Out of the Box

I know that in a previous column I’ve bemoaned the fact that most books are automatically transformed into movies nowadays. Usually, with much Hollywoodification to the detriment of the plot, needless to add.

Del Toro’s biggest stroke of brilliance was Pan’s Labyrinth, also set against the backdrop of a fascist Spain- Ramona Depares

But sometimes there are exceptions. Particularly when the creative mind behind the work happens to be a genius both at the writing and at the film-making. Such as Guillermo del Toro.

The man is known for a host of cult classics on the big screen. I discovered him at a relatively late stage when I chanced upon a screening of The Devil’s Backbone a few years after it was actually released.

Not knowing anything about del Toro at the time, it was the tagline to the movie that first drew me in: “The living will always be more dangerous than the dead”. The stark image of an obviously undead boy staring at me from the poster belied the said tagline. I decided to risk it.

It was to mark the beginning of a lifetime love affair with anything written/directed by del Toro. Ghost stories are a dime a dozen. Del Toro’s film, however, did not fit any of the usual given parameters.

Set against the backdrop of a Spain bloodied by General Franco’s forces, the film delivers painfully stark visuals, the beauty of which almost make you disregard the actual storyline. Almost, but not quite.

Del Toro is a master at story-telling and there is no way The Devil’s Backbone will fall under the mundane. Carlos, a young boy, is left in an orphanage in the middle of nowhere and the genius of the plot is the way the supernatural presence tricks you into almost disregarding the other, more dangerous elements that are continuously unfolding.

The final, climactic scene is a masterpiece of cinematography, both in terms of shock factor and visuals.

I was so taken by this film that I actually went back to del Toro’s earlier works, Mimic (mutant roaches trying to destroy mankind – sounds like a cliché but del Toro gets away with it) and Cronos (all about the secret to eternal life, another potential cliché that del Toro aces).

Del Toro’s winning streak continued with Hellboy, the cinematographic adaptation of the Dark Horse Comics publication about a supranatural beast that saves the world from a procession of monsters. Sounds too geeky to hit it big mainstream right? Wrong – such is del Toro’s mastery that the film grossed over €77 million.

But del Toro’s biggest stroke of brilliance was arguably Pan’s Labyrinth, also set against the backdrop of a fascist Spain. There’s a fantasy world that consists of a creepy labyrinth, a sinister faun and a little girl who seems to be the only one who can weave effortlessly between the real world and the fantasy one.

As fairytales go, it’s a visual and narrative feast with an ending that leaves you feeling like you took a punch to the stomach. I’ve yet to see anything darker or more poignant, or an ending that leaves you with so many questions.

So what’s brought on all this del Toro adulation? Well – apart from the fact that I can’t wait for Pacific Rim (a robot versus aliens mecha flick! Does it get any geekier?) and The Incredible Hulk series, I’m also extremely excited about the news that his The Strain book trilogy will be reborn as a television series on FX. Yes, del Toro is one of those rare phenomena who excels both at the writing and the directing bit.

The Strain is co-written with Chuck Hogan and delivers a vampire story the likes of which Stephenie Meyer could never even dream. There’s blood, there’s mayhem and there’s an apocalypse and there’s also nary a sparkly vampire in sight.

The graphic novel version, illustrated by Mike Huddleston, is reputed to be equally excellent, although I have not seen it myself.

Ordinarily, I would be extremely wary of having a beloved book series turned into a series, but since it’s del Toro we’re talking about I can rest easy that this will be no sanitised Hollywood adaptation. After all, if it worked for The Walking Dead, why not for The Strain?

All I can say is, I promise that lovers of the vampire genre will be in for a treat.

rdepares@timesofmalta.com