis loosely based on Mary Shelley’s novel. Dr. Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive), a man obsessed with creating life, stitches together body parts from dead bodies and uses electricity to reanimate them into Boris Karloff’s legendary Monster. Given del Toro’s love for monsters, it’s no wonder that the sympathetic, misunderstood creature is one of his favorites.
Humanizing Monsters
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter,he shared that he first watched the film at six years old and likened seeing the Monster come to life to seeing the statue of a martyr. He remembered thinking, “This is the Messiah that has been promised. He is not going to last. Such purity cannot last in the world of men,” continuing with, “And sure enough, it did not.” The Mexican filmmaker namedFrankensteinas one of his favorite films in a 2012 Sight & Sound poll,going on to say, “Frankenstein is a film — and a tale — that touches the very essence of what I am and all that I believe in.” This explains why he wanted to make his own rendition. No one in modern times is better suited to bring the literary classic to the screen again.
9’The Uninvited' (1944)
The Uninvited
The Uninvitedis a masterclass in haunted house storytelling. Thequeer-coded classic horror moviedraws inspiration from Dorothy Macardle’s 1941 novel,Uneasy Freehold, and is directed by Lewis Allen. It follows siblings Rick and Pamela Fitzgerald (Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey), who become enamored with an old cliffside estate while vacationing on the English coast and decide to buy it. The mansion may have come at a low price, but it also came with a haunting.
A Personal Favorite
During a press tour forCrimson Peak, del Torospoke to IGNabout some of his favorite ghost films. Gushing aboutThe Uninvited, he said, “It very much uses ghosts the way I use ghosts, which is a big challenge. To use ghosts as a scary thing that is evil is an easy thing. You just give background to the audience saying they are demonic or the specter of a mass murderer. If you treat ghosts with neutrality in order to make them characters, that’s so hard, andThe Uninviteddoes it in such a beautiful way and better than I ever could. Watch that movie, it’s really good.” It’s evident that this film influencedthe writer-director’s aforementioned work, as well asThe Devil’s Backbone.
8’Eyes Without a Face' (1960)
Eyes Without a Face
Considered a major influential work, Georges Franju’s French existential horrorEyes Without a Faceis one of the most beautiful and disturbing films of all time. It tells the chilling tale of a brilliant surgeon, Dr. Génessier (Pierre Brasseur), whose daughter, Christiane (Édith Scob), is severely disfigured in a car accident caused by him. His love and guilt turn him into a serial killer who murders young women and steals their faces, in an obsession with successfully performing a facial transplant on his daughter.
An Engrossing Film About Identity and the Unattainable Ideal of Beauty
When discussing his favorites in the Criterion Collection, he said, “It influenced me a lot with the contrast between beauty and brutality.” In a list ofhis top 10 Criterions, the filmmaker shared that the film depends on “sublime, almost ethereal, imagery to convey a sense of doom and loss: mad, fragile love clinging for dear life in a maelstrom of darkness. The clash of haunting and enchanting imagery has seldom been more powerful,” and then went on to gush about its musical score.
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7’Kwaidan' (1964)
Kwaidan, which literally translates to “Ghost Story,” is a fascinating epic horror anthology by legendary Japanese filmmaker Misaki Kobayashi. The eerie film explores four different compelling talestied to folklorein Japan — a regretful swordsman haunted by the spirit of his ex-wife’s long black hair, an encounter between a woodcutter and a yuki-onna (snow spirit), a blind musician cursed to play for samurai ghosts, and a writer plagued by a vision in his cup of tea. While the entries may seem unrelated, they all involve the living encountering the dead and are thematically linked.
A Rare Oscar-Nominated Horror Film
Don’t let its three-hour runtime discourage you.Kwaidanis one ofthe most enduring pieces of Japanese cinema, and one you can watch in different sittings. When speaking to Criterion about his love of the film, he stated that it’s “a fairy tale that is both incredibly scary and incredibly beautiful and talks about love and death with equal passion.” In a tweet to his followers, the director wrote, “KWAIDAN by Masaki Kobayashi. Painterly beauty combined with a tremendous sense of loss. Femininity haunts Kobayashi. Perfect Takemitsu score.”
6’Suspiria' (1977)
There’s a reason why Dario Argento’s visually lavish and stylishSuspiriais Argento’s most beloved work — and among the most lauded horror films of all time. Jessica Harper stars as Suzy Bannion, a young American ballerina who begins attending the prestigious Tanz Akademie in Germany. Soon after arriving, a series of murders turn her new school upside down. Argento and co-writer Daria Nicolodi were inspired by fairy tales, the occult, and a story Nicolodi’s grandmother told her about an encounter with dark magic at a music academy.
A Vivid, Haunting Work of Art
In 2017, del Toro was a guest curator at the 50th edition of the Sitges Film Festival, in which he curated a series ofItalian gothic and giallofilms. Among them wasSuspiria. On Argento’s masterpiece,the filmmaker commented, “Dario especially needs this now that we have a little historical perspective to positionSuspiriaas the work of pure madness and cinematic joy it is, going on with “it’s very important to celebrate his place in history.” He said the movie “takes hold of the giallo and adds something new formally that makes it a powerful, innovative work of art.”
