10 Best Guillermo del Toro Movies

Del Toro's magnum opus. Against the backdrop of ruthless Francoist fascism in 1944 Spain, young Ofelia escapes into a dark underground fairy-tale world. The iconic Faun and the terrifying Pale Man with eyes in his hands earned the film three Oscars and universal admiration.

Winner of four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. An enchanting romantic fairy tale about Elisa (Sally Hawkins), a lonely, mute cleaning woman who falls in love with a captive amphibian creature (Doug Jones) in a secret Cold War laboratory. A beautiful ode to the outsider.

Del Toro's most personal ghost story. In an isolated orphanage during the Spanish Civil War, where an unexploded bomb sits in the middle of the courtyard, a young boy discovers the restless ghost of a murdered pupil. A melancholy and deeply eerie meditation on innocence and war.

Del Toro's lifelong dream project. In this lavish gothic adaptation of Mary Shelley's classic, Jacob Elordi shines as the Creature opposite Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein. Del Toro brings his lifelong empathy for the noble monster to a breathtaking cinematic high point.

Visually even richer and more imaginative than the first film. Ron Perlman shines as the cigar-smoking red demon Hellboy, who must face an elf prince trying to awaken an indestructible magical army. The troll market scene bursts with some of the most inventive creatures in modern fantasy cinema.

A pitch-black, dazzlingly shot neo-noir without supernatural elements, in which humans themselves turn out to be the monsters. Bradley Cooper plays an ambitious carnival mentalist who gets caught in a deadly web of manipulation in New York with a cold psychiatrist (Cate Blanchett).

A gothic romance steeped in blood-red clay and lace gowns. Mia Wasikowska moves with her mysterious husband (Tom Hiddleston) and his aloof sister (Jessica Chastain) into a creaking English mansion where ghosts literally bleed from the floors.

Winner of the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Del Toro moves the classic fairy tale to Mussolini's fascist Italy of the 1930s. This gorgeous stop-motion tale about grief, fatherhood and the courage to be different cuts deep.

Giant robots (Jaegers) using ships as baseball bats to fight colossal sea monsters (Kaiju) in a rain-lashed ocean. Del Toro brings his boyish love of anime and Japanese monster movies to the screen with unprecedented weight and scale.

His stunning Mexican directorial debut. An antiques dealer finds a golden 16th-century scarab that rejuvenates its user but also brings an unquenchable thirst for blood. A poetic and original reinvention of the vampire film that immediately established his trademark.