Is he or isn’t he Abe?
There can be no doubts after the amphibeous creature was revealed in all his green-scaled glory, in the Red-band trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s masterpiece.
The Mexican director has been receiving huge praise at early screenings and just scooped the Golden Lion main prize at the Venice Film Festival.
The early teaser trailers started a fan frenzy but the Red-band, more adult trailers give films a chance to show the darker and more shocking sides of movies – and in this case give a sweet mute girl the chance to swear her head (and hands) off.
The Shape of Water has dazzled critics and thrilled fans with the return of Hellboy favourite Abe. The Gothic fantasy tells the origin story of the amphibeous hero as he falls in love with Hawkins’ mute, Eliza.
HELLBOY LINK TO THE SHAPE OF WATER EXPLAINED
Del Toro has revealed his joy at the rapturous early responses to the movie.
On accepting the prestigious top prize in Venice, he said: “If you remain pure and stay with your faith, whatever you have faith in, in my case it’s monsters, eventually things go right.
“I’ve been doing this for 25 years. You go up, you go down. You fly, you land, you crash. A career is an accident in slow motion. It’s not a trajectory you plan.”
The new trailer shows much more of Eliza and friends’ brave plot to rescue the mysterious creature who is being tortured at a secret government laboratory.
Michael Shannon is typically chilling as Abe’s villainous jailer and tormentor.
Guy Lodge from Variety called The Shape of Water: “A ravishing, eccentric auteur’s imagining, spilling artistry, empathy and sensuality from every open pore, it also offers more straight-up movie for your money than just about any Hollywood studio offering this year.”
The Shape of Water is out in UK cinemas on February 16, 2018.