Excitement is building for “The Shape of Water.” Described by many critics as a fairy tale for adults, “Pan’s Labyrinth” writer-director Guillermo del Toro’s latest film just won the Venice Film Festival’s top prize, the Golden Lion, and scored rave reviews out of Telluride and the Toronto International Film Festival. For those of us who haven’t been able to catch the film at a fest, a newly released red band trailer will help tide us over until the thriller hits theaters December 8.

Set against the backdrop of Cold War era U.S. circa 1963, “The Shape of Water” stars Sally Hawkins (“Blue Jasmine”) as Elisa, a lonely and isolated woman who works at in a hidden, high-security government laboratory. The film’s first trailer revealed that she’s “mute and can hear everything, and that Elisa forms an intense connection with a mysterious creature (Doug Jones, “Hellboy”) being held captive in the lab for classified experiments. But much stands between Elisa and the creature’s happy ending — including the fact that one particularly awful lab employee, Strickland (Michael Shannon, “Loving”), is determined to take the creature apart to learn how it works.

This new spot gives a clearer impression of just how menacing Strickland is. “You deliver. That’s what you do. Right? Right?” he says to his reflection in the mirror. We also catch a glimpse of him interrogating Octavia Spencer, who plays Elisa’s co-worker and friend. “He’s coming for you,” she tells Elisa. “You’ve gotta go now and you’ve gotta take that thing with you.”

“It’s monster-led but it’s more ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ as it were,” Hawkins has said of “The Shape of Water.”

The highlight of the trailer comes when Elisa sends Strickland a well-deserved message. Check out the video to see what’s on her mind.

Vanessa Taylor (“Game of Thrones,” “Hope Springs”) co-wrote “The Shape of Water” with del Toro.