Venturing deep into the labyrinth of the faun: Why Pan's Labyrinth remains among all-time great fantasy movies 20 years later

Twenty years after its release, Guillermo del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” remains one of the greatest fantasy films ever made. Few movies blend the wonder of a fairy tale with the brutality of real-world history as effectively as this richly textured dark fantasy, set against the backdrop of Francoist Spain in 1944.

Like “The Wizard of Oz,” Jean Cocteau’s “Beauty and the Beast” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” del Toro’s masterpiece delves beyond the elements to create two distinct worlds built around fear, authoritarian rule and morality.

Del Toro’s masterpiece got a theatrical run to celebrate its 20th anniversary. I’d put money on it that it will be the best movie released in theaters this year.

Watching it again for the first time in nearly 20 years, I kept thinking I should revisit this movie more often.

One issue moviegoers may have with “Pan’s Labyrinth” is the dark nature of the fantasy and war story. It is not for the faint of heart. It is dark, but for me, it’s pitch perfect.

Del Toro at home with dark storytelling

As a director, del Toro is no stranger to the dark and macabre arts. He cut his teeth working in gothic horror with “Mimic” and “Cronos.” He then showed his ability to handle scope and scale with “Blade II” and “Hellboy.”

Those superhero movies, while strong entries into any director’s filmography, were just an appetizer to “Pan’s Labyrinth.”

I think I appreciate those two movies more because they allowed del Toro to call his shot in 2006 with a little more money than an R-rated fantasy movie would usually get. 

I don’t usually think a movie is perfect. There could be a trim there, a plot hole there, or a decision made by a filmmaker that keeps a movie from being perfect.

Watching “Pan’s Labyrinth” again made me want to dissect it even more this time around. I wanted to find warts. But I couldn’t. One thing I did pick up more on than I did as a 22-year-old college student was how much the camera moved.

At first glance, it might have come across as “showy,” but the way I interpreted the pan movements was to mirror turning the page in your fantasy book, or moving to the next panel on a comic book or graphic novel.

Most people probably think of the Oscar-winning director as one of the finest filmmakers working today, taking much of the craft he spent decades honing to tackle big-budget movies like “Frankenstein” or his very dark take on “Pinocchio.” But “Pan’s Labyrinth” is his magnum opus, even if he won his Oscar for the lesser “The Shape of Water.”

Creating a dark world against civil war 

The movie is impeccably shot by cinematographer Guillermo Navarro, and the film’s score, created by Javier Navarrete, is beautiful and haunting.

Navarro creates muted blues and greys with overcast skies and rain to create a cold feel of the real world, while using splashes of color against a dark palette in Ofelia’s fantasy world.

The film centers around pre-teen Ofelia, played wonderfully by Ivana Baquero. Baquero played Ofelia with childlike wonder, naivety and an understanding of the dangerous world around her that she would feel right at home in a dark fantasy underworld.

The horrors of the fantasy world she visits is only trumped by the pure evil that is her new stepfather, Captain Vidal, played with an intimidating sadism by Sergi Lopez. Vidal is a man raised in a different time, when you were regimented, a soldier first and barely present in the civilian world. The reality he creates is scary, killing everyone and anyone willing to stand in the way of facism in Spain.

His biggest concern, other than keeping rebels from overrunning his squad, is to be with Ofelia’s mom for the birth of his son.

To escape from the harsh reality of fascism and the new life her mom has chosen for them, Ofelia quickly latches on to the Spanish countryside, seeing a magical bug that she believes is a fairy.

Ofelia finds a labyrinth where she meets a faun, who is sure Ofelia is the new living embodiment of Princess Moanna, whom we learn about early in the movie as the fairy tale that will act as the catalyst for the fable set to unfold.

Creature feature to haunt your dreams

Even 20 years later, before I watched the film again, if you asked me to describe some of the creatures in this movie, I could give you a damn good description of the Pale Man, the faun, and the frog buried deep in the tree.

That’s a testament to del Toro’s ability to create memorable characters from scratch. And he has a knack for haunting your dreams, especially the Pale Man, who I think is among the strangest, best-looking monster characters in the movies. 

Some detractors may ask why Ofelia would keep going back to this world if it is as dark as I am describing. As bad as this world is, the world she wakes up to every day is worse.

I also think Ofelia is a great foil to Vidal because she is defiant, doesn’t conform to rules or order, while Vidal is rigid in his beliefs about obeying law or command. There’s a scene where one character, a servant named Mercedes, says she is a coward, a rebel informant who takes care of Vidal’s every need.

The greatness of “Pan’s Labyrinth” is that both stories work well. I could watch feature movies depicting this civil war story and the fantasy story on their own.

They parallel each other while not overlapping to the point where they truly intersect. I think a scene in the film’s third act confirms my belief as Vidal confronts Ofelia in the labyrinth.

Although 20 years old, the movie also feels as timely as ever, with its authoritarian themes standing out amid the backdrop of a world ruled by it in 2026 with small pockets of resistance fighters standing up to authority, much like 1944 Spain.