Fair warning: considerable spoilers follow – read after watching.

Let’s get one thing out of the way: The Shape Of Water is every bit as good as you’ve heard.

Directed by Guillermo del Toro, The Shape Of Water follows Elisa (Sally Hawkins), a mute cleaner at a government facility who meets “The Asset” – an amphibian humanoid (part man, part fish) that the government is studying. Elisa begins to spend time with The Asset, leading the security head Strickland (Michael Shannon) to grow suspicious of her motives.