Rating: 4 out of 4 Kisses

Twenty years ago, Guillermo del Toro opened a chalk door into the darkest corner of a fairy tale, and horror has never been the same. Now Pan’s Labyrinth is back on the big screen for its 20th anniversary, restored in 4K and presented in theaters in 3D and HDR for the first time, with every version personally overseen by del Toro himself. I’ve seen this film more times than I can count. Seeing it again, bigger and brighter than ever, I was reminded of something simple and true: this is a masterpiece. Not a cult favorite. Not a genre gem. A masterpiece, full stop.

A Fairy Tale With Teeth

The year is 1944. Spain is bleeding in the aftermath of its civil war. Young Ofelia, played with breathtaking stillness by Ivana Baquero, arrives at a remote military outpost with her pregnant mother, Carmen, to live under the roof of her new stepfather, Captain Vidal. Sergi López makes Vidal one of the most chilling villains in modern cinema, a man who polishes his boots and his father’s watch with the same cold care he brings to torture.

In the overgrown ruins near the mill, Ofelia meets a Faun who tells her she may be a lost princess of the underworld. To prove it, she must complete three tasks. What follows is del Toro weaving two stories together so tightly you can’t pull one thread without the whole tapestry trembling: a fairy tale of monsters and magic, and a war story where the real monsters wear uniforms.

That is the genius of this film. The fantasy is never an escape from the horror. It is the horror, and it is the hope, all at once.

Guillermo del Toro, Monster Whisperer

Nobody loves monsters the way Guillermo del Toro loves monsters. He doesn’t just design them. He understands them, honors them, gives them a soul. Twenty years on, the creatures of Pan’s Labyrinth remain some of the most iconic images in the history of the genre.

The Faun, creaking like an old tree come to life, is equal parts grandfatherly and terrifying. You never fully trust him, and neither does Ofelia. And then there is the Pale Man. Seated at his feast, eyes set in the palms of his hands, he is pure nightmare fuel. Both creatures are brought to life by the extraordinary Doug Jones, a performer who disappears so completely into del Toro’s designs that you forget there’s a human being underneath. The Pale Man sequence is maybe five minutes of screen time, and it has lived rent-free in the imaginations of moviegoers for two full decades.

What makes it all so powerful is that del Toro built these creatures for real. Practical makeup, prosthetics, physical sets you can almost smell. The film won Academy Awards for Makeup, Cinematography, and Art Direction, and in this new 4K restoration, every one of those wins feels earned all over again. Guillermo Navarro’s camera glides through amber candlelight and cold blue forest like it’s turning the pages of an illuminated storybook. The textures in the Faun’s skin, the rot in the fig tree, the blood-red of the Pale Man’s banquet table: in HDR, they absolutely sing.

And I have to mention Javier Navarrete’s haunting lullaby. Hummed softly by Maribel Verdú’s Mercedes, it will follow you out of the theater and stay with you for days.

The Film That Taught Horror to Weep

Here is where Pan’s Labyrinth goes from great movie to genre-defining landmark. Before 2006, a lot of audiences thought horror and fairy tales lived on opposite ends of the multiplex. Del Toro proved they were always family.

He showed a generation of filmmakers that a horror story could be about grief, about childhood, about political cruelty, and about the tiny, stubborn acts of disobedience that keep the human spirit alive. He showed that a monster could be a metaphor and still scare you senseless. He showed that a Spanish-language dark fantasy could cross every border and become a global sensation.

You can feel his fingerprints all over the horror that followed. Del Toro himself championed a new wave of Spanish-language and grief-driven chillers, producing The Orphanage and Mama, and the emotional, fable-like horror that has flourished in the years since, stories where the haunting is really about loss, owes a deep debt to Ofelia’s journey. Every time a modern horror film uses its creature to say something about trauma, or lets a child’s imagination become both a weapon and a wound, it is walking down a path that del Toro carved out of that labyrinth.

He also showed Hollywood what was possible for him. The road from Pan’s Labyrinth leads straight to his Best Picture and Best Director triumph for The Shape of Water, his Oscar for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, and his long-dreamed Frankenstein. But for me, Pan’s Labyrinth remains the purest distillation of everything that makes him one of the greatest living filmmakers: tenderness and terror, beauty and brutality, all living in the same frame.

Why You Need to See It on the Big Screen

If you’ve only watched Pan’s Labyrinth on a TV or a laptop, you owe yourself this experience. The restoration is gorgeous, the 3D adds real depth to those winding stone corridors, and the HDR makes the light and shadow feel almost alive. This is a film built for a dark room and a giant screen, and this is your chance.

And if you’ve never seen it at all? I envy you. You’re about to meet Ofelia for the first time.

The Verdict

Pan’s Labyrinth is a heartbreaking, horrifying, gorgeous fairy tale for grown-ups, and it is every bit as powerful today as it was twenty years ago. Maybe more. Guillermo del Toro didn’t just make a great horror film. He changed what horror could be.

I’m giving it my highest honor: 4 out of 4 💋💋💋💋 Kisses

Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth 20th Anniversary opens in theaters nationwide on October 9, 2026, in 4K, 3D, and HDR.

Mwah!

— Manny the Movie Guy