Pans Labyrinth

Dir: Guillermo del Toro

This wasn't at all what I was expecting. I was thinking from what I'd seen on TV that this was something in the vein of Jim Henson, so it was quite a surprise to find it was far darker and actually quite sad. The ending in particular was grusome, despite the 'happy ending' of the girls delusion.

This film is about a young girl who lives wth her mother and her step father in Franco's Spain. Her mother is high pregnant and in poor health and her father in law is a sadistic army captain who has no time for his step daughter at all. In order to escape the bleak reality in which she lives, the girl invents a magical world which intrudes into her life with dire consequences. This is an excellent film, but very dark.