Indie 90s: Cronos (1993)
Director: Guillermo del Toro Run Time: 94 min. Release Year: 1993
Starring: Claudio Brook, Federico Luppi, Margarita Isabel, Ron Perlman, Tamara Shanath
Country: Mexico
Language: English, Spanish
Indie 90s: The Revolution That Changed Cinema
The ’90s didn’t just give us great movies, it changed what movies could be. Independent filmmakers that were breaking the rules, finding new voices, and reshaping American cinema.
Our Indie 90s series features twenty-two films in all — all independent, all revolutionary.
About the film:
Experience Guillermo del Toro’s auspicious and audacious feature debut, Cronos (1993), which was selected as the Mexican entry at the 66th Academy Awards.
In Cronos (1993), an ingenious alchemist tried to perfect an invention that would provide him with the key to eternal life. It was called the Cronos device. When he died more than 400 years later, he took the secrets of this remarkable device to the grave with him. Now, an elderly antiques dealer has found the hellish machine hidden in a statue and learns about its incredible powers. The more he uses the device, the younger he becomes…but nothing comes without a price. Life after death is just the beginning as this nerve-shattering thriller unfolds and the fountain of youth turns bloody. An ancient device. A modern discovery. A terrifying tale of the eternal.
About the filmmaker:
Guillermo del Toro Gómez is a master storyteller renowned for pioneering dark fantasy and infusing poetic beauty into the grotesque. His imaginative films have earned recognition at Cannes, Venice, and other festivals around the world. From Mexico, his Spanish language films earned him a place on the international stage beginning with his sensational 1993 feature debut Cronos — Mexico’s official submission to the Academy Awards — followed by The Devil’s Backbone (2001) and the universally acclaimed Pan’s Labyrinth (2006).
Del Toro’s English-language features include Hellboy (2004), Pacific Rim (2013), Crimson Peak (2015), and The Shape of Water (2017), which earned 3 prizes at Venice before winning Best Picture and Best Directing at the 2018 Academy Awards. His most recent features include Nightmare Alley (2021), the stop-motion adaptation Pinocchio (2022), which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and his much lauded thirteenth feature film, Frankenstein (2025).
Cronos (1993) previously screened at the Film Center as part of Winter Sucks 2024. The film was presented with del Toro’s unreleased 1987 horror short Geometria.
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