“Del Toro might have made THE SHAPE OF WATER, but Sally Hawkins owns it.” - Bilge Ebiri, The Village Voice
“A delicate homage, to both his forbears of Golden Age Hollywood and those who first captured the spirit of the monster myth, this is del Toro at his most poignant and sweet, eschewing the harder edges of horror and releasing a torrent of warmth into a precisely calibrated setting.” - Fionnuala Halligan, Screen Daily
Guillermo del Toro’s misty ode to THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON is set in cold-war era Baltimore. Elisa, a mute and introverted woman who works as a cleaning lady in a hidden, high-security government laboratory, discovers the lab's classified secret—a mysterious, scaled creature from South America that lives in a water tank. Elisa slowly develops a strange and sensuous connection with the creature. When she learns that its fate and very survival lies in the hands of a hostile government agent, she steels herself to free him. The film is full of remarkable performances by Sally Hawkins as Elisa, Michael Shannon as the terrifying Colonel Richard Strickland, and featuring the impressive physicality of Doug Jones as the alluring water man. The striking creature design was co-created by director Guillermo del Toro and creature designer Mike Hill with the aim of making the creature as alluring as he is alienating. Pictured in swampy greens and blues, THE SHAPE OF WATER is part noir, part romance, and part thriller, all swimming together in the swoony thrill of a strange attraction punctuated by ominous cruelty.
Awards & Nominations
Winner - Best Director, Best Film, Best Score and Best Production Design, Academy Awards
Nominee - Best Actress (Sally Hawkins), Best Supporting Actor (Richard Jenkins), Best Supporting Actress (Octavia Spencer), Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Academy Awards
Winner - Saturn Award, Best Fantasy Film, Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films
Winner - Movie of the Year, AFI Awards
Creature Features
October 2–November 1, 2026
The movies have always loved a monster. From early cinema’s demons to Universal’s classic creatures to Toho’s city-destroying kaiju to countless contemporary permutations of all of the above, Creature Features showcase cinema’s incredible ability to transform a character into an irresistible other. The eight films in this series trace creature-making craftsmanship from in-camera practical effects to digitally-enhanced creature augmentation and offer a slate of scary and sweet strangers to match every spooky season mood.
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu