Films: Pan's Labrynth (2006)
Alias: Faun, the fairies, the toad, the mandrake, the Pale Man
Type: Mystical
Location: Forest/Underground/Civilized Area/Haunted home
Height/Weight: Ranges from that of dragonflies to slightly more than average humans.
Affiliation: Good (Faun, fairies, mandrake), Neutral (toad), Evil (Pale Man)
Summary: Guillermo Del Toro, as you probably know, straddles the line between childlike fantasy and adventure and unfathomable horror. Now you see before you his absolute magnum opus. When people think del Toro, this is what should come to mind.
History: According to legend, the daughter of the king of the Underworld lost her divinity upon entering the human world, and died. Her father knew that one day she would return in spirit, and placed entrances to the kingdom of all things fairy and magic across the world. Cut to young Ophelia moving into a small territory where the vile Captain Vidal is her stepfather. As he butchers Spanish republican rebels and acts like a monster, Ophelia finds solace in interacting with the fairies and Faun, a being who claims that she is the princess reincarnated, and must complete three tasks in order to prove herself. These include getting a stone from a toad, getting a dagger from the home of the horrific cannibal known as the Pale Man, and...well, that part is important.
Notable Kills: Seeing the Pale Man bite the head off a fairy is awful, to say the least.
Final Fate: The toad is turned inside out after horking up the stone, and the Pale Man is avoided, and the mandrake is burnt in the fireplace after being exposed by Vidal. The last task is for Ophelia to draw blood from her new baby brother. She refuses, and is shot by Vidal (don't worry, he gets killed later). However, it turns out that she passed by not drawing mortal blood, and Faun welcomes her to live with her new divine heritage in the Kingdom of the Underworld. From that moment on, the princess left traces of her new home in our world, and we just have to know where to look...
Powers/Abilities: With enough blood, a mandrake can restore the health of whatever is above it. Also, it's heavily implied that Faun disappear and shapeshift.
Weakness: Anything conventional.
Scariness Factor: 4-It's a tricky thing, categorizing this. On one hand, every aspect of the magical realm is creepy in their own way. But the fairies and Faun are all undeniably benevolent despite everything. But then you have folks like the Pale Man, a horribly emancipated glutton with his eyes on the palm of each hand. He's easily the scariest monster del Toro has ever conceived. And the worst part, he's implied to have eaten children in the past, and exclusively them! Oh, and the best part? Del Toro based him off the then-very fascist Catholic church due to their hand in the mass genocide at the time.
Trivia: -Faun (and the Pale Man) was played by Doug Jones, but he had to be dubbed over due to his Spanish being a bit rusty.
-This film was a culmination of both a sketchbook del Toro had been carrying for two decades and the constant dreams he had in his youth about seeing a faun approach him. Also, the Faun here is not named Pan. Stop asking.
