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Guillermo del Toro's name has been on some of the finest monster movies of the past century. He's directed a breathtaking spin on the grandfather of all creature features, Frankenstein, and he's also tackled completely original inventions such as the Reapers from Blade II. However, out of all the inhumans he's made human, a select few have gone down as the filmmaker's favorites. And you probably won't be surprised to learn that they were all played by frequent del Toro collaborator and monster actor Doug Jones.

The subject came up during a Reddit AMA del Toro did ahead of the 20th anniversary theatrical rerelease of his seminal fantasy film, Pan's Labyrinth. It was one Redditor going by the name of u/robotomato13 that brought the subject of favorites up to del Toro, and it was clear from his response that the filmmaker couldn't pick just one.

"There are a few of them," del Toro answered, "The Angel of Death in Hellboy II. I love the Pale Man. I love The Faun, the amphibian man in Shape of Water."

Of course, Jones isn't completely responsible for bringing the monsters to life. There are full teams of FX wizards that create the suits Jones steps into for these iconic roles, and even before that, del Toro pointed toward the fantasy illustrators of previous centuries in influencing his beautiful monsters.

"I love to base/bounce ideas off classical illustrators," the director said, "Like Edmund Dulac, Arthur Rackham, John Bauer. People that illustrated fairy books in the early 1900s and late 1800s. I don't like to base any of the designs on what people are doing in the last couple of decades."

Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth returns to theaters (with some Doug Jones's finest onscreen roles) for its 20th anniversary October 9.

In the immortal words of Danny Elfman, "Life's no fun without a good scare." Join Popverse's freaky forays into frightful filmology with:

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And much gore. Er, more. Much more.