20 Horror Films Where Humans Are The Real Monsters

Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth is the ultimate adult fairytale, balancing rich, succulent aesthetics with bare brutality and heavy political themes, and scaring the ever-loving bejesus out of us all in the process.

Set during World War II, still near the beginning of Franco’s nationwide regime in Spain, the film brings us into the life of ten-year-old Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) as she and her pregnant mother join her new stepfather, Captain Vidal (Sergi López), at a remote house and outpost in the woods, where he and the Armed Police Corps are hunting the Spanish Maquis. Beside the house is a stone labyrinth, where Ofelia meets a faun (Doug Jones) who challenges her with three tasks to secure passage into his magical kingdom.

Thus, Ofelia comes up against some of the strangest and most disturbing creatures del Toro could conceive of, including the Pale Man (also Jones), a fleshy albino creature with eyes in its palms and murderous intent. Yet, Vidal is the real monster. He is a ferocious sadist with his countrymen, his wife, and his adoptive daughter, and will stop at nothing to secure his legacy. And we see the reflection of his terrible nature in the monsters Ofelia meets: his is the hoarding greed of the fat toad that lives in the tree, and the wanton viciousness and blind rage of the Pale Man who perches at the head of a luxurious banquet table.