The Pan's Labyrinth Scene That Aged Poorly

Released in 2006, Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth" has been fascinating fans of fantasy films for many years. Contrasting the depravations and cruelties of Francoist Spain with a coming-of-age tale in which a little girl named Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) must prove herself worthy of becoming an heiress to a hidden fantasy kingdom, it is as heartbreaking as it is beautiful. Of course, this is a movie about rebelling against a brutal fascist regime, so it's bound to contain a few moments that aren't family friendly, but some of the violence depicted in "Pan's Labyrinth" really is shocking.

There is one scene in particular that hasn't aged well at all — it has actually made people watching "Pan's Labyrinth" for the first time years later abandon the movie. We're talking about the moment Ofelia's stepfather Vidal (Sergi Lopez) smashes a young farmer's face in with a bottle, which is shown in unflinchingly graphic detail. Vidal is a Policía Armada officer tasked with finding and eliminating anti-fascist rebels, something he seems to derive pleasure from — there's really no need for him to be so violent, seeing as he shoots the man after attacking him with the bottle.

Many people have taken to Reddit to discuss just how shocking the bottle scene in "Pan's Labyrinth" is, especially when you go into the film expecting it to be a fantasy. "That scene, I thought the movie was a nice Disney flick until then. I was quite shocked," said u/PTCrusin. Others have noted that they stopped watching in disgust. "When that scene played, I slammed the laptop shut and walked away," admitted u/Bratannn, while u/Irishane wrote: "Myself and the girlfriend curled up one night and watched Pan's Labyrinth a few years ago. Everything was going well until that scene. It was game-over for her. I watched the rest on my own."

The violence in "Pan's Labyrinth" may seem over the top to some viewers, but there's a reason for it. Guillermo del Toro set out to make a movie that took a no-holds-barred look at the horrors that occurred when Francisco Franco took charge of Spain after the Spanish Civil War. With help from Hitler and Mussolini, Franco was able to overthrow the democratically elected government of Spain and place himself at the head of a fascist regime. He ruled for 36 years during a period that became known as the White Terror, in which as many as 200,000 people were killed. It was a time of brutality, and the Mexican filmmaker wanted audiences to feel the terror that those rebelling against fascism went through.

During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, del Toro said that the only scene he considers to be "over the top" in terms of violence is the one in which Vidal sews his cheek back together after having it slashed by a member of his household staff. "The rest of the violence I wanted to make unpleasant but photorealistic, very down to earth," he said. "Brutal, but almost documentary." According to the director, he got the idea for the bottle scene from an actual fight he witnessed when he was young. "I saw a guy hitting another guy with a bottle and one of the things that impressed me the most is the bottle never broke," he told Female. "Unlike in the movies this bottle just kept going and going and going and then I put that in the movie."

The fact that so much of "Pan's Labyrinth" is based on real-life violence explains why it's so jarring in a film that also features fairies and fawns. It's a fantasy movie that even people who hate fantasy will enjoy, a hard-hitting film that lives long in the memory. Interestingly, Ofelia's arc in "Pan's Labyrinth" would later inspire del Toro's vision for "Pinocchio."