The haunting Pans Labyrinth is definitively not for the fainthearted or those with small children. It is as cruel and dark as it is beautiful. It deserves the 100% Cream of the Crop ‘tomatometer’ rating.

The story is set in post-war Spain and begins with the young Ofelia and her delicately pregnant mother being driven out to a remote military outpost. Ofelia’s new stepfather believes a wife should give birth close to her husband. Idiot.

Writer/director/producer, Guillermo Del Toro, creates two parallel worlds; the fantasy with fauns, gurgling baby like mandrake roots and fairies and then the ‘real’ with war, soldiers and torture. Of all the characters only Ofelia walks in both realms and Del Toro switches between the two seamlessly.

What makes this film so strong is the powerful visuals and good old fashioned story telling steeped in mystery, war, drama and well developed characters. The violence is grim and sadistic but never gratuitous. Visually the film is gothic and rich and it contains one of the eeriest scenes I have ever watched. It involves two eyeballs on a plate, a bleached, delicately pink, skinny child eater (the owner of the eyeballs) with long red nails and a couple of fairies being beheaded…..