However, like a good Greek tragedy, it gave whilst taking away at the same time. I was unprepared for the graphic violence of the worlds that Ofelia (the young protagonist) moves in. In the real world, her new father is a brutal monster of an army Captain, her mother is pregnant with many complications, and she lives in an army base in the mountains of post-war Spain. So Ofelia is entranced into a land of fantasy; one that she prefers to the harsh reality of the world outside. In her world, she is a Princess returning to the realm of Faerie, but before she can join her court, she must complete three tasks. In the grand tradition of fairy tales the world over, these tasks are neither easy nor safe, and Ofelia deals with horrors equal to those happening in the real world.

What struck me most about Pan's Labyrinth was the distinction between fantasy and reality. The film documents an actual historical time period, when Spain's fascist soldiers are busy fighting off guerrilla communists around the time of D-Day. The "real" aspect of the movie is real to the characters in the movie, as well as for the audience. The atrocities committed by the Captain --murder, torture, psychological terrorism-- exist beyond the bounds of the film in a way that Ofelia's monstrous toads and eyeless baby-eaters don't. To Ofelia, however, the toad and the Captain share the same world: to her the line between the real and the fantastic is blurred, and really, there's no reason that it shouldn't be. If her father can torture a man to death with a clean conscience, the existence of things that devour babies is hardly far-fetched.

I've said before that one of the things which drew me to Pan's Labyrinth is the fact that is not a preachy movie. It lays out the full scope of human cruelty before the audience, but nowhere in the movie does it explicitly blame the horror on any one cause. War happens; not because the communists or the fascists are evil, not because Spaniards are given to violence any more unthinkable than the rest of us are, not because one party is right and the other is wrong. In order to pass the final test, Ofelia must spill the blood of an innocent: the Faerie world is no less cruel than that of a warring Spain.

Pan's Labyrinth is unorthodox, yes, but it is also very familiar fare. By this, I mean that there is no Hollywood ending; justice is served, but at a cost; fantasy is beautiful, yet scary. All are qualities that we encounter every day: Pan's Labyrinth deals with real life. And that is what makes it memorable.