Don’t miss Blue Beetle’s tiny, telling homage to Guillermo del Toro

polygon.com:

Fans of Guillermo del Toro — the Oscar-winning director of The Shape of Water, Pan’s Labyrinth, Pacific Rim, Hellboy, and more — may catch something interesting in DC Comics’ superhero movie Blue Beetleif they’re sharp-eyed and on the alert. It goes by in a heartbeat, without comment: Just a flash of a golden beetle on a TV screen, and a moment of ominous music. No one comments on it, and it has no bearing on the plot. But it’s a neat little reference — and a startlingly appropriate one.

The image is from del Toro’s 1993 directorial debut Cronos, about a man who becomes a sort of vampire through accidental, mechanical means, then has to defend himself from outside forces who envy his new immortality. Which may not sound much like Blue Beetle at first glance, but the story parallels are extensive enough that it’s worth wondering how much its screenwriter, Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer, had Cronos on the brain when choosing what to adapt from the comics. (Del Toro, a longtime DC Comics fan, might also have taken some inspiration from Blue Beetle — the original version of the character, created in 1939, didn’t get powers from a mystical scarab, but his 1960s incarnation, archaeologist Dan Garrett, did have one.)

Cronos is a stylish, bloody debut that moves at a slower pace and takes on a more serious tone than most of del Toro’s later work. But it still clearly shows his sensibilities, particularly his love of gleefully grotesque, startling imagery. Made for a modest $2 million — at the time, the second-highest production budget ever granted a Mexican movie — the film made a major splash, winning the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and sweeping the Ariel Awards, Mexico’s highest honor for movies, winning eight awards, including Best Picture,