Since childhood, Guillermo del Toro was transfixed by a single shot of the Gill-man peering at Kay Lawrence (Julie Adams) floating in the water in The Creature From the Black Lagoon. He felt the pain of the monster’s unrequited love, but it took him 40 years to unite the damsel with the creature.
The Shape of Water has mystified audiences since its 2017 release. The film won the Oscar for Best Picture in a year filled with heavy hitters like Phantom Thread and Dunkirk, and del Toro’s heartfelt twist on the Beauty and the Beast fairytale has since legitimized the monster romance genre and its recent explosion into the mainstream. And whether you missed it or are overdue for a revisit, Criterion just dropped a 4K UHD and Blu-Ray combo loaded with special features.
Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins), a mute janitor working at a government science facility in early 1960s Baltimore, finds herself fascinated by the Amphibian Man (Doug Jones), a creature brought to the lab by the sadistic Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon). Elisa eventually falls in love with the supposed monster, and with the help of her coworker, Zelda (Octavia Spencer), and neighbor, Giles (Richard Jenkins), she rescues him from captivity.
The allure of monsters has always been a subtext of horror films. Often, the consequences are violent, punishing the woman for their interest in the other. Kay Lawrence is supposed to be saved by the dashing hero. But why can’t that hero have gills? Elisa is immediately awed by the Amphibian Man. He’s far from the supposedly monstrous Abercrombie models that were the objects of desire in 2010s fantasy romance, instead sporting a lithe swimmer’s body and plump lips. He’s, well, hot.
The movie’s production team was tasked with creating “the Michelangelo's David of amphibian men,” but del Toro didn’t stop at making the fish comely; he injected sexuality into the story to make their relationship authentic. The film begins by introducing Elisa as she goes about her daily routine, which includes masturbating in the bathtub while she boils eggs for her lunch. It’s not played as sad or perverse, just human.
Elisa and the Amphibian Man consummate their relationship in that same tub, and the film goes as far as to clue in the audience on the Amphibian Man’s genitalia. Elisa gestures to show Zelda where he keeps his, well, fish stick, and she isn’t met with any judgment. They’re just two women gabbing about sex.
The Shape of Water was the first movie to really go there with a non-humanoid monster, and while it’s easy to make jokes about boinking fish, the film portrays a sincere love between two outsiders capable of seeing each other as a whole. The film even crescendos in an Old Hollywood-style dream sequence where Elisa sings her devotion. The scene is lush and indulgent in the black-and-white style of old MGM musicals, while still having a tongue-in-cheek quality of seeing a Fishman execute a waltz.
The bravery of The Shape of Water to revel in the sensuality and the sincerity of woman-monster relationships has since sparked two 2024 films to do the same. Lisa Frankenstein, directed by Zelda Williams, portrays a grieving teenage girl (Kathryn Newton) and a reanimated corpse (Cole Sprouse) who go on a murderous but loving jaunt collecting body parts. Your Monster, a rom-com directed by Caroline Lindy, shows a musical theatre actress (Melissa Barrera) tap into her rage with the monster in her closet (Tommy Dewey) after getting dumped while recovering from cancer.
The Shape of Water’s prestige emboldened the genre to embrace the natural messiness of love while capturing the complexities of female characters. Like Del Toro’s film, these monster romances acknowledge the ridiculousness of these pairings, but boldly portray the love as it is: visceral, raw, and transformative. The heroine and monster find themselves on equal footing, and the heroine is allowed to be themselves for the first time, however messy or transgressive it appears to the world. And when the Amphibian Man turns Elisa’s scars into gills so they can swim together forever, del Toro finally fulfills his childhood dream of seeing Gill-man receive Kay Lawrence’s love.
The Criterion Collection edition of The Shape of Water is out now.
