The Shape of Water’s fresh trailer reveals new details
By Samantha Puc
The red band trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water shows its star creature surfacing from its watery home and reveals new details about the film.
The Shape of Water took home the top prize last week at the annual Venice Film Festival, and critics are raving. The film is a fantasy love story about a mute janitor at a high-security government laboratory in 1962 Baltimore. She develops a deep bond with a mysterious, water-dwelling, South American creature being kept in the lab’s tanks.
Guillermo del Toro co-wrote The Shape of Water screenplay with Vanessa Taylor, then produced, and directed the film. He is known for his dark fantasy (Pan’s Labyrinth, The Devil’s Backbone) and his intense action movies (Hellboy, Pacific Rim).
The Shape of Water seems to combine all of del Toro’s best work; the red band trailer is super tense and very moody. It is also the first time the creature actually emerges, fully, from its watery home. In the official trailer released in July, we see its face, its back, and its hand, but the red band trailer gives us full body shots. It also reveals significantly more plot details.
Here’s the original trailer; you can find the NSFW red-band trailer here:
The Shape of Water is going to be intense.
After Sally Hawkins’ character Elisa Esposito bonds with the creature, she discovers that the government wants to cut it open. Its official name is “The Asset” and the Soviets want it — therefore, it must be valuable. The US government wants to “take it apart and see how it works”. Elisa can’t stand by that. So, Elisa conspires with her friends (Octavia Spencer, Richard Jenkins) to free “The Asset”.
According to the red band trailer, this plan leads to a wicked fight between good and evil. The film seems to beg the question: what makes us human? Guillermo del Toro is well-known for his philosophical concepts; The Shape of Water is no exception.
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This new trailer is so well edited; it’s obvious why critics are raving about the film. The Shape of Water is slated to hit theaters in the US on Dec. 8, and it’s already being suggested as an Oscar nominee. With music by Alexandre Desplat underscoring del Toro’s unique brand of storytelling, this may be the best creature feature of the year.