Beyond the Fairy Tale of The Shape of Water. Reimagining the Creature

Abstract

Guillermo del Toro’s “Shape of Water” (2017) has gained praise both from critics and audiences for its themes and storyline. In particular, a lot of creative and thematic weight is carried by the creature in the film – the Amphibian Man. As a character, it fits into the recent trend of morally positive and emotionally impactful monster representations, helping, among other things, to address the themes of acceptance and embracing of otherness. The aim of this paper is to explore the construction and portrayal of the Amphibian Man, and to take a closer look at the director’s approach towards reimagination of the creature in today’s landscape of cinema. The paper delves into del Toro’s work to define him as auteur, reflects on the traditions and changes in creature cinema, and examines the portrayal of the creature in terms of language, sound, and image.

Keywords

• acceptance
• creature cinema
• guillermo del toro
• image
• language
• monster films
• otherness
• shape of water
• sound
• zoomorphism.