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This research paper represents formal analysis of a visual representation of a monster taken from Pan’s Labyrinth (2006). It implies a creepily-named pale man with an anemic look. Instead of the eyes in his head, the monster has palms of his hands which acted as the eyes. Pan’s labyrinth is a 2006 movie written and directed by Mexican filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro. It was later produced and distributed by Esperanto Films a Mexican film company.

The movie takes center stage in Spain in 1944 years after the Spanish civil war. Pan’s labyrinths’ idea for this movie came from Guillermo Del Toros notebooks in which he had filled his plot bits, ideas, drawings and doodles. The film uses complex animatronics and makeup and at the same time computer generated imagery is employed in its effect (Cindy 1).

Stylistic details of Pan Labyrinth film

Major themes

As he was setting up his monstrous movie, Guillermo listed down his main themes. They were as follows; that in order to experience a full and self-discovery then rebellion is necessary. For instance in this case, Ofelia escapes her underworld kingdom to discover a life above. He aIDs that imagination is a crucial part of the human nature. That whatever will consume us is that dark hunger for power. Moreover, in order to explore one‘s imagination, one has to expose his individuality. Imagination is a way of escaping reality and the challenges. The camera movement, editing, set design, camera angle can be used to bring put the imaginations of the film into a reality.

The lighting in this film setup has various meanings. For instance there is the warm lighting in Ofelia’s bedroom which allows her to pick a sleeping draught with which she would use to drug the captain. The warm lighting contrasts with the cold blue lighting outside her room which shows the captain as he executes two captives. The same lighting can be used in the different scenes of the film to portray a different message. In this case, the same cold blue lighting is used when an insect in Ofelia’s book takes a fairy form. There are two forms of lighting in this film that take a crucial, center stage. These lightings include the warm lighting and the blue lighting. In order to bring out the concept of the night time world, the blue lightning is used. This lighting acts as a warning to the viewers of the dangers that Ofelia is likely to face (Cindy 2). A well lit bathroom represents a place of fantasy and safety for Ofelia. The imaginary creature she has an encounter with or the generic faun constitutes of a bark and teeth symbolizing the Spaniard land fauns are the untamed woodland spirits composed of half human and half goat.

Pans labyrinth (2006) is a blend film of fantasy with horror, a woven drama mixed with imagination, mystery and suspense. The first introduction is about a young princess Moanna who escapes her kingdom underworld for a life above. The princess’s life is suIDenly changed when her memory is erased by the sunlight. She goes through life without her true identity. It is clear that after her death she would return to her kingdom but in another form of life. It’s after this prologue that pans labyrinth takes the central stage of the film. We are introduced to a young maiden Ofelia after the last grips of Spain war in 1944.Ofelia lives with her mother and step father captain vidal.Ofelia is a warm, inquisitive girl always looking forward to learn new things from her storybooks. She believes in fairies and the fairy land is where she hopes to go. Later on she meets with a faun who believes that the young Ofelia is a reincarnation of moanna.Three quests are presented to her in order to prove herself (Scott 1).

What maintains the films balance is the backdrop and violence wake of the civil war. Captain Vidal is identified as the villain who hoards medical supplies and food to get rid of the republicans. Several stages of this film reveal his cold and intimidating nature. Vidal mirrors the big bad wolf and the beasts in other fairy tale stories. Moreover, he is seen as the pan labyrinth in this script (Cindy 5). His hawk eyeing gestures and moves scare Ofelia who later escapes from her home to a world of fantasy.

The setting of Pan’s Labyrinth was after the Spanish civil war in 1944. It was a modernist movement and also a lean towards fascism in Spain. Its physical setting constituted a mill on the Spain border whereas its social setting portrayed war raging across the nation, women subordinate to men and a fascist coup. It is a time of suspicion and paranoia. The fantasy world settings are parallels to the real world. In her fantasy world, Ofelia holds her books in her right hand, she follows a fairy to the labyrinth having let lose of her books (Cindy 6). By letting go of her books, it symbolizes how she crosses the barrier that had bridged her fantasy from reality. In aIDition, losing her hat means that she loses her reason and the dischanted world behind.

Guillermo Del Toro employs vertical wipes meant to resemble the turning of pages in an attempt to make us have a valid connection between the mystical labyrinth and Vidal’s homestead. He deliberately uses color in contrasting the warmth of her fantasy world and the cold reality of Ofelia’s life. The production design is anchored from careful framed sets to amazing costume designs and effects that are practical. Another switch in camera angles happens from Vidal’s point of view which shows Ofelia conversing to empty and convincing it that the faun does not exist.

Pans Labyrinth is an excellent film from the beginning of the scenes to the end. Its film mated color palette appears accurate and crisp whereas the black levels are solid and compact. The general texture of the film and its bold visuals are well presented in Spanish Dolby signals and it is only exclusive to the Spaniard region.  The films soundtrack constitutes tiny sounds amplified to overwhelming levels of squeaking boots, ticking of the watch and creaking of insects. The style of this image or the use of a stylistic motif across several images in one text reflect on the notion that the category of the monstrous represents a threat to traditional forms and categories

There is an ease of navigation since the menu designs are simple. The main features without a doubt are consistent and complete with no layer change detected during playback. Traditional forms of filming were more problematic than the recent ones in today’s generation. This is because the playback system never existed and hence production of films usually took long to be finished (Lynn 103).

Pans labyrinth is a two disc release housed in a single width black keep case which includes a promotional insert and an embodied slipcover. Most traditional forms could only release a single disc hardly housed in any keep case.

