Guillermo del Toro’s ‘The Shape of Water’ gets a creepy new trailer

It’s been a few years since director Guillermo del Toro’s last feature project, but his new film The Shape of Water hits theaters in December and — like so many of the Academy Award nominee’s other films — looks to be as creepy as it is beautiful.

Fox Searchlight Pictures released a new trailer for The Shape of Water this week, offering another preview of what’s been keeping del Toro busy in the time since the release of 2015’s Crimson Peak. The latest trailer (see above) offers quite a bit of fresh footage from the dark fantasy set in Cold War era America during the 1960s.

The Shape of Water follows a lonely woman whose life is forever changed when she encounters a mysterious creature at the secret government facility where she works. Academy Award nominee Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine, Happy-Go-Lucky) stars in the film as Elisa, a mute woman who lives an isolated, silent life before meeting the merman-like subject of the laboratory’s experiments.

A poster image created by artist James Jean was released along with the film’s first trailer in July 2017, and it only adds to the film’s bizarre beauty.

✨????✨Artwork for The Shape of Water @realgdt @foxsearchlight pic.twitter.com/FQ1lMab3bs

— James Jean (@JamesJeanArt) July 19, 2017

At this point, it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that the aquatic creature is played by Doug Jones, a veteran of del Toro’s films and television projects with creature roles in Crimson Peak, Pan’s Labyrinth, and The Strain, among other projects. Jones might be best known for playing Abe Sapien, a similarly aquatic character appearing in the two Hellboy films del Toro directed.

Along with directing The Shape of Water, del Toro also co-wrote the film with Vanessa Taylor (Game of Thrones, Divergent) and serves as a co-producer on it. Beyond Hawkins and Jones, the film’s cast includes Academy Award nominee Michael Shannon (Man of Steel, Midnight Special), Academy Award nominee Richard Jenkins (The Visitor, The Cabin in the Woods), Golden Globe nominee Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man, Steve Jobs), and Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer (The Help).

The first trailer for the film (see below) came as a bit of a surprise to many fans of Del Toro’s work, as the filmmaker’s next project had been shrouded in mystery for quite a while.

Del Toro reportedly had The Shape of Water planned for several years, and chose to direct this film instead of the Pacific Rim sequel, next year’s Pacific Rim: Uprising.

The Shape of Water is scheduled to hit theaters December 8.

Update: We added a new trailer for the film.