Pan's Labyrinth

We went to see Pan’s Labyrinth at The Cameo last night and I’m struggling to recall the last time I enjoyed a film less.* Undoubtedly, it was well made: the special effects were fantastically creepy, the acting was superb, the little girl was gorgeous and the cinematography was great. However, it just wasn’t what I expected, so it disappointed. I generally enjoy films best when I go in knowing very little about them, so I didn’t read any reviews or anything; I just knew it had won a few Academy Awards and was a bit dark and creepy, but with puppets and animated creatures (so how sinister could it be?). I expected something like The Dark Crystal, or something Tim Burtonesque – it wasn’t. Nothing had prepared me for the extreme violence (particularly not the BBFC 15 certificate). From the first killing (by repeated face stabbing with a broken bottle), I was tense; by the time the Captain painstakingly stitched up his own facial flesh wound and everyone in the cinema groaned, I was in a fetal position. It was a relief when it was finally over.

*I’ve remembered: Chan-wook Park’s film Oldboy (2003), which had also been praised to the heavens and was recommended by a friend who claimed it to be the best movie he’d ever seen.