Released in 2006, Pan's Labyrinth quickly rose to fame as one of Guillermo del Toro's best pieces of cinema in his career, with the film taking on various ideas and successfully combining them into one twisted world of fantasy and reality.
During the year of 1944, the young Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) and her mother (Ariadna Gil) are transported to a military post in Spain to be with her mother's new husband, who isn't particularly very nice.
Ofelia is thrown into a world of pure cruelty and suffering as she manages to observe first-hand the realities of war; she explores a nightmarish fantasy world in order to escape the one she must endure each day with her mother.
Her fantasy nightmare begins upon the exploration of an ancient maze, where she meets a faun named Pan, who informs her of her royal ancestors, making her a legendary lost princess. Pan tells Ofelia that she must complete three different tasks, each varying in danger, and by doing so she will be granted with immortality.
The fantasy in Pan's Labyrinth shines with the mind of Guillermo del Toro; the creatures he has designed are both monstrous and captivating in their creative looks: a creature with eyes in his hands that must see by holding them up to his face is something that very clearly isn't widely used in horror, and it makes the film all that much better.
The creatures are by far the most horrifying elements of the film outside of the cruelties of war, and it feels as if Ofelia has created this world under her perception of the various, completely unforgettable actions of the various military men that she has witnessed during her time at the post. It's more of a psychological trauma feeling than a genuine fantasy feeling, and del Toro has successfully fused fantasy and reality together by doing creating that assumption for the viewer.
Pan's Labyrinth is a film that is often referred to as the adult version of Alice in Wonderland, and it's probably the best way to describe the film to those who feel unsure as to what exactly this film is: it is simply an adventure of a scarred young girl that wants to escape, but her attempts to escape are greeted with a mirrored version of her reality.
