Beautifully Made

Rating: 10/10 (2 May 2019)

Pan's Labyrinth's special effects department showed amazing effort and results in their work. The faun's delicate and withered appearance played well with the scenes he appeared in, and was versatile as his mood and the scenes' moods shifted, with the fairies as a well-crafted bonus. The Pale Man was perfectly creepy, his design working perfectly for his actions and scene. The work to create realistic wounds was well reasoned and showed in the final product of the film.
The muted green and gray tones throughout the film's clothing gave a platform for Ophelia's more bright clothing, as well as the blood spilt during the story. The costuming fed the story, through Mercedes' apron and the sickly tones that Carmen wore, as well as setting groups apart by uniform or repeated style. Between the more muted and soft appearance of the protagonists and the sharper uniforms of the Captain and his army, the clothing shows characters' sides in the impending conflict almost immediately.
A largely dark film, the lighting was well placed to accent the highest action points in the film. The darker portions of the film hide figures when necessary without taking away or distracting from the film. The regular appearance and disappearance of the Faun is made more magical by the lighting, and the explosions at the end of the film show the action without being distracting or seeming tacked on.