Video: The first trailer has arrived for Guillermo del Toro’s latest adult fairy tale, The Shape of Water, promising a gorgeous and intense spectacle about a mute woman’s unlikely friendship (and possible romance) with an imprisoned fish-man. Dive in.
The Shape of Water stars Sally Hawkins as Elisa, a mute woman who works as a cleaning lady in an American Cold War-era government facility. Her life is changed forever when she stumbles across a secret government project involving an aquatic creature (played by Doug Jones, Hellboy‘s Abe Sapien) who appears to be the last or only of his kind. Here’s what Jones previously had to say about his character’s role in the film:
It’s not a sci-fi [film], it’s not a genre film, but I am a creature in it. I’m a fish man that’s kind of a one-off. I’m an enigma, nobody knows where I came from; I’m the last of my species so I’m like a natural anomaly. And I’m being studied and tested in a US government facility in 1963, so the Russian Cold War is on, the race for space is on, so there’s all that backdrop and that undercurrent. I’m being tested for how can they use me for advantages in military or space travel, or my technology — can we make this usable for humans? So they’re trying to keep me a secret from the Russians.
The trailer looks gorgeous, complete with del Toro’s signature visuals and tone. It looks to be a Pan’s Labyrinth-style fantasy that’s equal parts classic fairy tale and modern brutality. Let’s just say this R-rated fantasy will probably not be suitable for kids. Check out the trailer for yourself: