For this year’s 31 Nights of Horror Challenge, the Night 18 prompt is Feels Like a Fairytale. We watched the movie Pan’s Labyrinth on Amazon Prime.

Storyline

In 1944 Falangist Spain, a girl, fascinated with fairy-tales, is sent along with her pregnant mother to live with her new stepfather, a ruthless captain of the Spanish army. During the night, she meets a fairy who takes her to an old faun in the center of the labyrinth. He tells her she’s a princess, but must prove her royalty by surviving three gruesome tasks. If she fails, she will never prove herself to be the true princess and will never see her real father, the king, again.

Our Thoughts on Pan’s Labyrinth (2007)

This film has such a unique style and essence, its beautiful and magical as much as it is ugly and harsh.

I have never seen a movie quite like this one, I went into it not knowing much about it (I had seen the hands with eyes but that was about it) so it was very much a sense of discovery as the tale and the fantasy unfolded before me.

Way more violent than I would have guessed but the story is brutal and cruel so it is fitting.

If you are into the art-form of film (not just a movie buff) then this is a must watch.

8 out of 10 stars

Trivia 

Guillermo del Toro is famous for compiling books full of notes and drawings about his ideas before turning them into films, something he regards as essential to the process. He left years worth of notes for this film in the back of a cab, and when he discovered them missing, he thought it was the end of the project. However, the cab driver found them and, realizing their importance, tracked him down and returned them at great personal difficulty and expense. Del Toro was convinced that this was a blessing and it made him ever more determined to complete the film.

Stephen King attended a screening of the film and sat next to Guillermo del Toro. According to Del Toro, King squirmed when the Pale Man chased Ofelia. Del Toro compared the experience of seeing King’s reaction to winning an Oscar, which he eventually did with The Shape of Water.

The captain’s room is made to look like the inside of his father’s watch, which Guillermo del Toro says represents his troubled mind.

Guillermo del Toro first started writing ideas for the film in 1993.

The film is shot in shades of green, the color of nature and the forest. Notably, Ofelia wears green throughout the film. All the scenes in the real world are with simple architecture, lots of straight angles and minimal furniture. By contrast, all the scenes taking place in the fantasy world feature the more vibrant colors such as red and gold, and have lots of circular designs and colorful tiles.