Guillermo Del Toro: At Home with the Monsters Part 2

Guillermo Del Toro is inspired by fantasy, science fiction, and horror and all contribute to his works. Here are his main inspirations.

* Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft - This is apparent in his penchant for gothic horror and large scale creatures.

* Fairy Tales - I didn't take a lot of pictures of these for some reason. The below picture is the fairy tale book found by Ofelia in Pan's Labyrinth. Del Toro often makes films about children that treat them as intelligent beings affected by the world around them. Both Pan's Labyrinth, Pacific Rim, and The Devil's Backbone have children dealing with the real world horror of living in war time and the fantastical horror of ghosts, mythical beings, and giant monsters. A lot of parallels can be drawn between Pan's Labyrinth and Alice in Wonderland, which I feel silly I didn't notice until this exhibit.

* Frankenstein and Freaks - He's drawn to writing about outsiders and people removed or shunned from society.

Stay tuned for more of this exhibit! You can check it out at LACMA until November 27.