Guillermo del Toro Films Ranked — From Worst to Best

Del Toro was the ideal director to inject some personality into the vampire-hunting franchise, headlined by a perfectly cast Wesley Snipes, but this follow-up to the 1998 original could only ever be as good as its script — which, in typical sequel fashion, was middling. (Screenwriter David S. Goyer would go on to co-write Christopher Nolan’s three Batman films, so it’s not as though he wasn’t capable of more.) And while Marvel has already absorbed more than enough gifted directors into their system only to constrain their talents, there are still worse things to imagine than del Toro having another go at the source material now that Mahershala Ali has been cast to resurrect Blade.

Del Toro’s first excursion into Hollywood is one of his lesser efforts to be sure, but it’s still considerably more interesting than it would have been in the hands of another helmer. What most comes to mind when watching del Toro’s first two studio projects is how much better they might have been if he’d been allowed as much creative freedom as he has since “Pan’s Labyrinth” — which is to say, the main problem with both “Mimic” and “Blade II” is that they aren’t as reflective of their director’s sensibilities as they could and should have been.

The idea of Guillermo del Toro directing a gothic romance set in a haunted house was as tantalizing as it was inevitable. The result didn’t fully live up to its potential, but as a visual, sensory experience, “Crimson Peak” was classic GDT: bloody, fantastical, and, yes, beautiful. Not all monsters are of the supernatural variety, and the scariest resident of this particular haunted house isn’t even a ghost.

Was much of the world already acquainted with the term kaiju before “Pacific Rim”? Of course. Did this massive monster movie help introduce Western audiences to the world of massive monsters that exist beyond Godzilla? Also yes. The film’s premise — in a last-ditch effort to combat the enormous sea monsters who suddenly emerged from an interdimensional portal, mankind creates equally huge mechas — is simply too awesome on a lizard-brain level to ignore, let alone not be entertained by.

That you could make a convincing case for “The Devil’s Backbone” to be much higher on this list is evidence of both its own quality and that of its creator’s full body of work — once you get past a few lesser entries, the relative merits of his films are measured in inches, not miles. Both a murder mystery and a ghost story, it’s also a kind of precursor to “Pan’s Labyrinth” insofar as it’s set during the final year of the Spanish Civil War — a tragic, tumultuous conflict that del Toro uses as a jumping-off point for one of the most poignant stories he’s ever told.

Before superhero movies were a self-sustaining industry unto themselves, quality entries like “Hellboy” were the exception rather than the rule. As evidenced by 2019’s ill-fated reboot, no one could have brought the title character to life like GDT and Ron Perlman, continuing a long-standing collaboration that began a decade earlier and continues to this day. Also great is Selma Blair as firestarter Liz Sherman, transcending the typical love-interest role and making her character worth rooting for on her own terms — something too few superhero films have done in the nearly two decades since.

“Nightmare Alley” almost feels like two movies. The first is a dark but enjoyable jaunt through a late-1930s carnival, with all the prestidigitation and eating of chicken heads that ensues, while the second is a moody noir hurtling toward an inevitably tragic conclusion. Not until the film’s near-perfect ending do the two feel seamlessly linked. Once that happens, however, it recasts your entire perception of everything that came before. Even so, it’s hard not to wish that the whole of “Nightmare Alley” took place at that carnival — it’s such a rich world, and certainly one you’re sadder to leave than Bradley Cooper and Rooney Mara’s characters seem to be.

If you haven’t seen “Cronos,” have you really seen a Guillermo del Toro movie? The blueprint for everything that’s followed, his first feature is as assured and accomplished as directorial debuts come. We all want more time in life, but some will go to more extreme lengths than others — something that, as evidenced by some of del Toro’s other films, tends not to end well for anyone.

The rare sequel to improve on the original, 2008’s “The Golden Army” was del Toro’s first film following the massive success of “Pan’s Labyrinth” — and shows it. From the creature design to the dark sense of humor, it’s the first of his Hollywood productions that fully feels like his own movie rather than the studio’s. It’s a shame that we never got a third (and no, that reboot really doesn’t count), but at least the original franchise ended on a high note.

Nobody loves monster movies quite like del Toro, nor does anyone sympathize with those monsters in the same way. Featuring a never-better Sally Hawkins — yes, I am still bitter she didn’t win best actress — as the beauty to Doug Jones’ aquatic beast, it’s a fairytale love story only this singular filmmaker could make. It in some ways feels, even more so than the next film on this list, like the ultimate del Toro movie.

Next time you’re bemoaning Oscar injustices, remember that this sublime fantasia lost the award for best foreign-language film to Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s endlessly schmaltzy “The Lives of Others.” No matter: “Pan’s Labyrinth” is a true all-timer, a hauntingly beautiful descent into the fantasy world dreamt up by a little girl with nowhere else to go. However tragic it may ultimately be, that world — and the circumstances that necessitate its creation — is also one so many of us long to return to time and time again.