What Film Should I Start Off With?

"Cronos". Best to start from the beginning and work your way up to "The Devil's Backbone", then "Blade II" and the Hellboys, "Pan's Labyrinth" last. "Mimic" is the runt of the litter, but it has it's merits.

My personal favourite is Pan's Labyrinth. The story itself has such a sad beauty, the direction is wonderful, and Doug Jones (per usual) does a stupendous job - even without (again, per usual) saying a word. He learned all the lines so it doesn't look dubbed, but they wanted someone with a native accent for the lines :(

If you are okay with subtitled movies (which I would assume you are since you want to catch up on his work) Pan is terrific. Javier Navarrete worked wonders with the soundtrack as well. IMO the whole film is just absolutely beautiful. Be aware though, if you are a native Spanish speaker, you will likely still need subtitles. He made the piece fairly period specific - including the language (on top of the fact that it is Spanish and not Mexican which already makes a difference) - so it will be a bit different than what you might be used to.

Anyway, that's my two cents. After Pan I haven't personally got a favourite order as I enjoy most all of them. However, I would (again personally) save "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark," for last. The story is great, but Katie Holmes severely detracts from the film. She definitely isn't Kristen Stewart level bad, but IMO she runs a close second.

Fortunately, del Toro didn't direct "Don't Be Afraid of The Dark".

i agree that cronos is the place to start. then the rest.

I never said he did. Toro was one of the [screenplay] writers on the film, which is actually a bit more involved than directing.

"Forget Regret, or Life is yours to Miss."

I know you didn't. It's just that normally when people talk about someone's films, they're usually refering to the ones they directed.

Sounds like you don't know much about directing.

Who says violence is not the answer?

Please, enlighten me then.