5’The Changeling' (1980)
The Changeling
The haunted houseclassicThe Changelingis a haunting meditation on grief, loss, memory, and trauma. Directed by Peter Medak, the Canadian film stars George C. Scott as John Russell, a New York City composer who moves to Seattle after losing his wife and daughter in a tragic, horrible accident. Not long after settling in a rental mansion that’s been vacant for over 12 years, he begins to feel a ghostly presence. What ensues is equal parts murder mystery and a haunting.
A Frightening and Gripping Marvel of a Film
The Mexican director included the film in a list of his favorite ghost stories. Approaching Medak at the BAFTAs in 2018,he calledThe Changelinga masterpiece. Just likeThe Uninvited, del Toro’s ghost stories clearly drew inspiration fromThe Changeling. With his affinity for eerie settings, otherworldly mysteries, and empathetic character studies, it’s not hard to see why Guillermo adores this film.
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4’Tigers Are Not Afraid' (2017)
Written and directed by Issa López (True Detective: Night Country), the fantasy horrorTigers Are Not Afraidisa haunting coming-of-age taleof innocence upended by the struggle for survival. Set in a cartel-ridden town, it explores Mexico’s bloody, violent drug war through the eyes of the children battling its horrors. After a shooting forces her school to close indefinitely, Estrella (Paola Lara) comes home to find her mother missing, presumably a victim of a human-trafficking ring. After days of no return, she has no choice but to take to the streets, where she seeks refuge with a group of unhoused orphaned boys — Shine (Juan Ramón López), Pop (Rodrigo Cortes), Tucsi (Hanssel Casillas), and Morro (Nery Arredondo) — who become her family.
Another Great Mexican Filmmaker
With elements of magical realism, the film has often been compared to del Toro’sPan Labyrinth. In 2019, when Guillermo received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, he began his acceptance speech by turning the attention to his fellow Mexican filmmaker, who was in attendance, remarking, “Great director! Her movieTigers Are Not Afraid, orVuelven, is one of the great dark fantasy horror movies of the last decade.” Shouting her out on social media, he tweeted, “In the last few years, some of the most powerful voices in the genre come from female directors. @IssitaLopez is a great example.“Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, he called her film “thematically strong, artistically strong.”
3’Saint Maud' (2019)
Saint Maud
Rose Glass is anothergenre female filmmaker to have left a great impression on Guillermo, astonishing him with her feature debut,Saint Maud. The great Morfydd Clark gives a mesmerizing performance as a young hospice nurse, formerly named Katie, who now goes by Maud and is haunted by a dark past that pushed her to convert to Catholicism and become a devout Christian. When she’s assigned to an atheist patient, she becomes obsessed with saving her soul. Her unhealthy fixation leads her down a dark, terrifying descent.
A Stunning Psychological Religious Horror
Saint Maudis a profound character study that explores loneliness, mental illness, faith, and religious fervor — one whose conclusion will weigh on you long after. Del Toro tweeted about the stunning film: “SAINT MAUD (2019) Astonishing first film. A filmmaker’s voice emerges fully formed. Hagiographies have always been horror literature to me: Martyrs, Cephalophores, etc. Having been raised a Catholic, this hit a profound, very specific nerve. Riveting.”
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2’Crimes of the Future' (2022)
Crimes of the Future
Canadian filmmaking iconDavid Cronenberg is known for his thematically rich creations.Crimes of the Futureis no exception. Set in a world where humans are adapting to a synthetic environment and some are undergoing rapid evolutionary changes, it explores a future in which underground surgeries have become an artistic and fetishistic market. It follows Saul (Viggo Mortensen), a man who spontaneously grows new organs, and his partner Caprice (Léa Seydoux), who put on an avant-garde surgical act. Soon, the National Organ Registry recruits him to investigate new medical anomalies.
A Great Praising Another Great
Thedisturbingly seductive body horrordelves into many subjects — the effects of extreme environmental changes on the human body, the evolution of sexual desires, societal control, and the boundaries of art. When attending the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, Guillermo was amazed by his contemporary, tweeting, “Quick drop-in to report that CRIMES OF THE FUTURE is 100% Cronenbergian Body Gospel- hinting at the cosmic reaches of biology and the very human limits of our grief. Odd, moving and authentic, with a fantastic final close up. Cronenberg-Lantos together again!”
1’Longlegs' (2024)
While, due to his distinctive style and atmospheric direction, there are many who claim that Oz Perkins' films are an acquired taste, there’s no doubt that there’s something uniquely captivating about his work. His most commercially successful movie is the critically acclaimedLonglegs, starring Maika Monroe as FBI Agent Lee Harker and Nicolas Cage as the titular Satanic serial killer. Harker, who possesses mysterious “psychic” abilities, is recruited to solve a long-running series of family murder-suicides, for which Longlegs is inexplicably responsible.
A Sinister Throwback to the ’90s
Longlegsis widely cited as one ofthe best horror movies of 2024. Even the horror master himself was left stunned by Perkins, praising the film in a tweet: “LONGLEGS (2024) A great Oz Perkins film- 100% his vibe. It is comforting when a colleague fares well while staying faithful to the rhythms and motifs that have made his career. His metronome, his meticulous composition and his uncanny sense of evil and impending doom.”
