Pan's Labyrinth is about a young girl named Ofelia, who is growing up in the middle of fascist Spain in the 1940s. She is staying at the base camp of the Spanish during the war, because her mother is married to the highest ranking captain. Turns out, he is evil and sadistic and you watch him kill a lot of people throughout the film. As you can see, not a great environment for this girl to be in. On top of that, her mom is pregnant and really sick. This is a pretty depressing life for Ofelia, and there's not much for her to look forward to until her adventurous-ness and curiosity lead her to discover a fantasy world. This turns her world upside down.
Ofelia encounters a small fairy who leads her to a Labyrinth, or a huge stone undergound palace/lair situation where she meets a goat-looking man who is made out of stone (?) but speaks to her like a friendly grandpa. (???) This stone-goat-man then tells Ofelia that she is immortal and that she was born from the moon, saying there is an birth mark on her shoulder to reveal the truth. Low and behold, later in the film, there is a crescent moon birth mark on her shoulder, so we know that stone-goat-man isn't just joking around. He tells Ofelia that she was meant to be here, and she now has a series of tasks that she must carry out before the next full moon so her kingdom and throne can finally become hers. If you didn't think this movie was weird yet, just sit tight. Ofelia has a run in with a toad who eats roaches, and then she proceeds to kill this toad and retrieves a special key from the toad's weird throw up that he produces as it dies. The next task is weird and terrifying: Ofelia has to create a portal to a creepy lair of a child-killing, non-human thing that is really hard to describe with words. It had huge hands with long fingers and holes in the hands where this creature put its eyes. Stone-goat-man gave Ofelia clear and crucial instructions to not eat any of the food that she would see on the table where the dormant creature sat, or it would come to life and kill Ofelia. It seems pretty simple, but what does Ofelia do? She couldn't resist a grape or two, so she popped them back and out of no where, the creature comes to life and tries to kill her! She then runs for her life and escapes with mere seconds left on the sand hourglass that stone-goat-man gave her. Other than the above scene mentioned being the weirdest movie scene I have ever seen possibly ever, this movie was confusing and I really don't know what to think of it. The ending didn't improve my feelings about it any more, either. SPOILER: Ofelia's mom dies, Ofelia's only friend in the house, the maid/undercover spy Mercedes ditches her, and then the captain ends up shooting her and she dies. The ending scene is her dead body in the Labyrinth and the narrator saying how her spirit went on to live forever in the kingdom. This was a weird movie. It might even be the weirdest I have ever seen. Is this supposed to be artistry? One minute Ofelia was killing a magical/supernatural toad, and the next she was running from a weird non-human child killing monster. All the while she was being mentored by stone-goat-man, who didn't have much character development and was honestly a little rude to her. I feel like a lot of random things happened with no explanation as to why they were happening. And then Ofelia just abruptly dies, and there was no point for any of it. She never even ended up ruling her magical kingdom that Stone-goat-man promised her. I was disappointed and really just in awe of how weird this movie really was. Maybe the gripping meaning just flew over my head and I'm missing the point or something. But I really did not get it at all. This could be cinematic artistry, but it did not click for me. Maybe it will for someone else. For my personal opinion, however, I wouldn't recommend this film.
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AuthorCasey Land Archives
January 2018
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