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"I mortgaged my house," director Guillermo del Toro once told an audience. "I sold my car. I was so broke, so broke." 

Del Toro was speaking to the crowd at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2001, where the then-lesser-known filmmaker was discussing his origins as a genre storyteller and, as you might've guessed, starving artist. A decent chunk of the panel was spent on the discussion of how little money del Toro was working with during the time he made features like 1992's vampire arthouse flick Cronos, but none of the anecdotes he told beat the one at about the 10-minute mark.

Which is when del Toro described his very own police chase.

"I was on the way to deliver my van to the car dealership," said the future Shape of Water Oscar-winner, "Where they were going to put it on sale. For anyone that saw the movie, the giant gears from the inside of the clock [were in the back]."

Unfortunately, del Toro's rush to get his van sold had him running a red light, which drew the attention of a police officer.

"The cop was chasing me," del Toro explained, "and I [realized], 'I don't have the money to bribe him. I'm going to have to escape.' Thank God that, in Guadalajara, we don't have a helicopter." 

Laughing, the director continues, "In comes one of the most pathetic hot pursuits in the history of mankind. A guy with [...] huge gears and a cop in a really crappy police car. That was very exemplary of what happened."

Though del Toro escaped his brush with the Long Arm of the Law, he told his audience that the making of Cronos still left quite an impression, and not an entirely posistive one, on the growth of his career.

"I never made the money back," the Hellboy director concluded, "I did get a career, I did get to do other movies, but I lost a quarter of a million dollars out of my own pocket."

Sounds pretty rough. Then again, this story could've ended in jail, and for the fact that it didn't, we horror movie fans are eternally grateful.

In the immortal words of Danny Elfman, "Life's no fun without a good scare." We couldn't agree more, which is why we've cobbled together a couple pieces to send a chill up your spine. Join Popverse as we explore:

• The best horror movies of all time, according to horror aficionado Greg Silber
• The most underrated horror movies from the past couple years
• All the new and upcoming horror movies for 2025 and beyond

And much gore. Er, more. Much more.