Fans of Guillermo del Toro — the Oscar-winning director of The shape of water, Pan’s labyrinth, Pacific edge, Hellboyand more – can catch something interesting in the DC Comics superhero movie Blue beetle when they are sharp and on guard. It passes in the blink of an eye, with no comment: just a flash of a golden beetle on a TV screen and a moment of ominous music. No one comments on it and it doesn’t affect the plot. But it’s a nice little reference – and a surprisingly appropriate one.
The image is from del Toro’s 1993 directorial debut Kronos, about a man who becomes a kind of vampire through accidental, mechanical means and then has to defend himself against outside forces that envy his newfound immortality. Which may not sound like it Blue beetle on the surface, but the story parallels are extensive enough that it’s worth wondering how much the screenwriter, Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, had Kronos on the brain when choosing what to adapt from the comics. (DelToro, an old DC Comics fanmay also have taken some inspiration from Blue Beetle – the original version of the character, created in 1939, didn’t gain powers from a mystical scarab, but his 1960s incarnation, archaeologist Dan Garrett, did have one.)
Kronos is a classy, gory debut that moves at a slower pace and takes on a more serious tone than most of del Toro’s later work. But it still clearly shows his sensibilities, especially his love of gleefully grotesque, startling imagery. Made for a modest $2 million – at the time the second highest production budget once awarded a Mexican film – the film made a big impression, winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes and winning the Ariel Awards, Mexico’s highest accolade for films, winning eight awards, including Best Picture, Director, Story and Screenplay.
Kronos follows Jesús Gris (del Toro favorite Federico Luppi), an elderly antiques dealer who accidentally comes across a golden, mechanical scarab on the job. When he cleans it and activates it, the thing abruptly attaches itself to him and injects him with an unknown substance. At first he is alarmed and disgusted. But when the injection reverses his aging and he grows younger and stronger, he begins to return to it regularly for injections – guiltily at first, then with the increasing confidence of an addict getting his fix. One problem, however, is that his restored youth comes with a strong thirst for blood and an aversion to sunlight. Another is that a powerful, dying businessman knows the scarab exists, and has sent his thug cousin (another del Toro favorite, Ron Perlman) to acquire it by any means necessary.
It all runs neatly in parallel Blue beetle‘s action. A mystical, mysterious scarab that bonds with its owner’s flesh and transforms him into something more powerful? Account. That host who at first recoiled from the scarab in horror, but gradually came to rely on it? Account. A scheming capitalist baron who wants the scarab and is willing to kill its current owner to get it? Account. A powerful second-in-command who eventually becomes the film’s main villain as he repeatedly tries to get his hands on the scarab? Account. Lots of body horror and Cronenbergian grotesquerie? Good… Blue beetle do directly mimic CronenbergBut Kronos is much bloodier, with more traditional horror elements, especially as Jesús fights his newfound bloodlust and then gives in to it.
Image: The Criterion Collection
thematic, Kronos And Blue beetle are very different entities – the latter is a standard superhero origin story with many Mexican-American trappings, while the former is much more saturated in the culture of Mexican horror cinema, especially when it comes to religious imagery and Catholic guilt. Jesús is a thinly disguised religious figure who dies and rises again, and a remorseful sinner who embraces a selfish, gluttonous path at the expense of other people, then struggles to find his way back to the light. The parallels between them are largely superficial and probably the result of drawing on similar inspirations (e.g. the scarabs traditional Egyptian associations with death and rebirth, change, power and growth). But Del Toro has also said he was inspired by the use of beetles as living jewelryand by his disgust at ticks, which he sees as little vampires.
But there’s still a lot of resonance between the two movies. And given Blue beetle‘s other nods to popular Mexican culture – especially the shows Maria la DelBarrio And El Chapulin Colorado – that little nod to del Toro’s origins and his own creepy scarab movie fits right in.
Kronos streams on Max and The Criterion Channeland is available for digital rental or purchase at Amazon, Google Playand other platforms.