Pan's Labyrinth
Picturehouse | Release Date: December 29, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
98
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
37
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
EmpireKim Newman
Dark, twisted and beautiful, this entwines fairy-tale fantasy with war-movie horror to startling effect. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
One of the greatest of all fantasy films. Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
This is like no movie you've seen before, a haunting mixture of horror, history and fantasy that works simultaneously on every level. Read full review
100
PremiereGlenn Kenny
This intense film, a mix of horror, fantasy, and history that convinces on all those levels and mixes them up with dizzying brio, is a searing cinematic experience, a beautiful, terrifying vision from writer-director Guillermo del Toro. Read full review
100
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Literally and figuratively marvelous, a rich, daring mix of fantasy and politics. Read full review
100
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Pan's Labyrinth Like his terrific 2001 "The Devil’s Backbone," Mexican horrormeister Guillermo del Toro's new movie offers us both real-life and fantastical monsters, and if you know his work, you won't waste time figuring out which to root for. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
A brilliant work of the imagination capable of truly seizing and igniting our fantasies. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The result of the intricate interplay is a fairy tale for adults that is violent, sometimes shocking, yet utterly engrossing. And eerily instructive; it deepens our emotional understanding of fascism, and of rigid ideology's dire consequences.
100
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
A swift and accessible entertainment, blunt in its power and exquisite in its effects. Read full review
100
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Unlike most horror movies, this chiller gives equal prominence to reality and fantasy, though the reality is far more frightening. The only precedent that comes to mind in terms of a lyrical treatment of a child's experience of terror is "The Night of the Hunter." Read full review
100
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Del Toro's film ranks with the best examinations of children's inner lives, but be warned: Its haunting insights are best left to adults. Read full review
100
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
A critic trots out the word "masterpiece" at his own peril, but there it is. Read full review
100
New York PostLou Lumenick
Nothing this year comes close to being as utterly unforgettable as Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, an extremely dark and disturbing fairy tale for audiences say, ages 12 and up. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
Visually stunning, it meshes haunting images with a complex multilevel story about the enchantment of youth. Read full review
100
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Del Toro never coddles the audience. He means us to leave Pan's Labyrinth shaken to our souls. He succeeds. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
In tone, Pan's Labyrinth resembles a cross between "Alice in Wonderland" and H.P. Lovecraft, with some Buñuel thrown in for good measure. It is a tribute to - as well as a prime example of - the disturbing power of imagination. Read full review
100
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
Like the folk tales from centuries past, Pan's Labyrinth is a dark odyssey with nightmarish visions and cruel threats, but coming through the sacrifice and suffering is the childlike belief in magic and imagination that for Del Toro represents the hope and optimism of a happily ever after in this cruel world. Read full review
100
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
These creatures of the underworld are the fervid fabrications of del Toro's imagination: More than once they will catch you by surprise and make you gasp. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Pan's Labyrinth is a transcendent work of art. Read full review
100
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
It leaves you feeling exhilarated at the invigorating power a well-told story, no matter its subject, can have. If you like Harry Potter, you will love this movie. If you don't like Harry Potter, you will still love this movie. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
This is the breakthrough work of one of world cinema's most visionary artists. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
With this film, del Toro seems to have created his manifesto, a tour de force of cautionary zeal, humanism and magic. At this writing, Pan's Labyrinth is the best-reviewed film of 2006 listed on the movie review Web site Metacritic.com, and for a reason: It's just that great. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Like any great myth, Pan's Labyrinth encodes its messages through displays of magic. And like any good fairy tale, it is also embroidered with threads of death and loss. Read full review
100
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
We don't find out until the last scene how reality and fantasy intersect, when the meaning of the first shot of the film gets driven home. How many movies have you seen with a payoff like that? Read full review
100
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Del Toro presents one dazzling visual spectacle after another. Read full review
100
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
With a surgical saw instead of a hatchet, del Toro takes apart patriarchy and opportunistic religion as well as fascism. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
After two hours of dazzlingly fantastical images and stomach-turning gore, del Toro winds around, and finds his story's center. Read full review
90
SalonStephanie Zacharek
This is a true fairy tale, and one of the finest fantasy pictures ever made, but please do not take your young children to see it unless you want them to be scarred for life. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
With Pan's Labyrinth, Del Toro has made his most accomplished film to date, a dark and disturbing fairy tale for adults that's been thought out to the nth degree and resonates with the irresistible inevitability of a timeless myth. Read full review
90
Film ThreatDon R. Lewis
The action scenes are exciting, the fantasy scenes are creative and the war scenes are brutal. Read full review
90
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
So smartly has del Toro thought his fable through, and so graceful is his grasp of visual rhyme, that to pick holes in it seems mean; yet Pan's Labyrinth is perhaps more dazzling than involving--I was too busy reading its runes and clues, as it were, to be swept away. It is, I suspect, a film to return to, like a country waiting to be explored: a maze of dead ends and new life. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Pan's Labyrinth artfully fuses a war film with a family melodrama and a fairy tale. The result is visually stunning and emotionally shattering. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The lack of family friendliness does not diminish what del Toro has achieved with this magical motion picture. Read full review
80
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Suspended between the brutally graphic and flights of lyrical fancy, Pan's Labyrinth unfolds with the confidence of a classical fable, one that paradoxically feels both timeless and startlingly new. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterRay Bennett
The performers are all good with Baquero poised and beautiful as Ofelia and Verdu vital and spirited as the rebellious Mercedes. Lopez gives an extraordinary performance as the bestial captain, an irredeemable villain to rank with Ralph Fiennes' Nazi in "Schindler's List." Read full review
80
VarietyJustin Chang
There's plenty of blood -- both literal and figurative -- coursing through the veins of Pan's Labyrinth, a richly imagined and exquisitely violent fantasy from writer-director Guillermo del Toro. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
His palette here is deep-toned, with bottomless blacks and supersaturated oranges and blues--as if the Walt Disney of "Pinocchio" had collaborated with Goya. Read full review
More From This Movie

98 Critic Reviews

8.6 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL