A young girl faces the twin horrors of Spain’s revolutionary war and monsters who inhabit a world known only to her. It is this second story that finds Pan’s Labyrinth at its most beguiling. On learning she is a Princess, Ofelia has to perform three tasks to gain immortality and bring lasting peace. Yet back in the real world, she has arrived at a distant military post where her monstrous step-father is more interested in the brutal suppression of guerrillas and fathering a son, than caring for his wife and daughter.

Viewers familiar with The Devil’s Backbone will know what to expect from del Toro’s mesmerizing style. Exquisite, gothic imagery engulfs Ofelia’s world as she negotiates hell on earth, and that below ground. Despite the phantasmagorical elements of mythical beasts, this is no Dark Crystal. The vicious reality of a country gripped by civil war, and those who administer rule without moral concern, is harrowing enough and small wonder that Ofelia seeks escape: negotiating the startling demands of magical creatures is, relatively speaking, child’s play.

del Toro delivers a soaring allegory on the savagery of war, applied specifically to Spain circa 1944. It’s a bewitching tale that is as beguiling as it is repellent. Extraordinary performances, notably Sergi López as the irredeemable captain, anchor the enthralling visual story-telling that might otherwise disappear beneath the baroque fantasy of its framing. Balancing these worlds is the director’s strength as disparate halves unite in metaphor: the essential struggle between good and evil, of a country torn in half, of humanity split asunder, of fantasy and reality. It’s heady stuff that is as exquisitely emotive as it is truly horrific.

// COLIN FRASER