With a fake mustache, Guillermo del Toro tried sneaking into R-rated movies as a kid

On a recent stop on On Film … With Kevin McCarthy, Guillermo del Toro didn’t just reminisce about the movies that shaped him — he copped to the lengths he went to see them before he was allowed. As a kid in Mexico, he tried to bluff the box office with a stick-on ’stache and platform shoes to slip into R-rated fare like Holocaust 2000 and Raw Meat.

“I had a fake mustache when I was a kid,” del Toro recalled.

The stunt bombed, repeatedly. He said his campaign got so familiar to staff that when he finally returned with his uncle to try the “responsible adult” route, someone at the theater recognized him on sight and warned his relative not to buy the ticket. The effort wasn’t wasted: Raw Meat (Gary Sherman’s cult horror ) clearly stuck with him — he’s since championed it as a favorite.

Next up: a stop-motion quest

That monster-loving kid is back in animation mode with The Buried Giant, now in production at Netflix . Del Toro is directing and co-writing the adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2015 novel with Dennis Kelly, marking his return to stop-motion after Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. Longtime collaborator Ron Perlman has joined the voice cast in an undisclosed role.

Ishiguro’s story follows elderly couple Axl and Beatrice across a post-Arthurian Britain where a mysterious mist has erased collective memory. As they set out to find their son, long-buried truths start to surface, with trolls, warriors and fairies turning the journey into prime del Toro territory — creatures, folklore, and heartache sharing the same world.

Del Toro has been clear about why this one belongs in stop-motion: he wants every person, creature and environment to feel like they occupy the same physical space, something he worries a live-action version would fracture.

He’s described the film as “made by humans for humans.”

The Buried Giant is currently in production at Netflix.