Review of 'Sangre del Toro'

An interesting insight into the mind of famous horror director Guillermo del Toro. Mostly consisting of del Toro walking around an exhibit of personal effects from his collection in a “Monsterous” art exhibition in his home town of Guadalajara, Mexico, he talks of his life-long fascination with the macabre and film-making. He reminisces of his early experiences with religious and gothic imagery as well as the monsters of early Universal films, Japanese culture, and, of course, Mexican folklore, discussing how all of these effected him as seen in his films, notably Pan's Labyrinth (2006) and The Shape of Water (2017). Here he discusses the beauty he sees in what many would find disturbing…images of dissected and mutated animals (and humans) including talking for some time about the controversial artist Joel?Peter Witkin who featured real human and animal parts in his work. At one point he says how most people concentrate on the outward appearance but there is so much else hidden on the inside that is equally appealing.

His films often feature “monsters” as key characters and in this documentary he talks of his love of “monster” films as well as his large collection of monster magazines. Often his work calls into question what exactly a monster is - The fantastic creatures being featured or those that would persecute them. There are many monsters on display in the art exhibition here and he continually talks about how he feels “Frankenstein” is the ultimate monster story, the one he most admires. This documentary was presumably filmed either just before he started filming Frankenstein (2025) which is incredibly faithful to the original story.

I am not sure how much we really learn of the man himself in this film but it certainly does describe how his hobbies or interests have impacted the films he has brought to the screen. I personally found some of these themes and imagery used in this film to be quite disturbing and I am afraid I cannot share del Toro's passion for it but nonetheless this will all be fascinating for fans of his work.

Rating: “Really good but I have some issues”

Review Date: 2026-01-31

Directed by: Yves Montmayeur

Studio: Brainworks

Year: 2025

Length: 86 minutes

Genre: Documentary

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt36909787/