A gore/horror movie - not a drama

Rating: 1/10 (23 January 2007)

I strongly disagree with the majority of IMDb viewers, and I know Pan's Labyrinth received wide critical acclaim in the USA. I can only conjecture that this is due to America's love for gore/horror movies. The gratuitous violence in this film is not only entirely unnecessary (we already know that the Capitan is evil, and blood spurting is not poetry unless you are a closet sadist), it seems to have been included simply for the entertainment of audiences who appreciate gore. The assertion that kids may appreciate it is just plain wrong. My 8 year old nephew is quite used to seeing foreign films as well as cartoons, but refused to see Pan's Labyrinth and certainly would have walked out of it in the very first scene. Some have compared Pan's Labyrinth to the sublime beauty of Spirit of the Beehive, which my 8 year old nephew loved, and that is like comparing fine dining with KFC. Sure, both serve dinner, but what kind of dinner? Pan's Labyrinth is a horror movie for horror movie audiences, who would probably find it tedious to have to sit through the non-violent, non-fantasy scenes, which were the only parts which I found palatable. File this movie under gore/horror, not drama. And don't bring a child, not unless you are trying to acclimate him/her to a world of brutal sadism.