The Shape of Water Cleaned Up at The Oscars For Good Reason

Famed director Guillermo del Toro is a master of bringing creatures to life on the big screen. All of del Toro’s movie making decisions are carefully calculated and deliberately unique. That’s to say, you know one of his movies when you see it. There’s no mistaking the feel, the fantasy, or the fascinating end result. From Pan’s Labyrinth to Pacific Rim, he has shown that his mind works like no other and produces some of the most intriguing concepts of any big name director. He’s a creator of wondrous tales and director of the Academy Award Winner for Best Picture of the Year, The Shape of Water. How Weird Were The 1960s? Off the rip, I was pleasantly surprised that Del Toro managed to stay far away from the tired movie trope of teasing the creature, monster or main antagonist of a fantasy film. He was not trying to bait you into watching 45 minutes of the movie to only receive two or three camera shy glimpses of the creature. I cannot thank that decision making team enough! Within fifteen minutes you get a good look at this thing. You witness the amphibious organism meet our main character and understand what is likely to transpire, but you don’t have a damn clue how it will happen.

The Shape of Water is set in the 1960s; the perfect era of mystery. UFO stories, Big Foot sightings, Loch Ness monster claims, urban legends and unexplained phenomena were everywhere then, as now. There was no internet then, obviously. Cameras were still expensive and catching on. Perhaps the co…