There are a handful of movies where you can feel the difference between watching at home and watching in a theater, and Pan's Labyrinth is one of them. Guillermo del Toro's 2006 dark fantasy is coming back to theaters on October 9 for its 20th anniversary, and this time it's been restored in 4K and is available in 3D and HDR for the very first time. Del Toro oversaw every version of the re-release himself, which tells you this isn't just a cash grab with a quick digital upscale.
The film is set in 1944 Spain, in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. Eleven-year-old Ofelia, played by Ivana Baquero, moves with her pregnant mother to the countryside under the brutal watch of her fascist stepfather, Captain Vidal. While Vidal hunts down the last of the rebels hiding in the forest, Ofelia discovers a hidden labyrinth nearby and meets an ageless Faun who tells her she is a princess from an enchanted world, and that she must complete three dangerous tasks to reclaim her place. What follows is one of cinema's most elegant and devastating answers to the question of what fairy tales are actually for.
The creature work alone justifies a theater visit. Doug Jones plays both the Faun and the Pale Man, and the Pale Man in particular is the kind of image that has lived rent-free in people's heads for two decades. The film earned six Oscar nominations and won three, including Best Cinematography for Guillermo Navarro, Best Art Direction for Eugenio Caballero, and Best Makeup for David Martí and Montse Ribé. Those wins feel even more earned when you remember del Toro made this on a $19 million budget and somehow produced a world that feels infinite.
This is del Toro's best movie, full stop. He later won Best Picture and Best Director for The Shape of Water, but Pan's Labyrinth has the kind of staying power that most films never reach. It currently sits at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 98 out of 100 on Metacritic, making it Metacritic's best-reviewed film of the entire 2000s decade. The new trailer even features del Toro himself narrating the film's opening lines, which is the kind of detail that makes you realize how much this movie still means to him.
If you've already seen it, go again. The question the film asks at the end, whether any of what Ofelia experienced was real, hits differently in a room full of strangers. If you've somehow never seen it, rent it before October so you're not walking in cold, then go see what it looks like when del Toro's underworld gets six times the peak luminance it was ever given before. Tickets go on sale September 9. Plan accordingly.
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