Guillermo del Toro is a fascinating director. When he is not doing big budget spectacle like Pacific Rim or Hellboy, he is making poignantly beautiful films like The Devil’s Backbone, and Pan’s Labyrinth. The Shape of Water is his latest film and it is very much in the vein of Pan’s Labyrinth as a Beauty and the Beast type of modern fable.

There are three types of movies that suck me in no matter what the concept is:

1)     Any movie starring Jean Claude Van Damme.

2)     Haunted House movies (as long as they are not laughably bad).

3)     Time travel movies (especially starring Jean Claude Van Damme).