Pan's Labyrinth
Pan's Labyrinth
In 1944 Spain, a girl is sent to live with her ruthless stepfather. During the night, she meets a fairy who takes her to an old faun. He tells her she's a princess, but must prove her royalty by surviving three gruesome tasks.
N8 reviewedMarch 28, 2025
Pan's Labyrinth is a movie that really gets you thinking. You can see it two ways: either it's a dark fairy tale about a princess escaping to a magical world, or it's about a little girl using her imagination to deal with some really tough stuff.
What's cool is that the movie gives you reasons to believe both things. Like, Ofelia draws a door with chalk and actually walks through it? And the root she puts under her mom's bed seems to help? That makes you wonder if it's all real. But then, all the monsters and the things she has to do? They seem to match up perfectly with the problems she's facing in real life. Plus, the bad guy can't even see the Faun.
The best part is, the movie doesn't tell you which one is right. You want to believe Ofelia gets her happy ending in a magical kingdom. But you also realize that maybe you just want that because you feel so bad for her. Del Toro, is really good at making you care, and then leaving you to figure it out. It's not just a story; it makes you think about what's real and what's not, and how our minds try to protect us when things get rough."