“I subscribe to that idea”: why Guillermo del Toro compared his career to a farting contest
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(Credits: Far Out / MUBI)
It used to be that any filmmaker who specialised largely in genre fare would be sneered upon by the industry’s great and good, but Guillermo del Toro has amassed a bulging trophy cabinet and made awards season history by sticking to his guns as Hollywood’s foremost gothic fantasist.
While some would argue that Tim Burton deserves that distinction, don’t let it be forgotten that he admitted he’d grown disillusioned and dissatisfied with the machine, something that was readily apparent for a number of years as he churned out forgettable flicks that were as by-the-numbers as Burtonesque can get.
Del Toro, meanwhile, continues to treat everything he touches with the same childlike glee he’s always possessed, allowing him to inject all of his projects with the heart, love, and grandiosity audiences have come to expect. People told him that nobody would be interested in a love story between a woman and a fish man, and he was also repeatedly informed that stop-motion animation was an irrelevant relic, but who got the last laugh?
He did, obviously, with del Toro the first person in Academy Awards history to win trophies for ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Director’, and ‘Best Animated Feature’ thanks to The Shape of Water and Pinocchio. He’s been obsessed with horror and fantasy since his earliest days, and he’s continued that lifelong adoration while elevating it towards critical acclaim, box office success, and awards season glory.
The filmmaker is fully aware that horror isn’t viewed as particularly prestigious, and in typically self-effacing form, he used flatulence to illustrate his approach. “I subscribe to that idea, which is that horror not only scares; it’s like comedy,” he told Devin Faraci. “I can laugh my ass off watching Dumb and Dumber, which I do, or the fart contest in Family Guy; I’m a simple guy with comedy.”
Every single one of del Toro’s features from 1993’s Cronos to 2022’s Pinocchio has at least one element of horror, but it’s covered everything from creature features and comic book adaptations to the moving, often haunting dramatic and character-driven Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water.
“I think horror, most of the time, is thought of as the fart contest equivalent,” he suggested. “Do my movies kick major ass with gore? Eh, some days.” He’s selling himself very short, looking at the quality he’s been delivering to the eyeballs and imaginations of audiences everywhere for over 30 years, all while refusing to stray too far away from his tried and trusted sensibilities.
Even Nightmare Alley is horrific in its own way, which didn’t stop it from making the ‘Best Picture’ shortlist at the Oscars. Del Toro may have no issues comparing his entire filmography to a farting contest, but he’s come out of it smelling like roses.
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