Pans labyrinth has other bonus features like the audio commentary featuring Guillermo Del Toro who spices up the production story and gives hints of how the film may turn out to be. He spells out the power and magic of fairy tales and how pans labyrinth is rooted in the genre even though technical remarks such as color schemes, camera angles are inclusive.

The director’s prologue as another bonus feature is where Guillermo gives a brief summary of the project and suggests for a few aIDitional remarks.

Melodrama as a stylistic mode stands out in this film. It is important to have melodrama since it encompasses a wide range of films signed by lapses in realism, a spectacle excess, primal displays and infantile emotions (Linda 703). Implications that hold for our understanding of this representation and of the category of the monstrous

The question of where the idea of monsters came from remains a mystery yet to be solved by most scientists and naturalists. Many came up with their own ideas, drawings sketches trying as much as possible to draw the image of these unknown and mysterious creatures.

The central character in this film that is the Pan Labyrinth, wish to impose fears to the audience and bring a lot of uncertain moments in the film of how the end will be. Fears have to be combined since it has different causes on the psychical, sexual, economic and ideological notions of the viewer. It is also advised that religious fears may be of an aIDed advantage too leading to the provoking of the viewers minds (Moretti 82).

Like recent films, Pan Labyrinth portrays women in their traditional status as mothers abandoned lovers, wives subjected to harsh moments of loneliness and excessive submission to men. A woman’s character has been traditionally functioned as the embodiments of pain, fear and pleasure. Most of them in these monstrous movies have been subjected to sexual abuse and their bodies subjected as objects of ecstasy and pleasure (Linda 704).

Those which provoke the human spirit more and bring moments of terror or admiration are the monsters and the prodigies. These are seen as creatures contemplated under the sphere of the heavens. No human mind can even predict where they originate from and how they later come to extinction. (George 53). It was not until the eighteenth century that the interest in monsters led to the scientific curiosity.  Most naturalists and scientists came up with colored illustrations and engraved albums of these creatures. Regnault was the first scientist in 1775 to design such engravings and proved that the human race cannot remain distinct to its monsters. These implications displayed man as the most excellent work of art. Man is the only indifferent creature from other creatures in the entire world (Thomas 19).

In 1730, a young scientist Linnaeus Carl had an encounter with a monstrous creature in Hamburg. He strongly believed that it was in Hamburg that these creatures existed so he came to find out more about it and investigate more about its existence and extinction. That it had been killed a long time ago and still remained an unsolved mystery to the people of Hamburg. Though it was inclusive in the compendia history books, Linnaeus believed that it was a creature created by the monks to serve as scaring evidence to the faithful and frighten the wayward flock (Stephen 124).

It was because of these discoveries that led to Linnaeus becoming the famous classifier of plant and animal species. He wanted to find out more about the flora and fauna’s species classes, families, genera since it was the only way possible to trace the origin of the monstrous species and creatures. The monstrous species of the animalie kingdom were reconsidered into the lenses of new life science. He believed that monsters constituted a large percentage of their origin from the animal kingdom not the plant kingdom. For example in northern Europe, the wolf was considered as the archetype of monstrosity during the medieval monster period. Monsters have been in the past brought a sense of realism which tends to inspire fear, wonder and curiosity in all of mankind. The most iconic monsters in the world history today include the Zombies, Werewolves, Vampires, Boogeyman and Mummies. A zombie describes an individual who has been subjected under the Voodoo or Bokor priest powers (James 140). This person soul is usually taken by the Voodoo priest and he is later on cast under a spell so that he becomes a mindless slave who will perform anything as per the commands of his master. Later on, these zombies are turned into non-living monsters that devour on living flesh and cause bites that transform their victims as well. On the other hand, tales have been told throughout generations about people morphing into beasts like the tigers, wolves among others.

The most well known is the werewolf and they are described as people who change their identity by choice or by curse to that of a wolf. Greek philosophers and writers wrote tales of men under cast spell by gods or after change on the full moon, would shed off their skins into that of a weird creature.(Stephen 120) Belief has it that if a werewolf body is not burnt after it has died it would later on come back as a vampire. Most accounts of these wolves have been believed to have originated from Germany and Medieval England.

Vampire history is one of the most epic proportions that have dated on generations to come. They have been described as bloated corpse with protruding canine and molar teeth. Various ways in which vampires were created is when a person has been bitten by one. It only takes a cat to jump over a freshly dug grave to make that person to resurrect from the grave and crave for blood. In order to avoid such cases, people would prefer burying their loved ones upside down with tools to make it impossible for them to rise from the graves. They would later surround the graves with salt or sand to keep off the evil spirits (James 149).

The most effective monsters year round have been the Boogeyman. It is believed that the Boogeyman story begun as an allegory for the devil and later turned into caution tales that parents narrate to their children to make them stay in bed at night(Julia 47).

Most naturalists used the King James Translation Bible and the chapters from the book of revelation to design and draw pictures, scketches of what appeared to be an incarnation symbol of the beast as described in the book of revelation. As history progressed, the monster marvels moved into the third mortality. Monsters were now considered as mere symbols or quaint those were only but a formative of one’s imagination in the minds of people.

Conclusion

Without a doubt, monsters hardly exist they are just but a formative of one imagination as Guillermo puts it. It is only when you imagine then you will be able to self discover the world around you. The sole purpose of introducing modalities of monsters is to provide the audience with a transhistorical way of appreciating diversity in any given historical era. It is also seen as a way of changing people’s attitudes and responses towards a certain modality in any given region. However, many in the modern and medieval ages still believe and believed that monsters still function as portents; therefore memories still linger on up to this generation

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