This Day In Horror History: THE SHAPE OF WATER Opened 2017

On this day in horror history, Guillermo del Toro‘s The Shape of Water opened in 2017. The romantic fantasy stars Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Doug Jones, Richard Jenkins, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Octavia Spencer.

Written by del Toro and Vanessa Taylor it centers on a mute, isolated woman who works as a cleaning lady in a hidden, high-security government laboratory in 1962 Baltimore. Her life changes forever when she discovers the lab’s classified secret — a mysterious, scaled creature from South America that lives in a water tank. As she develops a unique bond with her new friend, she soon learns that its fate and very survival lies in the hands of a hostile government agent and a marine biologist.

The Shape of Water premiered at the 74th Venice International Film Festival. It snagged the Golden Lion for best film. It also screened at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. The film hit two theaters in New York City back in 2017, before expanding wide on December 23rd.

RELATED: The Shape of Water and the Power of the Silent Performance

The Shape of Water snagged $63.9M in the U.S. and $131.4M elsewhere for a total of $195.2M worldwide. It earned 13 Academy Award nominations. The film won for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Production Design, and Best Original Score.

It sports a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes. The Critics Consensus reads: The Shape of Water finds Guillermo del Toro at his visually distinctive best — and matched by an emotionally absorbing story brought to life by a stellar Sally Hawkins performance.

A novelization by del Toro and Daniel Kraus was published on March 6, 2018.

Do you dig The Shape of Water?

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