Guillermo Del Toro never disappoints when it comes to fantasy stories that are likely to inspire equal amounts of sympathy and unsettling anxiety. In his upcoming 1960s-set film The Shape of Water, the lonely, mute Elisa (Sally Hawkins) works in a top secret government facility, where she discovers the underwater creature being experimented upon and — naturally for Del Toro — begins to form a kind of relationship with it. Michael Shannon, bringing his usual level of threatening ferocity, co-stars, alongside Octavia Spencer, Richard Jenkins, and Michael Stuhlbarg. Prepare for watery romance and gore when The Shape of Water hits theaters December 8.