Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape Of Water Gets A Stunning Trailer

The first trailer for Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water is here, and it is gorgeous. The film, written and directed by del Toro, is set in 1962, in the midst of Cold War-era America. A mute woman named Elisa (Sally Hawkins) lives a life of isolation in the high-security government facility where she works, but her life is turned upside down when she and her co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer) discover a secret classified experiment.

"If I told you about her, the princess without voice, what would I say?" says a voiceover at the start of the trailer, as Elisa is shown floating in her room. The trailer then moves into her very routine day-to-day life, which involves her clocking in and out and cleaning the facility. Things quickly veer towards the strange when she sees a hand jump out of the water of a tank she is cleaning.

She and Zelda bring this phenomenon to Michael Shannon's Strickland, who tells them to clean the lab and get out. However, Elisa cannot stop her curiosity and she continues to investigate the creature (Doug Jones), which is described as "the most sensitive asset ever to be housed in this facility." "You may think that thing looks human, stands on two legs, right," says Strickland. "But we're created in the Lord's image. You don't think that's what the Lord looks like, do you?"

Despite Strickland's objections, Elisa and the creature begin to bond. "When he looks at me, he does not know how I am incomplete," Elisa signs. "He sees me as I am." Unfortunately for Elisa's connection, though, Strickland is hellbent on taking apart the creature and figuring out what makes it tick, a goal that quickly turns to violence as the trailer takes a turn for the worse. "If we do nothing, neither are we," Elisa signs.

Vanessa Taylor also assisted on the script for The Shape of Water, which also stars Lauren Lee Smith, Richard Jenkins, Michael Stuhlbarg, Nick Searcy, and David Hewlett. The film is currently set for a Dec. 8, 2017 release; while we wait, see some of the other movies that will blow you away this year.