El laberinto del fauno (Pan's Labyrinth)

MENTAL NOTE: Always listen to fauns who talk to you while holding fancy knives... Genre: Drama Fantasy Thriller (Mexico, Spain, USA) Starring: Ivana Baquero, Sergi López Directed By: Guillermo del Toro (The Devil's Backbone; Hellboy) Overview: A young girl goes to live with her pregnant mother and a military captain in Franco-ruled Spain. Amidst the oppression of the people, the girl finds herself in a fantastical world where she quests to be a fairy princess. Performance: I've said recently that there are some films that need constant defence rather than evaluation, and you won't find Pan's Labyrinth to be the kind of film that has critics debating it's worth. In fact, some reviews are almost too easy to write because I'll just be saying what everyone one else has. We have some great talent here, and the film runs as smoothly as this praise of it will. For you sick freaks out there, you'll like the Fascist Captain the best. Rating: 8 Cinematography: This is...

**** Mexico/Spain/USA With her father dead and her pregnant mother married to a sadistic captain, young Ofelia is forced to grow up surrounded by the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War. It is her singular fortune however to be the reincarnation of an immortal princess of a subterranean land and to be able to congregate with some beguiling creatures from Guillermo del Toro's warped-Gothic imagination. Through various deaths, killings, mutilations and armed conflicts, every hope for a decent childhood for Ofelia is obliterated. And it becomes increasingly wrenching to watch her slip into fantasy as a means of dealing with unimaginable pain.

Over the years, darkness and heavy subject matter have been traded for wallet emptying merchandising in what would be considered the fairytale. In fact, it really isn’t a genre that exists anymore and I think many a horror fan yearned for a dark, adult geared fantasy film andPans Labyrinth is the movie that gave it to us. Guillermo Del Toro shows why he is a master as he guides the viewer through a modern day fairytale that isn’t afraid to be tough and dark.

I think most people went into this expecting more fantasy, and some were a bit disappointed by how little of there actually was.  But no one ever expected it to be a fantasy film that would also be a war film, a good vs evil tale, a horror–not fantasy horror, though there were some bits, but real life monsters kind of horror-movie.  Yes, it was loaded with food for thought, but it was so brilliantly done, it was one of the most original and flawless movies the aughts gave us. A bed time story for adults in many ways.

EL LABERTINO DEL FAUNO is a multicursal maze whose secret spiraling corridors traverse the boundary between violent reality and dark imagination. The film begins with a fairy tale, as a Faun narrates the story of Princess Moanna and her escape to the surface world. Blinded by the sun, she is swallowed by forgetfulness and passes from both worlds. But her father hopes that her spirit will rise and live happily once again in the Underground Realm. We are then introduced to Ofelia, a bright little girl who is often lost in books and make believe, an escape from the pain and suffering that surrounds her. As the film progresses, this fantasy world becomes more substantial while reality recedes and becomes the illusion. Ofelia is caught in a murderous nexus, given this Book of Crossroads, her only hope to complete the three magical tasks that will transport her from this demonstrable madness to the sanctity of the Underground Realm. Ofelia kidnaps her newborn baby brother and races...

A Harry Potter clone this is not. A Hollywood fantasy movie this is not. This is a grown-up fairy tale set in the 1944 Fascist Spain. Since this is a Spanish movie, expect subtitles; but it should not bother you much since dialogues are not too many. I was a bit hesitant to watch this because of the film age rating of 16 due to violence and gore. However, after watching it, the violence in the film is required for the story: to convey the characters and the stage where the story unfolded. One of the highlights of the film is the lullaby hum. It is sad and haunting but at the same time soothing. You can hear the song in certain parts of the film and it adds depth and mystery to the scene. The movie is full of rich symbolisms and abstracts that an analytical viewer would enjoy dissecting. Yet at the very core, the movie is magnificent because of its simplicity. This is not a stereotypical Hollywood fantasy movie. If you want to see creativity at its finest, then definitely watch...