Spain, 1944: Ofelia and her pregnant mom arrive at a small village after have been traveling for some time. In the village they meet up with Captain Vidal who's Ofelia's new stepdad, a ruthless man who Ofelia doesn't seem to like one bit. Franco has just recently won the war and Vidal and his men are trying to rid the land of what enemies might be left out there. At the time, while war and hopelessness is a constant state for most people, Ofelia lives in an imaginary fairy-tale like world. She soon finds a labyrinth where she has the chance to perform three missions in order to become a princess, and while doing that, the horrors of real life is constantly tapping her on the shoulder.
Even though Pan's Labyrinth is not a horror film in the classic sense, I'm pretty sure that the movie will still appeal to a lot of horror fans - and therefore I thought a review would be in place. While it doesn't deal with horror as in horror films, it deals with the horrors of war and people who has to suffer through it, and it's all pretty gripping as well as extremely captivating. I'm a huge fan of the whole concept of fairy-tales and while Pan's Labyrinth deals with that and fantasy, it doesn't do it to the extent that I first had thought it would. The fairy-tale parts are there, and they are fantastic, but the movie deals even more with human drama, suffering and hopelessness. So don't expect some happy fairy-tale like story, but instead a movie (for grown-ups) that is wonderful in many ways, but also quite macabre and gloomy to say the least.
While Pan's Labyrinth was filled with imaginary creatures and scenery that you could only find in fairy-tales, most things in the film felt very realistic and never really that affected. I think that the human characters alone and the surroundings and dramas of the real outside world with the on-going war gave a good balance to all the fantasy elements. Moreover, Ofelia (played brilliantly by Ivana Baquero) always felt so genuine and had such a hard life around her that made her character come off as a hundred percent realistic - even though when she was in a totally unrealistic enviroment.
 
I don't want to give away too much of the story and everything that goes on in the movie, because the less you know... Let's just say that this girl, Ofelia, is trapped in the real world where she has to go live with a new stepdad who's the worst stepdad imaginable. Her mom is pregnant and tells her to do whatever her sadistic stepdad says. She lives in an imaginary world and goes through a fable with the chance of escape from the bitter world outside.
What I really liked about Pan's Labyrinth was that, while it was beautiful and amazing-looking, it was a very harsh, emotional and cruel film as well. It never hid the violence and cruelty which gave a good realistic vibe to the film. The characters felt very realistic and belivable and it was easy to feel something for most of them as their despair and suffering came through real well and was always a present factor in the movie throughout. I think it was also a good thing that the film was in Spanish because that gave it a certain feel as well as it made it different. It probably would've worked wonders in English too, but on the other hand, then the settings would've had to been different and I'm not sure how well that would've worked. I know some people out there are too lazy to read subtitles, (which is truly lazy in every sense of the word), but if you're one of those people, don't ignore Pan because of that you'd have to work a little - I can promise you it's worth it.
It might not be a proper horror film, and while I'm not even sure it could be referred to as a horror film, it had one scene that was pretty horrific and that actually reminded me a bit about the Janitor in Silent Hill (not gonna explain why). Anyway, you should most definitely give this one a shot because Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy) has really outdone himself here. Just don't read up too much on it before-hand. Highly recommened.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: El Laberinto del Fauno
MOVIE YEAR: 2006
DIRECTOR: Guillermo del Toro
WRITING CREDITS: Guillermo del Toro
GENRE: Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
CAST: Ivana Baquero, Sergi López, Maribel Verdú
COUNTRY: Mexico, Spain, USA
RUNTIME: 119 min
RATING: 9/10
Pan's Labyrinth Website/IMDB Click here
Pan's Labyrinth Trailer Click here
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