Writer/director Guillermo del Toro uses his first feature to let the world know that he sees nothin’ wrong with a movie that stars a sympathetic undead bloodsucker whose skin is rotting off. It’s an important statement. This is a Spanish vampire film that follows only a few of the rules. Thirst for blood? Check. Hates the sun? Check. Is he a sexy brooding guy? NOPE. This vamp is Gross-Out City. He got beat with the same ugly stick as zombies. At first, he’s a mild-mannered old man who happens to find an antique gold scarab that has a little bug inside of it that bites you and makes you immortal. From there, it isn’t long before Ron Perlman is chasing him around and beating the hell out of him because there’s an another old man who’s after the scarab and what it offers. Get this thing and you live forever. You don’t even have to eat kale. The result of all this is a smart horror story that also avoids making the love between the vampire old man and his young granddaughter into something corny. It established Del Toro has a new god of The Grotesque and lead to a Hollywood career.