‘The Shape of Water’ Clip: Sally Hawkins Encounters the Merman in Guillermo del Toro’s Romantic Fantasy

Fresh off its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, “The Shape of Water” has a new clip. Guillermo del Toro’s follow-up to “Crimson Peak” has garnered positive reactions so far, with IndieWire contributor Ben Croll calling it one of the director’s “most stunningly successful works” as well as “a powerful vision of a creative master feeling totally, joyously free.” Watch the clip, in which Sally Hawkins discovers the merman played by Doug Jones, below.

Here’s del Toro’s statement on the film: “Fairy tales were born in times of trouble, in complicated times—when hope felt lost. I made ‘The Shape of Water’ as an antidote to cynicism. For it seems to me that when we speak of love—when we believe in love—we do so in a hopeless way. We fear looking naïve and even disingenuous. But Love is real—absolutely real—and, like water, it is the most gentle and most powerful force in the Universe. It is free and formless until it pours into its recipient, until we let it in. Our eyes are blind. But our soul is not. It recognizes love in whatever shape it comes to us.”

Michael Shannon, Octavia Spencer, and co-star in “The Shape of Water,” which will next screen in Telluride and Toronto. Fox Searchlight will release it in theaters on December 8.