The Shape of Water is a 2017 American fantasy drama movie directed by Guillermo del Toro and written by del Toro and Vanessa Taylor. The movie stars Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Octavia Spencer. It is set in Baltimore in 1962, the plot is about a mute custodian at a high-security government laboratory who becomes friends with a captured humanoid-amphibian creature.