The UFO Phenomenon

Guillermo del Toro on UFOs: 'the world seems a little bigger'

By T.K. Randall
May 8, 2026 ·  2 comments

Image: Guillermo del Toro
Credit: Gage Skidmore / CC BY-SA 2.0 (adapted) Guillermo del Toro is one of the biggest names in cinema, having directed numerous famous movies including Pan's Labyrinth, Pacific Rim and Hellboy.

But del Toro has also long held a fascination with the weird, the mysterious and the unexplained, as evidenced by some of his tales of encounters with the unknown and his penchant for creating movies and TV shows with dark and fantastical themes.

Speaking recently to The Guardian, he recalled witnessing a UFO when he was just 14.

"Anyone who knows me knows I'm a sceptic," he said. "But there are experiences that are so outsized they can dislocate your sense of self."

"When these things happen, it causes a crack. You feel the mystery of the universe come rushing toward you. It's like when you do mushrooms: the world seems a little bigger."

The multi-Oscar winner has also had a number of paranormal experiences.

When he was 11, he recalled encountering a ghost in his house, believing it to be his late uncle. In subsequent years, several other people witnessed paranormal activity in the same room.

Back in 2024, we reported on another peculiar experience that del Toro had recalled from the time he was staying at a hotel while scouting out locations for the filming of The Hobbit in New Zealand."We came to... a place called Waitomo, and I had read that there was an old hotel which had a haunted room," he recalled.

Opting to stay the night, he decided to book the haunted room for himself to see what would happen.

He later came to regret this decision, however, when later that evening - while laying on his bed watching The Wire on DVD - he heard something that would chill him to the bone.

"[It was] a woman shrieking... horrible blood-curdling shrieks," he recalled.

"And then a man sobbing and sighing with great regret."

The sounds continued for over five minutes, allowing him the opportunity to figure out exactly where they were coming from.

"I was able to actually track the sounds to the bathroom," he said. "I tracked them to a vent above the toilet, which went down into the cellar."

"I was not in the middle of seance, and it wasn't a stormy night. It was completely inauspicious conditions for a ghost apparition."

Unsurprisingly, del Toro was unable to sleep at all for the rest of the night.

Source: The Guardian | Comments (2)

Tags: Guillermo del Toro, UFO