We packed him up with a teddy bear and an extra cushion for comfort, and sent our resident movie buff Andy Whitehead, off to see the creepiest fairytale in decades...
When you think of fairy tales, the likes of Snow White, Cinderella and Peter Pan might cross your mind; but in 
Pan's Labyrinth, the new film by Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Blade II), the fairies couldn't be further from that stereotypical "Tinkerbell". Instead of glimmering and beautiful entities of the light, del Toro's versions are dark and twisted creatures, with the ability to transform into praying mantis-esque bugs.
But this 'fairy tale gone bad' doesn't stop there. Not by a long way. Set in the post-war repression of Franco's Spain, Pan's Labyrinth has a unique and captivative style that can only be loosly compared to a mixture of Jim Henson's cult epic "Mirrormask" and Tim Burton's "Edward Scissorhands", perhaps with a bit of the game "Escape to Castle Wolfenstien" thrown in for good measure. (The lads will know what I mean!) It's a tale of good verses evil... bravery and adventure... deceit and betrayal; passion and sacrifice and it encapsulates some the most interesting, though disturbing, creatures that you're ever likely to find in a film.
Pan, one of the principle characters, is a fawn at one with nature; his lower half totally covered in branches and leaves. But in spite of his good intentions of returning the princess to the throne, he comes across as a scary and malicious creature. The darkest character who dwells in the Labyrinth however, is The Pale Man (pictured here). As we're introduced to him, he sits at the head of a table - still, quiet and terrifying! Behind him are images on the wall of him devouring live children while they scream and pray for his mercy. Nice!
His face reminds me of that of a stingray - featureless but menacing, his stature powerful and brutal. In front of him sit two eyeballs on a plate, and when he finally rises they're inserted into stigmata li
ke holes in the palms of his hands, creating a truly unique and disturbing character that would give a lesser man nightmares, (ahem).
However dark the creatures in the Labyrinth though, nothing compares to Sergi López's brutal monster, that is Captain Vidal; a man that tortures, kills in cold blood, and beats his wife and step child. López plays him wonderfully and captures the cold and sinister fascist perfectly.
The main ray of light though comes from Ofelia, played by 12 year old child superstar, Ivama Baquero. Her portayal of innocence, beauty and love is quite captivating as she sheds her fear of the dangers that lie both within and outside of the Labyrinth. The film centers around her character and the fact that the creatures in this weird world believe that she is the returned princess from their realm; but to prove that she is, and not just a mortal, she has to perform three tasks. And here lies basis for our film. The fantasy aside though, this is a film about fascism, and the fact that fascism corrupts innocence.
All in all, I enjoyed the film, but I wouldn't recommend it for the fainthearted or children, unless you can stomach brutal killings, seeing a leg being saw off, watching a man's mouth being slit from ear to ear, and then seeing him sew it up again. If you can't handle scary creatures of a warped imagination and some generally horrifying images of a fascist post-war environment, you might want to skip this one.
Also, as the film is in Spanish, it's subtitled, but a lot of the time the acting is so strong that you barely notice, unless you have an incident like mine where "Mr Inconsiderate Six Foot Four Man" decided he wanted to sit bolt upright part way through the film, obscuring my view of a lot of the text.
I'd have to say that I wouldn't rush to the cinema to see Pan's Labyrinth, but I will definitely be getting it on DVD when it comes out, and I can already see this becoming a major cult classic in underground circles.
Andy Whitehead
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