The assorted works of Guillermo del Toro, ranked

Guillermo del Toro got his start in the '80s creating and building creatures for various low-budget film productions around Mexico City. After nine short films (only two of which have made their way into the light of day) he directed his first feature, Cronos, in 1993. Decades later, del Toro has directed 10 further films, in addition to writing and producing countless other projects for both cinema and TV screens, not to mention co-writing novels for adults and children.

The final months of 2022, alone, saw the release of two del Toro projects courtesy of Netflix: He is the creator and producer of the anthology series Cabinet of Curiosities and the co-director of Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, a new interpretation of the classic story.

Below, we've ranked 20 of the filmmaker's projects from worst to best.

01 of 20

20. Roald Dahl's The Witches (2020)

Co-written and produced by Guillermo del Toro

Robert Zemeckis directed this second feature adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic novel, following Nicolas Roeg's 1990 favorite. Some credit is due for retaining the amiably downbeat ending of Dahl's source novel, though, unfortunately, that's not enough to save the film.

Anne Hathaway, a skilled thesp, is no match for Anjelica Huston as the villainous lead, earning a Razzie nomination for her performance.

02 of 20

19. Pacific Rim (2013)

Film Title: Pacific Rim Uprising — Legendary Pictures/Universal Pictures

Directed, produced, and co-written by Guillermo del Toro

Pacific Rim is the only piece of work in del Toro's catalog that feels nothing like a Guillermo del Toro project. There is not a single trace, not an errant shot anywhere in the film, that bears the director's stamp.

It's a film that seems to be made under significant duress, an insufferably dull bit of jingoistic nonsense that somehow doesn't even top the fun factor of Michael Bay's original Transformers (which, despite the sins of its sequels, is fairly a blast). There is no wit to the spectacle, nor invention to the creatures (kaiju) or the robots (jaegers) that battle one another (yawn) over 131 interminable minutes. It's stupefyingly dull.

03 of 20

18. The Hobbit trilogy (2012–2014)

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug — Mark Pokorny/Warner Bros.

Co-written by Guillermo del Toro

While an entirely unnecessary addition to the Lord of the Rings cinematic universe, the three Hobbit films (2012's An Unexpected Journey, 2013's The Desolation of Smaug, and 2014's The Battle of the Five Armies) are, in many ways, more fun than the original trilogy, emitting a gross-out funhouse quality that feels entirely of del Toro's influence. (Despite director Peter Jackson's horror pedigree, the original trilogy never felt this whimsically ghastly.)

Jackson inevitably returned to helm each of the newer films, but del Toro himself was initially poised to direct in addition to scripting. If he had, there's a chance that the Hobbit films would have been more than simply a footnote to Jackson's highly celebrated Lord of the Rings franchise.

04 of 20

17. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (2011)

Co-written and produced by Guillermo del Toro

Troy Nixey directs this passable remake of the stellar 1973 TV movie of the same name, about a young girl (Bailee Madison) who travels to Rhode Island to live with her estranged father (Guy Pearce, on his way to cash the check) and his new girlfriend (Katie Holmes, nicely understated here) in the dank mansion they unknowingly share with light-averse gremlins.

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark isn't so much a poor film as it is an incredibly standard one. It burns a great deal of its slim 99-minute running time as a proto-Conjuring flick, with characters wandering dark corridors while things LOUDLY go bump in the night, until a climax arrives that promises both increased action and sound effects but little else. Madison makes for a peculiar heroine: Her performance as a realistically stroppy adolescent, in possession of a weariness and cynicism far beyond her years, recalls Karen Kilgariff playing a child in an improv scene.

05 of 20

16. Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)

Film Title: Hellboy II: The Golden Army — Universal

Directed, written, and produced by Guillermo del Toro

For all of its visual invention, Hellboy II often feels like a rehearsal reel for del Toro's Hobbit films (which he was still planning to direct at the time of The Golden Army's release) rather than a film of its own.

Certainly, it's not a patch on the original. Compelling elements — a romantic storyline for fish-man Abe Sapien (del Toro regular Doug Jones), brilliantly busy creature and set design, Ron Perlman's inspired performance as Hellboy — often take a back seat to increasingly elongated sequences of chaos that drift into tedium at regular intervals. It lacks the strong story and emotional core of the first installment, but the ending is a hoot.

