Every Guillermo Del Toro Movie - Ranked Worst To Best

To understand the full impact of the greatness of Pan’s Labyrinth, look no further than the accolades it has accrued. It was nominated for six Oscars, winning Best Cinematography, Production Design and Makeup. When the BBC polled writers about the best films of the 21st Century, Pan's Labyrinth ranked at number 17. When the BBC then polled writers regarding the best foreign language films ever made, Pan’s Labyrinth ranked 22, ahead of cinema touchstones such as Battleship Potemkin and The Seventh Seal.

Pan's Labyrinth is the culmination of all of del Toro's fascinations and themes. He foists a dark and twisted fairytale world on an inquisitive but vulnerable young girl, Ofelia. But the nightmarish fairytale world is just an escape from a more nightmarish real world, her family caught in the midst of the fallout from the Spanish Civil War and a monstrously evil surrogate father figure. Ofelia's world crumbles around her. She becomes de facto orphaned, struggling to navigate the violent world around her. At the same time, she maneuvers a relationship with Doug Jones' untrustworthy Faun and an array of other creatures, chief among them The Pale Man (also portrayed by Jones). The latter is so shockingly visually rendered that the image of this creature, eyes located in its palms, has nearly reached the same levels of notoriety as the film itself.

Pan's Labyrinth is Guillermo del Toro's masterpiece. It subsides in the genres of horror, war, fairytale and tragedy, reaching the apex of each of them.