Culture from the darker side

I admit it, I love movies I can dream in… Pan’s Labyrinth comes close….

In post-Civil War northern Spain in 1944, a 12-year-old girl, Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), moves with her heavily-pregnant mother and stepfather into a new home in the countryside. Her stepfather, Captain Vidal (Sergi López) has been sent to this remote area to rid it of a small Republican militia. Largely ignored by the sadistic Vidal, Ofelia, who revels in ancient stories and fairy tales, discovers an immense and ancient labyrinth guarded by a faun (Doug Jones). He tells her she is the long-lost daughter of Hades, the Greek god of the Underworld, and to regain entry to her kingdom she must carry out three tasks. So Ofelia enters a strange and no less dangerous world of fairies and extraordinary creatures such as the terrifying Pale Man (also played by Doug Jones).

The Visual Effects on the movie are what mesmerized me the most. Del Toro has shown several times that he knows well how to use special effects, and it did not overwhelm the experience. The Faun alone was gorgeous, the sequence in a different “dimension” was simple but effective.

If anything I was a bit disappointed how much of the movie was set in our world instead of the world of the faeries. But at the end of the day the story still makes me want to dream, and I am thankful for movies like these….

4/5