Wolff rating: GOOD
Plot summary: Antique dealer finds mechanical device in an old statue that has mystical powers.
Biased, pithy comments: Think edgy, think independent, think Mexican. With all that in mind, this was a surprisingly good show. Though slow and stately, the movie moves from a sort of moral fairy tale to an exploration of what it means to be alive. It keeps letting us laugh at it every now and then so we can keep our sanity, bu it takes itself seriously most of the time and we're so stranged-out that we kind of buy it ourselves. Horror is both a genre and an emotion, and I found that I was, indeed, horrified because I cared about the characters.
Other Notes: Won nine Mexican Academy Awards and grand prize in Critics' Week at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Fredrico Luppi, Ron Perlman, Claudio Brook, Margarit Isabel, Ramara Shanath.
Directed by: Guillermo Del Toro