Movie mini-review: "Pan's Labyrinth" (2006)

Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) is a young girl in WW2 Spain whose mother has remarried to a sadistic army captain. While her mum goes through a difficult pregnancy and her stepdad hunts and tortures the local resistance fighters, Ofelia escapes into fantasy books. Then a servant introduces her to the old stone maze of the title and she becomes caught up in a quest of hideous Barker-ian monsters, earthy magic and moral dilemmas no child should face. "Hellboy"’s Guillermo Del Toro has created something unique – an arthouse fairytale for adults whose beauty and horror will stay with you.

[Starts in Oz cinemas on November 30]