Another great del Toro

Rating: 9/10 (11 September 2006)

There are terrifying moments as we witness the fated journey of Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) but the true horrors in Guillermo del Toro's film stem from the sadistic Captain Vidal (Sergi López), her stepfather. Austere, severe, he holds few people dear with the possible exception of his unborn son. Captain Vidal is determined to root out the communist rebel fighters who hide in the ancient forest and hills surrounding his country base of operations. Yet, the Captain's own servant Mercedes (Maribel Verdú) and personal physician (Álex Angulo) are in league with the fighters. In her own way, Ofelia is helping them too as she keeps Mercedes' secret.
Added to this riveting war drama is a good dose of magic and magical realism as Ofelia finds the fairies of the forest and learns that she must make several sojourns to the underworld in order to claim her rightful place as heir to the Underworld. At times, it feels like there should be more of this story but it's more of a longing to see the fantastico.
If the pattern holds, we can expect a few Hollywood films (some good, some bad) from del Toro before he does another smaller Spanish language film set in wartime with overtones of horror/fantasy again. That future film along with THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE and PAN'S LABYRINTH will be dubbed "Guillermo del Toro's Somethingerother Trilogy" and sold as a box set of DVDs. Look for it at your local Target store.