Nightmare Labyrinth

Nightmare Labyrinth

A Fairytale with no suitable audience, Laberinto del Fauno, El (Pan’s Labyrinth) is excessively brutal. This foreign film stars Ivana Banquero as Ofelia and centres on her imaginary world during the fascism of Spain in 1944. A Faun Pan played by Doug Jones emerges as Ofelia’s mythical guide to a better life and introduces three nightmarish challenges she must undertake. There is plenty of senseless violence that may have come from any Hollywood blockbuster but it is the bizarre characters that instill true uneasiness. A child-eating Pale Man with hands for eyes and a gaping whole for a mouth is more frightening than any boogey man under the bed. Pans Labyrinth is nothing close to David Bowies Labyrinth but that is not necessarily a bad thing.