(2.5 / 4)
The Shape of Water is Guillermo Del Toro’s latest film and recently won several accolades during the 2018 Oscars including the highly coveted Best Picture award. I have been a fan of Del Toro’s work since the similarly celebrated Pan’s Labyrinth, which was released all the way back in 2007. I was especially fond of Pan’s Labyrinth due to the way in which the film blended classic fairytale themes and aesthetics with a real-life sense of grittiness. This fusion could best be described as featuring sweet sincere moments that wouldn’t be out of place in the latest live action Disney adaptation, but the subsequent scene could contain grisly moments such as a man’s skull being blown away in a manner that makes the violent acts all the more unsettling than if the entirety of the film were this brutal.