What It’s About: An antiques dealer (Federico Luppi) stumbles upon a long-lost alchemical device that grants its user renewed life and vigor-but at a terrible price.
Why Watch it Today?: Writer/Director Guillermo Del Toro turns 48 today. Cronos was Del Toro’s first feature film, which featured some of the recurring themes of his films: relationships between family members of differing ages, children in peril, clockwork mechanisms, the supernatural, and monsters, as well as future Hellboy star Ron Perlman.
Other Choices: The Devil’s Backbone
The League of Dead Films 
Wasn’t impressed by the trailer. Didn’t realize it was his first film.
It’s been years (10? 15?) but I really enjoyed this when I saw it. Of course it is low budget, but I felt it was a good variation on the vampire story, and Perlman is great in it.