06 of 20

15. Mimic (1997)

Mira Sorvino in 'Mimic'. Everett Collection

Directed, co-written, and produced by Guillermo del Toro

Del Toro had this to say to a crowd at London's BFI Film Festival in 2017: "I really hated the experience. My first American experience was almost my last because it was with the Weinsteins and Miramax. I have to tell you, two horrible things happened in the late-'90s: my father was kidnapped and I worked with the Weinsteins. I know which one was worse...the kidnapping made more sense. I knew what they wanted."

Mim-Blecch!, as Mad magazine never called it, essentially boils down to "killer cockroaches take the subway." Starring Mira Sorvino, Mimic has the makings of a great creature feature, and indeed there are flashes that work, but it is visibly cobbled together by a committee, riddled with inconsistent performances and inserts that make no earthly sense. (During the climax, the film inexplicably cuts to the New York street on California's Paramount lot, where a series of narratively unrelated explosions decimate Seinfeld's neighborhood.) Mimic feels depressingly similar to a dozen or so other Dimension releases from around this time, down to the Marco Beltrami score and its Scream-inspired poster. It's so anonymous you could feasibly believe it was directed by Joe Chappelle or Gregory Widen, not del Toro. Del Toro's slightly-improved director's cut is the only version worth watching, but it's still an imperfect movie that feels far from the filmmaker's singular vision.

07 of 20

14. Tales of Arcadia trilogy (2016–2021)

Co-created by Guillermo del Toro

Del Toro's three Netflix series (and a movie) are peak children's entertainment, though the fact that they are nominally curated for the single-digit age crowd may preclude some del Toro completists from venturing into Arcadia. Trollhunters began the trilogy and was quickly elaborated upon with 3Below: Tales of Arcadia. Wizards is a limited series, and the final television show to round out the trilogy, before the rather superfluous 2021 feature Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans officially closed out the "trilogy" (though you might agree it's more of a tetralogy at this point).

What is notable about each of the three series (not so much the movie, a glorified DVD bonus feature) is that each one is better than the last, building to a properly satisfying finish by the end of Wizards. Del Toro and his creative team evoke the safe yucks and ever-so-vaguely subversive thrills that populated '90s kiddie fare such as Aaahh!!! Real Monsters. It's a welcome style, one that in recent decades has too often gone by the wayside in favor of more straightforward children's programming.

08 of 20

13. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)

Produced and story by Guillermo del Toro

Del Toro spearheaded this adaptation of Alvin Schwartz's seminal spooky books for kids, directed by André Øvredal (Troll Hunter, no relation to the Netflix series).

Scary Stories thoroughly pushes the limits of its PG-13 rating with a parade of tween-friendly grotesqueries while evoking, with great enthusiasm, the very feeling that reading those short tales of terror brought to an entire generation of young folks. It's a film that represents some of the most imaginative feats del Toro is capable of when he combines grungy horror with a young demographic.

09 of 20

12. The Strain (2014–2017)

Co-created by Guillermo del Toro

This FX series about an ancient vampiric disease, which begins to ravage the U.S. via a stalled plane on the tarmac at JFK airport, was the rare network show with a clearly delineated end in sight.

Del Toro and Chuck Hogan designed the show to hew closely to their three novels (The Strain, The Fall, The Night Eternal), resulting in four seasons of terrifically gory and often fast-paced television that is all the stronger for having a blueprint in place.

10 of 20

11. Geometria (1987)

Directed, written, and produced by Guillermo del Toro

Del Toro's ninth and final short film is a tidy five-minute story of a young man (Fernando Garcia Marin) who, tired of being harangued by his widowed mother (Guadalupe del Toro, the director's own mother and star of 1985's lovely Mexican indie Doña Herlinda and Her Son), after failing yet another geometry exam, decides to draw a pentagram on the floor of his bedroom and summon a demon to do his work for him.

Geometria's vibrant color palette recalls peak-era Dario Argento, specifically Suspiria (1977), and Christopher Drake's score is a very workable facsimile of Goblin's greatest soundtrack hits.

11 of 20

10. Doña Lupe (1986)

Directed, written, and produced by Guillermo del Toro

Doña Lupe is del Toro's eighth short film, though it's the first of his available works. (The initial seven shorts were "mercifully" lost, according to the director.) Made on a budget of $1,000 and clocking in at 33 minutes, Doña Lupe is about the titular widow (Josefina Gonzalez de Silva) who soon discovers, after her pension fails, that she will be unable to keep her home. Enter two smooth-talking criminals, who arrive at just the right time to rent the place out from under her. As they quickly take over her apartment — and her life — Doña Lupe plots her bloody revenge.

