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Language: Spanish

Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Mystery

Cast: Ivana Baquero, Doug Jones, Sergi López, Maribel Verdú

Direction: Guillermo del Toro

Music: Javier Navarrete. Very impactful. Will especially help you because you have to read what is being spoken. Beautiful score.

Reasons to watch: Academy award winning movie with awesome CGI graphics. And very terrifying.

Reasons not to: Subtitles

Storyline: A little girl, Ofelia in Fascist Spain. Her pregnant mother, and stepfather, Captain Vidal, who is ruthless and cold. Dark spanish woods. Her fairy tales. The cruelties of the general. His success in finishing off the Spanish Maquis guerillas. The little girl’s fairy tale turns real. She meets a fairy in the woods. She meets a faun. She is given some tasks by him. He tells her that she is actually the princess of a land left far, far behind. She can return when she proves she is worthy of being a princess. Her mother dies. The housekeeper, Mercedes takes care of her, but she is not allowed to. Ofelia runs away to her fairy land. She is demanded the blood of her infant brother. And only that will make her fairy tale come true. Will Ofelia be able to escape? Will this be a price she would pay?

Climax Handling: It is beautiful if you see the point. The point is hard to get in such extreme voilence. It could really have been more subtle and then extremely beautiful.

Points: 1. Extreme Violence.

2. Ofelia: Many, many years ago in a sad, faraway land, there was an enormous mountain made of rough, black stone. At sunset, on top of that mountain, a magic rose blossomed every night that made whoever plucked it immortal. But no one dared go near it because its thorns were full of poison. Men talked amongst themselves about their fear of death, and pain, but never about the promise of eternal life. And every day, the rose wilted, unable to bequeath its gift to anyone… forgotten and lost at the top of that cold, dark mountain, forever alone, until the end of time.

Rating: 7/10

Comment: Watch if you can bear to watch it. Very graphic.

Tags: academy award winning, Doug Jones, El Laberinto del fauno, Fantasy, Guillermo del Toro, Ivana Baquero, Maribel Verdú, Mystery, oscar, pan's labyrinth, Sergi López, Spanish