One of the most fascinating tidbits about fantasy/horror director Guillermo del Toro in the new hardcover book Guillermo del Toro: At Home With Monsters is that del Toro grew up in a collecting home. His father had won the lottery. The details aren’t discussed, but after reading this book, which focuses on one of del Toro’s homes where he displays a collection of fantasy and horror memorabilia, any read would ask where would someone get the money to buy all these things. The closest comparison would be Michael Jackson’s purchase of oddities like Joseph Merrick’s bones. Jackson had billions, but del Toro, whose career has only taken off since the 1990s, has amassed a collection that doesn’t reflect that extreme level of purchasing yet. But he’s on his way.
Guillermo del Toro is known for his visions of fantasy horror as seen in his Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth, Mimic, Crimson Peak, and even the beginnings of The Hobbit trilogy. Many are unaware of his creepy home full of fantasy and horror relics that he calls Bleak House. Think of the beginning of an episode of The Ray Bradbury Theater or Friday the 13th TV series or that shop where an old man found a Mogwai for his son in Gremlins and you’ll have an idea of the oddities to be found.
No, that’s not the actual Ray Harryhausen with del Toro (we hope), but you have to wonder if Vincent Price had something to do with getting this frozen fellow into del Toro’s collection.
Some of the purchases on display are unique, some rare, but most appear to be mass market items, books, toys, statues, action figures. They cram the rooms of his house much like many people you know who have an obsession with collecting. Sure, del Toro’s house may be creepier than most–custom mannequins of horror greats like H.P. Lovecraft, Ray Harryhausen and Edgar Allen Poe appear to be living in this lair–but Bleak House does not look like anyone actually lives there. A retreat for storing research materials seems more likely. Could anyone, even a fan of all these monsters, wake up everyday to a gigantic head of Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s monster?
is at once both like something you’ve never seen before yet strangely familiar with bits and pieces of so many different influences. The characters seem to have evolved from the green planet in Avatar and the villains from the Iowa State Patrol borg police of Star Trek 2009. The compositions have influences in the creepy worlds of both artist Dave McKean and at the same time the otherworldly spaces of filmmaker Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth. The fantasy evokes painted high fantasy pulp cover art and the mystery and old religions and myths of The Dark Crystal. The colors and lights throughout the book are reminiscent of the work of artist Lee Bermejo. The industrial architecture conjures the oppressive cityscapes of Fritz Lang, and the surreal buildings of Antoni Gaudi.
