10 Terrifying Horror Monsters That Only Need A Second To Scar You

The film that put Guillermo del Toro on the map, Pan’s Labyrinth has it all – war, fantasy, horror, whimsy and deeply affecting drama, all wrapped up in the lavish style the director is known for.

The Spanish-language film puts us in the shoes of Ofelia (Ivana Baquero), a young girl caught between her childhood desires for freedom, and the dictates of her monstrous stepfather, Francoist Captain Vidal (Sergi López). Escaping into fantasy realms, Ofelia goes on minor quests to collect items that will allow her to transform into the mystical Princess Moanna, seize immortality, and live in the parallel underworld forevermore.

The central tension at play in Pan’s Labyrinth is not between monsters and heroes but reality and fantasy. The boundaries frequently blur, perhaps nowhere moreso than during Ofelia’s second task: retrieving a dagger from the Pale Man’s (Doug Jones) lair. This fleshy monster, whose eye sockets are in its hands, and who sits at an uneaten banquet, is a horrific manifestation of Vidal, and though he only appears in one scene, it’s more than enough to make its mark.

Guided by faeries, Ofelia moves around the figure, dormant at the head of his table, but when she tastes the grapes from his banquet he comes alive. Pressing his eyes into his palms, he stumbles, shrieking, from his place, palms outstretched, and nearly catching her. Twenty years later, many of us still haven’t recovered from this couple minutes of film.