Pan's Labyrinth: Building Tension

 Pan’s Labyrinth is a beautiful cross between the darkness in the real world and the curiosity that lies in fantasy.  Ironically enough, I always thought of this movie as a horror film, mainly because of the creatures i.e. the Pale Man.  Now that I watched this movie, I wouldn’t classify it as such, although some key elements are still present.  One must-have in horror is tension, and Guillermo Del Toro delivers this feeling extremely well.

In all of the scenes where Del Toro raises tension, the camera remains focused on the character closest to the frame, while a non-diegetic score creeps in the background.  I interpreted the crescendos in the music to be like pauses of breath, as we waited for the next subject to come into focus. Before he showed up I thought there was a threat approaching Mercedes, but she was in fact safe.  Even the rapid strings playing in the score signified danger, which Del Toro uses to frighten us.  Another scene that delivers deep tension is when Ofelia eats the grapes when she visits the Pale Man’s ‘cave.’  As soon as she takes her first bite, the strings play staccato notes and the orchestra is soft.  I feel like this gave way for the Pale Man’s groans to ring through, which added more terror to the scene.  Del Toro also loves to keep the potential threat out of focus, blurred in the background so that the character in focus is unaware of what is coming to them.  In this scene, we knew who the threat was, but to watch the fairies try to warn Ofelia while she is completely oblivious was anxious enough.  The figure of the Pale Man is eerie, and the paintings of him killing and eating kids made me uncomfortable.  I can only imagine what Ofelia must have felt when she realized that she had made a huge mistake.

The use of sound and camera quality is a key element in Pan’s Labyrinth and I truly believe that Guillermo Del Toro knew exactly what he was doing with each shot.  I felt a mix of emotions watching this film, from being scared to sorrowful.  Overall, this movie was an experience and I would love to watch it again to see what else I could discover.



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