Gorgeously Creepy Trailer for Guillermo Del Toro's 'The Shape of Water'

08/31/2017 04:17 pm EDT

Fan-favorite filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro is back with a new unique creature-feature film — this time a character drama / thriller called The Shape of Water. Watch the first trailer above!

The film follows Elisa (Sally Hawkins), a mute worker at a research lab, which houses one very special specimen: a merman creature who comes to bond with Elisa through their common need for alternative forms of communicating.

However, as Elisa gets closer with the creature, it disrupts the equilibrium of the lab and angers the boss, Strickland (Michael Shannon), who seeks to bring down wrath upon both Elisa and the creature — proving that sometimes, the real "monsters" aren't the ones who look that way on the outside.

...Of course, in reality, Elisa's idealistic mission to set the monster free doesn't go quite as planned, as some things about a person's true nature always get lost in translation.

If you watch this trailer and have flashbacks to Del Toro's Hellboy movies, it's only natural. The Merman in The Shape of Water is played by Doug Jones, the creature character actor who starred as "Abe Sapien," the Merman hero who fought alongside Hellboy.

Synopsis: "An other-worldly fairy tale, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1963. In the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is trapped in a life of silence and isolation. Elisa's life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer) discover a secret classified experiment."

The cast includes Sally Hawkins (Godzilla), Michael Shannon (Man of Steel), Octavia Spencer (Hidden Figures), Richard Jenkins (Cabin In The Woods), Michael Stuhlbarg (Doctor Strange) and Doug Jones (Hellboy). It was written by Del Toro and Everwood's Vanessa Taylor, with Del Toro directing.

The Shape of Water will be in theaters on December 8, 2017.

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