Guillermo Del Toro crafts an exuberant, yet nightmarish fantasy world, blending high-classed visuals with and storytelling with sobering history on the European front

Rating: 9/10 (7 September 2017)

Picture an adult version of 'Alice in Wonderland', add graphic violence and momentous themes to the mix, and you got yourself an accurate picture of Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth (or El Laberinto del Fauno in Spanish). This film takes a high-classed fantasy genre and spins into a dark, twisted universe where fairy tales clash with the grim history of the European front during World War II. The results that transpire is an Alice in Wonderland-like adventure that strikes at the heart not with whimsical excitement or charm, but with its wicked twists and turns that captures the innocence of childhood diminished under the unforgiving history that defined our world today. Do not let the visuals fool you, this is by no means a kid-friendly adventure. It is very dark, very violent, and proceeds a sense of dread from beginning to end; and Del Toro has almost no doses of levity to offer in the bargain. On the upside, the scarcity of child-friendly themes is what makes this high-classed fantasy tale so unique. The film is set in 1944 during the Spanish Civil War when Spain was being overrun by fascism. Following the death of her father who was killed in the war, 11-year old Ofelia (played by Ivana Baquero), a fairy tale obsessed youngster, moves with her mother (played by Ariadna Gil), who is growing ill from her pregnancy, to the country side of Spain to escape the chaos. There, she meets her new stepfather Captain Vidal (played by Sergi Lopez), a fascist army officer with a sadistic edge, and Vidal's housekeeper Mercedes (played by Meribel Verdu) who she grows a close bond with. On night, Ofelia is awoken by a fairy who leads her to a mysterious labyrinth where she meets a giant faun (voiced by Doug Jones). Upon meeting, she learns she is the princess of a magical kingdom, but must prove her loyalty by completing three unpleasant tasks before the full moon rises. As the war atrocities rage on and the lines between reality and fantasy begin to dissolve, Ofelia is pitted in a ruthless battle that threatens to tear both her and her family apart.
Guillermo Del Toro wields a masterful hand at pulling us into his world where dreams turn to nightmares and fantasy morphs into horrifying reality. Rich in electrifying storytelling and powerful in balancing his signature visual methodology with hard-hitting substance, the film takes you on a ride that is vastly unpredictable with plenty of scares and thrills to fill the mix. The story operates on the base of the Spanish Civil War in which the action, beautifully shot by Del Toro, is intertwined back and forth with the lead character Ofelia's interaction with the fantasy world and the effects it leads on both her and her ailing mother. As Captain Vidal's tyranny ravages their home land, a gruesome battle between good and evil rages on to the point where all bets are off and the fate of each character could be the worst imaginable scenario. And the beauty of Del Toro's storytelling is that he never lets any moment go to waste nor does he make the critical mistake of allowing his nightmarish visuals tower over his narrative, especially when offering a solid history lesson on the atrocities of war in the European front. The fairies and the monsters, all of which are done by CGI, are astounding, yet scary to look at. We are talking about pale-skinned monster with no eyes on his side, but on the palm of his hands. The performances by Ivana Baquero and Meribel Verdu are amazing, but perhaps not enough to match up with Sergi Lopez's grim performance as Captain Vidal, the ruthless Hitler-like army officer who splatters the screen with his blood-stained demeanor. Each time he is on screen, the sense of discomfort fills the air.
Pan's Labyrinth is an exuberantly crafted fantasy tale, constructed by the hands of Guillermo Del Toro who offers a near-flawless blend of twisted visual methodology and sobering history of the war in Spain. It is a high-classed fantasy that places a landmark on its genre in more ways than one. It is a definite must-see, but only for mature audiences. If you are a parent and make the ill-advised decision of letting your children sit through this, well, do not be surprised if you find them sneaking in bed with you in the middle of the night.