Not for Children

Rating: 3/10 (13 May 2019)

Even though the plot is told chronologically it is still hard to follow as Ofelia further disassociates herself from real life constantly.
The setting constantly reverts from realism to fantasy. The atmosphere is dark and pungent in nature, meaning its never a dull moment of references to the evil of men in war and the devil himself; who is supposedly Ofelia's father " The King of the Underworld."
With such a dark mood being set early on shadows are well used to portray the symbolic faun and fairy creatures messages. Many events in the movie happen to happen during night or darker hours so shadow use was important to be executed well, as it was overall. The lighting hitting Ofelia just so in many scene continues to portray her as the innocent of the situations pitted around her character.
Sound is used in the film as a bit of added disturbence to gruesome events, it is also added to emphasize footsteps and things of that nature to further the viewers suspension of disbelief informally.
The costumes I feel were executed well for portraying their role, except, I felt for the main trickster- The Faun. I felt his special effects were over compensated for as something much simpler might of portrayed his character better. The "faceless" man was utterly disturbing in the right way for his role, but in general just disgusting, as i do think that was the point though.
Overall this movie did do some things well but it did not meet my expectations and I was disappointed with how essentially "boring" it was. Even eventual scene I felt I could of fallen asleep because of its dark nature being nothing profound.