Cronos

Guillermo del Toro made an auspicious and audacious feature debut with Cronos, a highly unorthodox tale about the seductiveness of the idea of immortality. Kindly antiques dealer Jesús Gris (Federico Luppi) happens upon an ancient golden device in the shape of a scarab, and soon finds himself the possessor and victim of its sinister, addictive powers, as well as the target of a mysterious American named Angel (a delightfully crude and deranged Ron Perlman). Featuring marvelous special makeup effects and the haunting imagery for which del Toro has become world-renowned, Cronos is a dark, visually rich, and emotionally captivating fantasy.

Film Info

  • Mexico
  • 1993
  • 92 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.78:1
  • Spanish
  • Spine #551

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Guillermo del Toro and cinematographer Guillermo Navarro, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • Optional original Spanish-language voice-over introduction
  • Two audio commentaries, one featuring del Toro, the other producers Arthur H. Gorson and Bertha Navarro and coproducer Alejandro Springall
  • Geometria, an unreleased 1987 short horror film by del Toro, finished in 2010, with a new video interview with the director
  • Welcome to Bleak House, a video tour by del Toro of his home offices, featuring his personal collections
  • New video interviews with del Toro, Navarro, and actor Ron Perlman
  • Video interview with actor Federico Luppi
  • Stills gallery
  • Trailer
  • New and improved English subtitle translation, approved by the director
  • PLUS: A new essay by film critic Maitland McDonagh and excerpts from del Toro’s notes for the film

    New cover by Mike Mignola

Purchase Options

Collector's Sets

Collector's Set

Trilogía de Guillermo del Toro

Trilogía de Guillermo del Toro

Blu-ray Box Set

3 Discs

$79.96

Out Of Print

Collector's Set

Trilogía de Guillermo del Toro

Trilogía de Guillermo del Toro

DVD Box Set

5 Discs

$79.96

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Guillermo del Toro and cinematographer Guillermo Navarro, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • Optional original Spanish-language voice-over introduction
  • Two audio commentaries, one featuring del Toro, the other producers Arthur H. Gorson and Bertha Navarro and coproducer Alejandro Springall
  • Geometria, an unreleased 1987 short horror film by del Toro, finished in 2010, with a new video interview with the director
  • Welcome to Bleak House, a video tour by del Toro of his home offices, featuring his personal collections
  • New video interviews with del Toro, Navarro, and actor Ron Perlman
  • Video interview with actor Federico Luppi
  • Stills gallery
  • Trailer
  • New and improved English subtitle translation, approved by the director
  • PLUS: A new essay by film critic Maitland McDonagh and excerpts from del Toro’s notes for the film

    New cover by Mike Mignola
Cronos
Cast
Federico Luppi
Jesús Gris
Ron Perlman
Angel de la Guardia
Claudio Brook
De la Guardia
Margarita Isabel
Mercedes
Tamara Shanath
Aurora
Daniel Giménez Cacho
Tito
Mario Iván Martinez
Alchemist
Farnesio de Bernal
Manuelito
Juan Carlos Colombo
Funeral director
Jorge Martinez de Hoyos
Narrator (Spanish introduction)
Luis Rodríguez
Buyer
Javier Álvarez
Bleeding man
Gerardo Moscoso
Drunk
Eugenio Lobo
Stoned man
Credits
Director
Guillermo del Toro
Written by
Guillermo del Toro
Producers
Bertha Navarro
Producers
Arthur H. Gorson
Coproducers
Alejandro Springall
Coproducers
Bernard L. Nussbaumer
Director of photography
Guillermo Navarro
Production designer
Tolita Figueroa
Art director
Brigitte Broch
Art designer
María Figueroa
Composer and music director
Javier Álvarez
Special makeup effects
Necropia, S.A. de C.V.
Editor
Raúl Dávalos
Associate editor
Paul O'Bryan
Associate producers
Rafael Cruz
Associate producers
Jorge Sánchez
Associate producers
Julio Solórzano Foppa
First assistant director
Sebastián Silva
Sound
Fernando Cámara
Special effects
Laurencio Cordero
Costumes
Genoveva Petitpierre

Current

Guillermo del Toro’s Influences
Guillermo del Toro’s Influences

In a conversation with German children’s author Cornelia Funke, the Mexican director discusses his fascination with myths and fairy tales.

Welcome to Bleak House
Welcome to Bleak House
Now here’s a real haunted house for movie lovers. For a special feature on our Blu-ray and DVD editions of his film Cronos, Guillermo del Toro invited us inside his phantasmagorically decorated home offices, which the director has nicknamed Bleak H…
Cronos: Beautiful Dark Things
Cronos: Beautiful Dark Things
Guillermo del Toro understands the power of fairy tales. Not the prettified romances of Charles Perrault, who tamed the Brothers Grimm for French drawing rooms, or the charming animal fables of Aesop, or the reassuring moral lessons Disney made of…

By Maitland McDonagh

John Grant’s Top 10
John Grant’s Top 10

John Grant is an Iceland-based musician whose most recent album, Love Is Magic, is now available via Partisan Records.

Adventures in Moviegoing with Guillermo del Toro
Adventures in Moviegoing with Guillermo del Toro
In visually daring phantasmagorias like Cronos, The Devil’s Backbone, and Pan’s Labyrinth, Guillermo del Toro transfixes audiences with a unique brand of gothic storytelling that interweaves the personal and the historical. In addition to being o…
Blue Christmas
Blue Christmas
It may be the season of cheerful carols and twinkling lights, but the holidays also bring about a melancholy mood that has inspired some of the world’s greatest filmmakers. This week on the Criterion Channel at FilmStruck, our new series Blue Chris…
Designing for del Toro
Designing for del Toro

When putting together the Criterion editions of Guillermo del Toro’s films, we assembled a talented group of artists, including Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, del Toro collaborator Guy Davis, comic book creator Becky Cloonan, and Russian artist Vani

By Eric Skillman