1. Pan's Labyrinth
Original Title: El Laberinto del Fauno Guillermo del Toro has featured repeatedly on this list, so it should come as no surprise to see dark fairy tale Pan's Labyrinth, the director's masterpiece, at number one. A Spanish-Mexican co-production, Pan's Labyrinth is a kind of spiritual sequel to The Devil's Backbone. Between that film and this, though, del Toro had made his name in Hollywood with comic book monster fantasies Blade 2 and Hellboy and brings a greater imagination and confidence to the table here. Once again the fantastical horror elements serve as an allegory and as a mirror to the truly disturbing real world of Fascist Spain. Here Franco has won the Civil War but there are still pockets of guerrilla resistance in the form of the Spanish Maquis. The fantasy world, therefore, represents a sort of escape for fatherless child protagonist Ofelia, a superb performance from Ivana Baquero, but one whose dark heart soon comes to reflect the real world events around her. Del Toro reportedly turned down the chance to direct the Narnia film to make this and his faun (never actually identified as the Pan of Greek myth in the film or the original title) is a much stranger, less welcoming one that Mr. Tumnus. Del Toro's notebooks and concept art show how boundless his imagination and capacity for design that is both stunning and disturbing can be. Here he is at his very best, the film's fantasy sequences giving us everything from a grotesque giant toad, to the tragically humanoid mandrake root, to the truly horrific fairy-eating pale man, one of the scariest screen monsters in years. For all that Ofelia's fantasy world is strange and threatening, it is nothing compared to the harshness of the real world and her wicked stepfather Captain Vidal. Expertly played Sergi Lopez, a usually comic actor best known as weirdo Harry in French dark comedy thriller Harry, He's Here to Help (Harry, Un Ami Qui Vous Veut du Bien), Vidal is a study in total sadistic evil and presents a far more immediate threat than that of the fantasy monsters Ofelia is brave enough to stand up against. The film's beautiful look and design won it three Academy Awards: for Cinematography, Art Direction and Makeup. No Spanish film had ever won more than one Oscar before and Pan's Labyrinth was also nominated for three more: Screenplay, Score, and Foreign Language Film. Given horror and fantasy, as well as foreign language films, often get overlooked at the Oscars, this is as strong an indication as any that Pan's Labyrinth is Spanish horror's ultimate crossover success.
See this if you liked: The dark fairytale imagination is an ongoing thread throughout del Toro's work, so Pan's Labyrinth would be a recommendation for anyone who's enjoyed anything else that he's done. The superficial similarities between this and lighthearted comic book blockbuster Hellboy may not be obvious, but the style, design and emotion behind the fairy worlds in the second Hellboy, The Golden Army, are hugely reminiscent of Pan's Labyrinth. In particular, regular collaborator Doug Jones, the Faun and Pale Man in Pan's... gives Golden Army's Angel of Death the same inhuman elegant creepiness. --> -->