Pan’s Labyrinth
#4 in my 2007 movie challenge was Pan’s Labyrinth, Guillermo del Toro’s horror fantasy. It’s mesmerizing to look at, so much so that I often had trouble dragging my eyes to the subtitles. There is a great deal of violence, and I sometimes had to turn my eyes away, too. It mixes history with fantasy, but with a darkness that is decidedly adult, even though the heroine is a young girl. I was reminded strongly of one of del Toro’s earlier films, The Devil’s Backbone, as well as the films of Hayao Miyazaki. It is not for the young or faint of heart, but it’s bittersweet and rewarding.