darkly interesting

Rating: 9/10 (26 January 2007)

I must say I am a fan of Guillermo del Toro's work and was therefore surprised and joyed to find this films dark themes a refreshing approach to that of his last couple of films. I had read a lot on the production of this film and understood it was set in a dark time but was strangely still expecting an almost Jim Henson labyrinth style movie, what a shock i received when i was thrust into a very realistic world and one of the most confronting personal war dramas i have seen since Ondrej Trojan's 2003 film Zelery. My partner has a low tolerance for the depiction of brutality on screen and found some elements of this film hard to watch. so i guess a word of warning not to watch this film mistakenly with kids as some of it would leave them squirming for months. all in all a fantastic watch and an amazing achievement in cross genre writing