5. Cronos
The vampire film has been a pretty tired genre for decades, though no more so than in the current post-Twilight period of exhaustion. So, what better time to revisit those classic vampire flicks of decades old? Often a result of an international director taking the classic genre tropes and reinventing them through the prism of their own style, that is certainly the case with del Toro's debut feature Cronos, revolving around a scarab-like device that can restore a human's vitality (albeit at a cost). So tired is the whole vampire mythos that anything taking a unique stab at it is likely to go down well with audiences; it helps that del Toro's style, though rough-hewn thanks to the small $2 million budget, is so distinctly gorgeous right out of the gate. That the film is also achingly human in spite of its otherworldly premise is just a delightful bonus; this is a movie that is certainly a little uneven around the edges, but it's a firm indication of the director's later genius.