Next month, director Guillermo del Toro‘s newest film, The Shape of Water, will deliver perhaps the strangest love story that we’ve seen in a while. Over the course of this movie, a lonely woman named Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins) will discover a humanoid sea creature that is held captive at a government instillation. And while Elisa and the creature eventually come to have romantic feelings for each other, there are plenty of threats that stand in the way of their love. Fox Searchlight has released a spoiler-filled final trailer for The Shape of Water, which does seem to spell out some of the film’s major beats. But it looks like it’s going to be a wild and eclectic ride.

Del Toro set The Shape of Water at the height of the Cold War in 1962. From the trailer, we can see that Elisa and her friend, Zelda Fuller (Octavia Spencer), work at the government lab where the sea creature currently resides. It’s hard to see the Amphibious Man and not be reminded of the Creature From the Black Lagoon. But frequent del Toro collaborator Doug Jones brings a lot of humanity to his otherworldly character. He also brings a real sense of danger as well.

Michael Shannon‘s Colonel Richard Strickland is the primary obstacle between the Amphibious Man’s freedom and his relationship with Elisa. It seems pretty likely that Strickland will be the true monster of this story, but he isn’t the only one who is capable of great cruelty.

The Shape of Water will a hit a limited number of theaters on December 8.

Are you excited to see del Toro’s latest dark fable? Swim to the comment section below and share your thoughts with us!

Images: Fox Searchlight Pictures