Holy Sh-

I am beyond traumatized.

If you're a loaded filmmaker and are looking for a makeup team, hire the one that worked on Pan's Labyrinth. I have to be honest; in my seventeen years of living, I haven't seen scarier fathermucking monsters.

The theatrical poster. Source: MetroJunkiie on Blogspot

I finished watching Pan's Labyrinth three hours ago, which means it took me three hours to digest the film and recover from it. Usually I base on the amount of emotional investment (one of my best friends coined that term) I put into a movie to determine how good it is. This one, let's say, is a damn good movie.

Pan's Labyrinth is a 2006 Spanish film directed by Guillermo del Toro (awesome trivia: he made some of the noises in the film!) that swept numerous critics off their Balenciaga-clad feet. It received three Academy Awards: Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Makeup, and was nominated for three more: Best Original Score, Best Screenplay, and Best Foreign Language Film. Needless to say, the film was more than just a total success. Guillermo del Toro also wrote the story; hence, he is a genius.

The film shares a lot of similarities with the Chronicles of Narnia series. Both were set in a period of war and represented the disturbing events that happen in it through fantasy. The stories used children's (or a child's) perspective(s) to view a time of blood and gunshots. Here we see how escapism is important in psychologically surviving wars.

The Faun/Pan. Source: Mike on the Movies

The Pale Man. I wouldn't want to play Peek-a-boo with this freak.
Source: IFC Center

If you haven't watched this film, be more sensible and watch it with friends. I was stupid enough to watch this alone and ended up crying, flailing, and screaming at the same time. But I'll say this again: it's a very good film, gore and the Pale Man aside, and is definitely worth 100% of your emotional investment.