Guillermo del Toro once said, “If you look back at your life and nothing has changed, something is wrong. Sanity is change.”

In this episode, we return to Guadalajara — to the messy, inspired beginnings of one of cinema’s greatest visionaries. Before Pan’s Labyrinth or The Shape of Water, a young del Toro was making short films like Geometría in cramped rooms, experimenting with latex, blood, and the beauty of the grotesque.

Birth of a Monster Maker traces how those early experiments held the DNA of everything to come: the monsters built by hand, the mythology stitched with Catholic guilt, and the obsession with finding tenderness inside terror. It’s the story of how Guillermo del Toro learned to speak through his creatures — and how he turned horror into empathy, and cinema into sanctuary.

by Angel I. Salinas

SpectreVision Radio is a bespoke podcast network at the intersection between the arts and the uncanny, featuring a tapestry of shows exploring creativity, the esoteric, and the unknown. We’re a community for creators and fans vibrating around common curiosities, shared interests and persistent passions.

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Presented by El Cine — where Latin cinema meets rebellion and reverence

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