Doña Lupe is objectively the work of a fledgling filmmaker still finding their feet, but it's on the very high end of that spectrum. The prevailing sentiment is how absolutely assured del Toro is here with nothing more than a camera and some fake blood, taking his time to tease out the story before delivering catharsis with a well-staged gun battle in the crumbling apartment. Most interesting is that Doña Lupe preempts the work of both Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez and seems to have much in common with the early work of those directors. In the genre of self-aware hitmen with nothing to do but kill time and each other, del Toro appears to have done it first.

12 of 20

9. Crónicas (2004)

Produced by Guillermo del Toro

This haunting Ecuadorian mystery stars John Leguizamo — in his first bilingual role — as a hotshot Miami tabloid reporter who travels to a small town in rural Ecuador to investigate the Monster of Babahoyo, an unknown serial killer responsible for the disappearance of at least 150 children in the surrounding villages.

Sebastián Cordero's piercing film, produced by del Toro and Alfonso Cuarón, fits snugly alongside the gritty works of realism (such as City of God and Maria Full of Grace) that were coming out of Latin America in the early-aughts, yet, in its depiction of a small community torn asunder by unsolved crimes, the movie is most reminiscent of Ray Lawrence's Antipodean masterpiece Lantana. Crónicas is an unassuming film that offers no easy answers, but, as a result of its open-ended approach, it will echo in your mind for weeks after you've seen it.

13 of 20

8. Crimson Peak (2015)

Directed, co-written, and produced by Guillermo del Toro

Following hot on the heels of Pacific Rim, Crimson Peak represents a brave departure. It's steadfastly old-fashioned in both plot and pacing, a gothic romance that resembles something more akin to a Hammer horror or a Mario Bava picture than anything del Toro had done previously. Mia Wasikowska is perfectly cast as an aspiring author who moves from New York to muddy ol' England to live with her fiancé (Tom Hiddleston) and his morose sister (Jessica Chastain, perfectly calibrated in one of her finest performances to date) in their mansion that holds a wealth of bloody secrets.

The final 15 minutes devolve into standard (though admittedly fun) stalk-and-slash antics with little regard for what came before, but, for a solid hour-and-a-half, Crimson Peak heralds the arrival of del Toro's more understated, adult-oriented tendencies that would come into clearer focus with The Shape of Water and Nightmare Alley.

14 of 20

7. Nightmare Alley (2021)

(From L-R): Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara in the film NIGHTMARE ALLEY. Photo by Kerry Hayes. © 2021 20th Century Studios All Rights Reserved — Kerry Hayes/20th Century

Directed, co-written, and produced by Guillermo del Toro

Nightmare Alley is perhaps del Toro's most straightforward work. There is nothing supernatural here, no superhuman monsters, or gooey creatures, and yet, the film is drenched in del Toro's signature style, his unremitting weirdness. Here, the director deftly mines his back catalog of influences to put an innovative spin on William Lindsay Gresham's 1946 novel, which was first adapted to film by Edmund Goulding in 1947. It's a terrible cliche to say that they don't make movies like this anymore, but in the case of Nightmare Alley — which boasts an all-star cast including Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, and Toni Collette — it is true.

It's not recalling the noir genre as so many films do — it has the genre in its bones, down to its very core, and can stand proudly alongside classic examples of noir like The Maltese Falcon (1941), Double Indemnity (1944), and The Third Man (1949). Del Toro crafts a climax here that is utterly earthbound and yet makes the film as much a ghost story as Crimson Peak or The Devil's Backbone. Its final scene, too, is brilliantly uncompromised and leaves one feeling as though they've just watched the very best episode of The Twilight Zone ever made. The black and white version, subtitled A Vision In Darkness and Light, is an interesting curio, but to feel the film's full effect — to see the majesty of the practical sets and the staggering scope of Dan Laustsen's cinematography — it's best to go with the color version on first viewing.

15 of 20

6. The Shape of Water (2017)

Directed, co-written, and produced by Guillermo del Toro

The Shape of Water is one of the rare films to win the Oscar for Best Picture that unreservedly earned the honor. (Del Toro also won a much-deserved Academy Award for directing this film.) It's a spiky, pleasantly perverse romance between an amphibious man (Doug Jones, playing his second fish-man for del Toro) and a shy custodial worker (Sally Hawkins, deeply moving) — "the princess with no voice" as Richard Jenkins' narration dubs her.

The Shape of Water is a great film, the sort of old-fashioned entertainment you can't imagine not charming each person who sees it. It is del Toro's most sure-handed fusion of fairy tales, real-world horrors, and extreme violence, with the director seemingly having the most fun behind the camera he's had in at least a decade.

