'The Shape Of Water': NSFW Trailer For del Toro's Fairy Tale

I’m back from the Toronto International Film Festival and still getting my bearings, but Guillermo del Toro‘s “The Shape Of Water” was the best film I saw at the fest, hands down. Beautifully shot, astoundingly written, and filled with warmth that nearly overflows off the screen, his fairy tale for adults is a story that makes heroes out for freaks, outcasts, overlooked, and marginalized. It’s a dazzling masterpiece, which is why you shouldn’t watch this trailer.

It’s best to go in fresh for this ambitious and truly moving romance/thriller about a mute woman who falls in love with a merman, and embarks on a rescue mission to save him from the military lab where he’s being kept prisoner. And by the way, that’s only part of this tale about identity and so much more. Here’s the official synopsis:

READ MORE: ‘The Shape Of Water’: Guillermo del Toro Says Richard Jenkins’ Character Written For Ian McKellen [Interview]

From master story teller, Guillermo del Toro, comes THE SHAPE OF WATER – an other-worldly fairy tale, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1962. In the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is trapped in a life of isolation. Elisa’s life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer) discover a secret classified experiment. 

Starring Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Michael Stuhlbarg and Octavia Spencer, “The Shape Of Water” opens on December 8th.