Set against both the historical backdrop of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), and the private world of an imaginative child named Ofelia, Pan’s Labyrinth plays on the fantastic fears and anxieties provoked by fairy tales and holds its (adult) audience in the tensions between anticipation, dread, and utter wonderment. Although this film is relentless in its suspense, and downright gory in its graphic violence, it somehow seems to remain a sensual cinematic romance; captivating in its breathless scenery, and unique in its layered allusions to the ubiquitous struggle between good and evil.

With characters ranging from a facist army Captain, a child-eating ogre, a knife-wielding maid-servant, a vile giant toad, and a crackling tree-like faun, Pan’s reads like a gothic hallucination on death and dignity. For these creatures (all of whom share a touch of the menacing), death is like a dark refuge, an act of defiance, and a source of honor where we lie at the merciless feet of our own ideals.

This film remains as strange and mystifying at the end as it is odd and intriguing at the beginning. I am giving Pan’s Labyrinth 4.5 hearts out of 5: Now go see it.