16 of 20

5. Blade II (2002)

BLADE II, Wesley Snipes, 2002. (c) New Line Cinema/ Courtesy: Everett Collection. — Everett Collection

Directed by Guillermo del Toro

To call Blade II the best film in the Blade franchise, even if it is true, is to damn this movie with some very faint praise. This is the especially violent middle entry in that superheroic vampire trilogy, a series of films that always sounded more fun than they actually were. Blade II is for all intents and purposes the first true del Toro Hollywood production, and he does come out swinging.

The film is two hours of nonstop inventive mayhem, which EW's critic noted, "seems equally influenced by video games and open-heart surgery." Even if it seems to have little else on its mind besides jubilant carnage, Blade II creates room for star Wesley Snipes to give an uncommonly complicated performance within the genre.

17 of 20

4. Hellboy (2004)

HELLBOY, Ron Perlman, 2004, (c) Columbia/courtesy Everett Collection — Everett Collection

Directed and written by Guillermo del Toro

Now that they're ten a penny, it should be emphatically stressed just how rare a well-shot, witty, self-referential comic book movie was in 2004. Along with Ang Lee's Hulk, Hellboy is one of the first movies that truly brought the look and feel of a comic book to the screen. It's one of the strongest comic adaptations yet made, with del Toro indulging his penchant for body horror and creepy crawly creatures with contagious reverie, supported by a cast of lovable oddballs, including Ron Perlman in the title role, and a cracking story behind it all.

Del Toro transitioned from the manic slaughter of Blade II to this more family-friendly (though still fairly icky) mayhem without a hiccup, but Hellboy also possesses the warm humanity of the director's best work. As Hellboy's pyrokinetic lover, Liz Smith, the immensely talented Selma Blair gives one of her most nuanced and evocative performances.

18 of 20

3. Cronos (1993)

Federico Luppi in 'Cronos'. Everett Collection

Directed and written by Guillermo del Toro

Cronos, del Toro's first feature film, about an antiques dealer (the brilliant Federico Luppi) who becomes infected with eternal life, is a compact and stunningly mature horror-drama that mines both vampire and zombie mythos to create something that still feels singular all these years later.

Perhaps surprisingly, the del Toro film with which Cronos shares the most, in delivery and style, is Nightmare Alley, which he tried to get made after finishing Cronos but ultimately would not realize until 2021. Cronos remains one of his finest films, and it's terribly easy to see how this became del Toro's Hollywood calling card as he weaves together ghoulish, comic book-inspired thrills, boo-hiss villains, and bracing emotionality with supreme grace.

19 of 20

2. The Devil's Backbone (2001)

Directed and co-written by Guillermo del Toro

After his negative experience making Mimic, del Toro left Hollywood for Madrid to helm this Spanish-Mexican co-production, a brooding ghost story set at a boys' orphanage during the final year of the Spanish Civil War. In his foreword to Matt Zoller Seitz and Simon Abrams' book about the making of The Devil's Backbone, del Toro called his third film "one of the most pleasant shoots I've ever had...I finally felt in command of my visual style, my narrative rhythm, and was able to work in a profound manner with my cast and crew to craft a beautiful genre-masher: a Gothic tale set against the backdrop of the greatest ghost engine of all — war."

The Devil's Backbone, which EW's critic wrote "builds excitement, dread, and melodrama in equal layers," is an exceptional film, character-driven to the end and a marriage of adolescence and wartime that del Toro would later perfect five years later with Pan's Labyrinth. The final twist, in fact, is so deftly handled it will have you immediately wanting to watch the film again, with renewed context.

20 of 20

1. Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

Scariest Movies on Netflix — TERESA ISASI/Picture House

Directed, written, and produced by Guillermo del Toro

Set in the rolling hills of Spain five years after the end of the Spanish Civil War, Pan's Labyrinth — which del Toro has described as a spiritual sequel, the "sister" film, to The Devil's Backbone — is a brilliant original fairy tale about young Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), who retreats into a fantasy world of her own creation to cope with the horrific realities of her new life as stepdaughter to the vicious Captain Vidal (Sergi López).

A feat of imagination, not to mention art direction, Pan's Labyrinth only stumbles slightly when it overexplains the fantasy at its center; it would be stronger for leaving some things unsaid. However, this film signifies del Toro summoning his peak creative powers, resulting in a masterpiece where fantasy and real-life horrors collide in a most fantastical — and brutal — fashion.

Related content: