Rare is the filmmaker with so many unrealized projects that there’s an entire Wikipedia page devoted to them, but “rare” has always been an apt descriptor for Guillermo del Toro. You can probably count on one hand the number of foreign-born filmmakers who began their career making independent horror films in their native country (“Cronos,” “The Devil’s Backbone”) before bringing their talents to Hollywood blockbusters (“Hellboy,” “Pacific Rim”) and deserved Oscar winners (“Pan’s Labyrinth,” “The Shape of Water”), all without altering their sensibility.
For del Toro, even when he’s making movies that win the Golden Lion and Academy Award for best picture, he’s also making vibrant, personal projects that reveal his sheer joy to be making movies in the first place. Hollywood would be a better place with more filmmakers like him, and yet the fact that there’s no one else quite like him is part of what makes him so special.
In celebration of del Toro’s latest film “Nightmare Alley,” out Dec. 17, Variety ranked the director’s oeuvre from worst to best.