An R-rated fairytale!
del Toro is the man. Blade II? Hellboy? And now this? He's spoiling us big time.
Admittedly, I thought this was going to be an epic fantasy with other worlds and magical quests and stuff, but it was really just set in one place and the quests were of a much smaller scale. Was it any less effective? Not at all.
Pan's Labyrinth is one of those stories of redemption and seeing to it that the bad guy gets a right rodgering. Magical to say the least, and done very very well. It's truly is a fairy tale at it's core, which I think this world needs more of. Of course, it is rated R for a reason. The first reason is for usual stuff like torture and gore and all that lovely jazz, of which will leave you cringing for sure, but never unbearably. The second reason is my favorite; mystical creatures nothing short of something that crawled right out of your nightmares. Seriously, I'm pretty sure the eyeball-handed monster in this film left a universally rotten feeling in the gut of everyone in the theatre. Who comes up with this stuff? Oh yeah. del Toro.
Do you like fairytales and being creeped out and stuff? Pan's is a good watch no matter what spectrum of film you're looking for.