Guillermo Del Toro's head must be a pretty strange place... the imagery and imagination it takes to create such an amazing dark fairy tale makes Del Toro a real genius. The best way to describe this film is dark, adult and fairy tale, because that is exactly what it is, a dark, bloody, cool, interesting, fantasy fairytale. A brilliantly visionary film.
I love how vivid all of the colours are, the mood is controlled brilliantly by the cold dark blues and the sepia yellows. The imagery in the fairytale of frogs, fauns, monsters and plants make for some really nice shots, it is clear that the films frames have been carefully considered to make beautiful pictures. The characters are also from fairytale, the evil step dad, the loving housekeeper and the doting mother all represent fairytale stereotypes, the intelligence in the film comes from their seemingly perfect integration into Spain in 1944. The evil character, the captain is typically evil to an extreme, his ways of torture are brutal, a particular favourite moment of mine is where he vows to let a prisoner with a stutter go if he can count to three without stuttering, he is a brilliant character.
I love how vivid all of the colours are, the mood is controlled brilliantly by the cold dark blues and the sepia yellows. The imagery in the fairytale of frogs, fauns, monsters and plants make for some really nice shots, it is clear that the films frames have been carefully considered to make beautiful pictures. The characters are also from fairytale, the evil step dad, the loving housekeeper and the doting mother all represent fairytale stereotypes, the intelligence in the film comes from their seemingly perfect integration into Spain in 1944. The evil character, the captain is typically evil to an extreme, his ways of torture are brutal, a particular favourite moment of mine is where he vows to let a prisoner with a stutter go if he can count to three without stuttering, he is a brilliant character.
A really brilliant film, it is a lovely little fairy tale with beautiful images and narratives. Behind that façade of fairytale it is dark, adult and intelligent. I recommend it to everyone, even if your not a fan of foreign films give it a go, its not a hard one to watch and read.
8/10
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