It was a little difficult to find a narrative through line to the exhibition with elements that could have been grouped together being a little scattered about. There were bits from Hellboy all over the place. The Samaritan was paired with one of Kroenen’s masks, while Hellboy‘s trench coat was paired with that rotary grenade launcher weapon from Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and Rasputin’s mecha glove from the first film. The Faun from Pan’s Labyrinth was paired with Mako Mori’s Jaeger pilot suit from Pacific Rim while the Pale Man was around the corner. Frankenstein was a bit spread out as well.
And on the one hand, I should care about this, because literally everything about this exhibit and what Del Toro does centers on the importance of story and narrative, but I didn’t, because I’m so thankful for any opportunity to experience events like these, regardless of the motivation for displaying them….which brings me to my fourth theory as to why Del Toro put his collection on tour: It was a distraction. If you look through Del Toro’s filmography, he had essentially nothing going on during the run of the exhibition, which began in August of 2016 in Los Angeles, and ended in January of 2018 in Ontario. Sure, he filmed ‘The Shape of Water,’ but that lasted four months, and yes, there was post production after that, but then that was it for a while, so I wonder if he had found himself at the mercy of his stuff.