The Pale Man is an original character inspired by Goya's painting of Saturn Devouring His Son, a grotesque image. We first see him sitting dormant at the head of a banquet, unmoving and seemingly dead. At first Ofelia is wary, but all too soon she gets cocky. Her only instruction is not to eat any food from the table, but temptation gets the better of her and she defies orders to eat a grape from the table. Immediately his hand twitches and he starts to raise his head. At first it looks as though his face has no eyes, but then he turns his hands and places two eyes from a dish on the table into an opening in each palm. He stands behind her while she, oblivious, consumes a second grape. By lifting his hands to where his eyes should be, he is able to see and pursue Ofelia. As she flees, we quickly learn that the Pale Man does not have to raise his hands to his face for his palm-eyes to see. He can stretch his considerably lanky arms ahead of him. Ofelia lives in a terrifying world, with a dying mother and a sadistic stepfather, surrounded by the chaos of civil war. Despite that, I see the Pale Man as the epitome of fear in this movie. We do not understand why it is a problem for Ofelia to eat the grapes, only that she has made a great mistake by doing so. It becomes clear that the Pale Man's intention is to eat her. She is lucky, but the fairies accompanying her are not so fortunate. Two out of three are plucked from the air and crunched headfirst with indecent relish. As Ofelia fumbles with her chalk, I always watch with panic rising.
I'll watch anything, so long as it has a juicy plot, a couple of twists and hopefully a few scares. My favourite films include The Fugitive, The Last Starfighter and The Secret In Their Eyes. Television wise, I'm a big fan of the Nordic Noir, Sherlock and Doctor Who. All the classics!
