Ever since Pan's Labyrinth first came out in late 2006 I had wanted to see it. Reason why I didn't? Ask the video store. Now I have my hands on this, I can tell that I won't want to be watching this film just once, it's a good enough fairytale to keep revisiting.Just like a classic fairytale, Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) escapes to a land full of mythical creatures and things she wouldn't normally find in the real world. She goes to this place when she is sent to live with her mother to her evil stepfather's during WWII in Spain. Upon going there, she finds out that she is the long lost princess, but to prove her royalty she must complete a set of very gruesome task If she doesn't do this then she won't be able to see her real father again.
What I loved most about Pan's Labyrinth was the fact that it takes a simple fairytale and turns it on its side to reveal a much darker, horrifying view of it. Most of its violence and gore contributes to the beauty of it. The creatures in this film are entirely believable, and don't seem like those weird things that you can tell just came from someones head without much thought being put into them (like Tim Burton's CGI disaster version of Alice in Wonderland. Not cool.)
The content of this film is very metaphorical and captivating. It's just another example of how European's can produce much better quality horror films than the crap that sick minds in America like to churn out. Though it doesn't seem like a horror film on the surface, this gave me nightmares.
A fairytale not the way we are used to seeing it. Beautiful.
8/10
I absolutely love this movie. I could watch it over and over again. (Though Guillermo Del Toro is Mexican, not European.) You should watch The Devil's Backbone and The Orphanage. Though the second one isn't by Del Toro, he produced it and it's still haunting and gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteI am going to try and find The Orphanage, it looked like my type of movie. Thankies for the comment=)
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