About a week ago, I described El Labirinto del Fauno to my girlfriend as an alice-in-wonderland-like film, thinking it was a fairy tale of sorts. After watching it Friday morning, I realized I couldn't be more farther from the truth.
El Labirinto del Fauno is not for kids. It's Rated R, I believe, because of the gruesome violence. It's grim and it's depressing. Faces will be bashed mercilessly, guerrillas will be tortured, cheeks will be ripped open, and fairies will be eaten alive. Definitely not Wonderland material.
Spoiler starts here.
A few minutes into the movie, I knew something was wrong. A girl is bloody and is definitely dead. Her name is Ofelia and the movie tells her last days. She's a fairy-tale stricken kid whose mother is pregnant with her new stepfather, Captain Vidal. He's one eeeeeeeevil dude.
The night they moved in with him, she was led by a mantis-turned-fairy into an intricate garden where she was met by a faun. There, the faun told Ofelia that she was a princess, daughter of the King of the Underworld. but before she could enter her kingdom, she must successfully fulfill three tasks.
Suffice to say, Ofelia finished two of her tasks. For the final one, she was asked to "spill the blood" of an innocent, which was her newborn brother. She refused and in return she was abandoned by the faun, left to be shot by her stepfather. During her final seconds, we are shown a scene of her entering her father's throne room, wearing a beautiful gown fit for the grand castle. The faun declared that by saving her brother, she has proven herself to be the true Princess. After some applause from the creatures of the Underworld, the scene winked out. Ofelia was shown dead, with Mercedes (their resident maid) weeping over her limp body.
After watching I immediately went online to see what others are saying about the ending (I even found this creepy site). None of what other people wrote worked for me. The way I see it, El Labirinto has two endings, depending on who is watching. One is a dead Ofelia, for those who doesn't believe, who got tired of believing, and who refuse to believe. The other is a happy Ofelia living with her true parents, for those of us that are kids at heart, never failing to wonder and question what's real and not.
Spoiler ends here.
El Labirinto del Fauno is not for kids. It's Rated R, I believe, because of the gruesome violence. It's grim and it's depressing. Faces will be bashed mercilessly, guerrillas will be tortured, cheeks will be ripped open, and fairies will be eaten alive. Definitely not Wonderland material.
Spoiler starts here.
A few minutes into the movie, I knew something was wrong. A girl is bloody and is definitely dead. Her name is Ofelia and the movie tells her last days. She's a fairy-tale stricken kid whose mother is pregnant with her new stepfather, Captain Vidal. He's one eeeeeeeevil dude.The night they moved in with him, she was led by a mantis-turned-fairy into an intricate garden where she was met by a faun. There, the faun told Ofelia that she was a princess, daughter of the King of the Underworld. but before she could enter her kingdom, she must successfully fulfill three tasks.
Suffice to say, Ofelia finished two of her tasks. For the final one, she was asked to "spill the blood" of an innocent, which was her newborn brother. She refused and in return she was abandoned by the faun, left to be shot by her stepfather. During her final seconds, we are shown a scene of her entering her father's throne room, wearing a beautiful gown fit for the grand castle. The faun declared that by saving her brother, she has proven herself to be the true Princess. After some applause from the creatures of the Underworld, the scene winked out. Ofelia was shown dead, with Mercedes (their resident maid) weeping over her limp body.
After watching I immediately went online to see what others are saying about the ending (I even found this creepy site). None of what other people wrote worked for me. The way I see it, El Labirinto has two endings, depending on who is watching. One is a dead Ofelia, for those who doesn't believe, who got tired of believing, and who refuse to believe. The other is a happy Ofelia living with her true parents, for those of us that are kids at heart, never failing to wonder and question what's real and not.
Spoiler ends here.
