I try to stay as unspoiled as possible. I had seen one still photo, so I suspected water creature romance.

I had seen the posters, which were beautiful, and I had seen people reblogging images, and I had heard del Toro talk about the inspirations for the movie in ways that suggested it would not have a crushing ending, which I cared about. And Anthony Lane of The New Yorker liked it, which almost never happens with him and genre film. Other than that, I knew mostly that it looked like something I thought I would like, and it was.

If I had known about the brutality, I might have stayed home, but then I would have missed the beauty of it.

I'm glad it was worth it for you.