So the film is a fantasy tale set in post-Civil War Spain in 1944. It's very much about a young girl, Ofelia—played beautifully throughout by the then 11-year-old actress Ivana Baquero—who is trying to escape a brutal, realistic world where she is trapped by circumstances, by conjuring up a fantasy one for herself. Her dad has been killed, and her mum, Carmen—played equally well by Ariadna Gil—has had to try to make good, to survive, by marrying Captain Vidal, who, as it turns out, is a sadistic, nasty officer in Franco's army.
Carmen is heavily pregnant, and we join the story as she goes to join her husband at an outpost plagued by anti-Franco guerrilla rebels hiding in the nearby mountains, accompanied by Ofelia. She is encouraging Ofelia to try to address her new husband as 'father', on the grounds that doing so, and respecting him as such, is their best chance of not falling into poverty or worse. As soon as Ofelia arrives, she starts to see creatures—fairies, fauns and other beings cooked up in her imagination—but very real to her.
Vidal is a cold man, obsessively fixated on his late father’s legacy, and cares only about Carmen delivering a son to carry on his name. At one point when she is unwell, he tells the doctor to save the child over his is wife if a choice must be made. The mill where they have made camp is a grim, hostile place. Ofelia finds solace only in Mercedes—played by Maribel Verdú—a local young woman working as the housekeeper who is secretly aiding the republican rebels (including her brother, Pedro).
So Ofelia heads off into the woods, exploring, and stumbles into the ancient, overgrown labyrinth near the mill. She first meets a giant stick insect, whom she follows to the middle of the maze. There, she encounters a terrifying, horned creature known as the Faun. The Faun reveals a shocking secret to her: that she is not a mere mortal, but Princess Moanna, the long-lost daughter of the King of the Underworld, who vanished into the mortal realm centuries ago and died from the sunlight. Believing her spirit still wanders Earth, the Faun offers her a chance to return to her royal kingdom, but she must first complete three dangerous tasks before the next full moon. He gives her a magical book, The Book of Crossroads, which only reveals its pages to her.
So Ofelia starts to try and conduct these magical tasks whilst watching out for her mum's condition, her stepfather's annoyance—especially when she's missing for an important dinner party and ruins a new dress she has been given by crawling through the mud amongst the trees and the labyrinth—and the troops all looking to kill the resistance fighters. There are imaginary keys, doors, locks, and underground palaces; it starts to feel very much like an even darker-than-usual Alice in Wonderland at times!
Meanwhile, the real world turns increasingly violent. We know all along that various people in service to Vidal are in fact sympathisers, and as he starts to suspect those around him, the tension builds. We see him ruthlessly torture some and employ gruesome methods to obtain information from people. The members of the resistance gain in strength and get violent themselves, and it's an all-out battle at times, often in relentless downpours of rain. While this is going on, Carmen's health takes a fatal turn as she goes into labour, so we also live through the trauma of all that, and the fallout, alongside Ofelia.
We head towards the sad finale as Ofelia's fantasy comes to a conclusion amidst various outcomes for the two fighting forces, leaving us to wonder what, of all this, was supposed to be real or imagined! My money is on it being all in Ofelia's head—a lonely, traumatised girl reading fairy tales in a brutal war zone. She invents the fantasy world and creatures to cope with her mother's illness, abusive stepfather, and the horrors of war. It is clear from one scene particularly that nobody can see any of her world or the creatures except for her.
But for those who would like to take the opposite view, there's enough in what happens to argue that her world is entirely real—which I'll leave you to spot! It's clear that Del Toro deliberately leaves the whole thing ambiguous, suggesting that imagination is just as powerful as reality. For Ofelia, her fantasy world provides agency, dignity, and a moral compass that the brutal adult world lacks.
But laying aside all that analysis, it's a beautifully imagined tale, really well acted by the whole cast. The special effects for the day are very impressive, the setting is hugely atmospheric—a lot of it very dark, candle-lit or rain-drenched—and it's well worth a viewing (or re-viewing if it's been a long time since). Recommended very much, and I'm glad that, eventually, I did get back to it and give it another whirl!
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