An Intriguing Maze for Audiences: A "Pan's Labyrinth" Review

“Pan’s Labyrinth”, the 2006 fantasy drama directed by Guillermo del Toro, centers on a 11-year-old girl named Ofelia who finds herself drawn into the mystical world of an ancient labyrinth while struggling to adjust to her new life with her new sadistic stepfather, a Spanish general during WWII. The premise of the movie surrounds an ancient mythology of a princess of the underworld escaping to the world above and dying before she can return to her father. The princess is reincarnated in hopes that she will one day return to world of fairies and fauns. Don’t be fooled by the word fantasy, this movie was extremely dark and at times very hard to watch. The first scene spoils the ending of the movie, showing Ofelia bloody, pale and clearly dead. It’s a tragic way to start her story, but also a very clever start. It convinces the audience that Ofelia’s story will not end happily, which is sort of a misdirect, but more on that in a moment. This movie had an eerie feel that was somewhat similar to a Tim Burton film, but kicked up to an eleven. The fantasy elements were what you might expect, but with a sinister twist added to it. It’s almost like any time an magical elements were added to the film, del Toro wanted you to distrust them at face value. The first introduction of magic were the fairies. Instead of your typical fairies, they showed up as insects and manipulated their bodies to appear like the fairies Ofelia read about in her books. It was quite unsettling to see them writhe into the correct shapes. Then came the faun. The faun was extremely creepy from his first appearance. He was much taller than Ofelia and overshadowed her easily. This extreme height made him menacing looking and made me fear him. His overall appearance was also distressing. He had sharp teeth shaped into a mischievous smile and he was covered in overgrown vines and ivy. All of these things caused my red flag alerts to go up and anticipate that Ofelia would die at the hands of the magic she loved so much. This unsettled feeling was emphasized by Mercedes’, an estate worker and Ofelia’s friend, warning: “My mother told me to be wary of fauns.” Despite all these warning signs, I thought I should give the magical entities a chance to prove themselves. Even when Ofelia faced off against the Pale Man creature who chomped off fairy heads like they were chips, I strived to hold out hope for Ofelia’s dream life. After all, she couldn’t just have two awful options to choose from. Her stepfather was flat out evil. He loved to torture and only cared about Ofelia’s mother birthing his heir. In fact, I’m surprised he didn’t just kill Ofelia as soon as her mother died. I, as an audience member, needed Ofelia to be okay at the end of this, despite knowing the heartbreaking end. When Ofelia was chased by her stepfather and then told by the faun that she must kill her baby brother, my heart froze. She would never get to live happily. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place due to her kind and compassionate nature. Then when her stepfather turned the corner in the labyrinth and saw no faun despite Ofelia still talking to him, my heart sunk. It had seemed as though she had imagined the whole thing. Out of all the tragic ends, I never imagined it ending like this. I never once though Ofelia was crazy. So, when Ofelia was shot and killed by her stepfather, I thought that was the tragic end, but like I said before, it was quite the misdirect. This wasn’t an unhappy ending and Ofelia wasn’t crazy. By dying for her brother instead of killing him, she awakes to see her kingdom, including her parents and that once scary looking faun. The faun no longer seems intimidating because he and the magic were never the danger that the audience should have been fearing. It was the harsh reality of the world and cruelty of man that was the truly frightening thing about this movie and were both the cause of Ofelia’s untimely end. This movie made me cry, but it ultimately made me consider how in the absence of childlike wonder, people can become bitter, cynical and cruel. “Pan’s Labyrinth” speaks eloquently on the condition of mankind by disguising itself with the guise of a dark fantasy movie. If you want to reconsider at how you look at life, I highly recommend watching this movie. But for the sake of your sanity, PLEASE close your eyes during the Pale Man scene. I still have nightmares about those poor fairies.