"Pan's Labyrinth" ***1/2 (out of four): Beautiful but relentlessly grim fairytale about a young girl who finds refuge in a world of mythical creatures at the end of the Spanish Civil War.

As he proved in his wonderfully hypnotic ghost story, 2001’s “The Devil’s Backbone”, there are two topics that make Guillermo del Toro shine: the supernatural and the Spanish Civil War. After a foray into mainstream filmmaking during which he turned his gothic sensibilities on Hollywood (“Blade II”, “Hellboy”), the director again masterfully combines these seemingly disparate elements in the beautiful but relentlessly bleak fairytale “Pan’s Labyrinth”.

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