The Best Movie Of Each Year From 1925-2025
20. 2006 - Pan's Labyrinth
Honourable Mentions: Casino Royale, Children of Men, The Departed
A thematic and spiritual follow-up to his 2001 Spanish Civil War-set horror, The Devil's Backbone, Pan's Labyrinth is the film Guillermo del Toro was born to make. Dark and fantastical, with a heavy sprinkling of the gothic romanticism that has become a defining feature of del Toro's work, Pan's Labyrinth is both the director's scariest and most technically impressive piece of cinema - an old-school fable that translates both the fear and fascination of childhood, only this time set in an unforgiving historical context (that being Francoist Spain).
Del Toro has proven to be a real champion for horror and fantasy - as well as other facets of genre filmmaking - but Pan's Labyrinth, needless to say, is a hard one to top.