Triple Tap Pan’s Labyrinth

So, in typical fashion, I am well behind the times when it comes to award winning films (except maybe the Razzies), and Pan’s Labyrinth was no different.  I got it from Netflix and let it sit for a few days, but got it out and watched it the other day, and holy crap was that not what I was expecting.  I remember reading that there was a frame story having to do with Spain under Franco, but I didn’t realize the majority of the action took place in that part of the story.  And it may be an unfair picture of that regime, or I’m not up to date on my Spanish history, but those guys were brutal!

The fantasy aspects of this story were very cool and creepy at the same time, but most of the scary came from actual real world people, not weird hand-eye monsters.  The Captain, especially, is pretty ridiculous, being a very brutal leader of his little troop that’s off in the woods hunting rebels.  However, it’s the encounters with the rebels that show how messed up these guys are.  In Zombieland, the main character said you should always double-tap a zombie to make sure it was dead, but that’s because they don’t die from normal injuries.  But in this movie, the soldiers found it necessary to triple-tap normal people, who likely would have died from one shot to the head.  This might have been Guillermo del Toro making a point, but between that little note and the brutal torture, this movie really is shockingly violent.  I found myself covering my eyes at parts, and they didn’t even show too much of the torture scene, but just the setup for it was cringe-worthy.

I suppose the marketing department for the U.S. release probably had to get clever since this movie is pretty intense throughout, but I feel a little misled.  The fantasy aspects were good, and the effects to make the fairies and the faun were really well done, but they were a minor part of this movie.  I’m not saying it wasn’t good, but some more focus on the frame story in the trailer would have set me up better for how this movie played out.  I know I can’t really talk when it comes to what I see in the theaters, but I think that American audiences need to be given a little more credit when it comes to cinema.  We don’t need to be spoon-fed simple concepts, we can take something more involved, there’s no need to sugarcoat it.

All in all, Pan’s Labyrinth was an excellent movie, and definitely on par with Guillermo del Toro’s past work, but if you are undecided, I recommend reading about it online (hopefully spoiler-free) instead of watching a trailer, because that will give you a much better idea of the film.  And hopefully the next award winning movie I watch will be a little more in line with what I was expecting.

John Hackert is a columnist and proponent of conserving ammo.