The Doctor's Greatest Adventures Week: Destiny of the Daleks

Well hello there and welcome back to Day 2 of The Doctor's Greatest Adventures.   Before we get started I wanted to say Happy Birthday to my mom.   Here's hoping you have some fun this fine, bright day.

 As was mentioned yesterday... or was it the before or after?  Time travel is a bit of mucking about.  Anywho, we last interacted with the Doctor he was dealing with Ice Warriors and I feel the need to shoot on ahead in honor it being my mom's birthday and this tall fellow is her favorite doctor and all.  Let's us journey down the time corridor and end up directly after thwarting the Black Guardian and developing a randomizer (of which I am not certain the Doctor ever switched off) to avoid detection by the Black Guardian but The Doctor (Tom Baker of The Mutations, Doctor Who, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Black-Adder II, The Silver Chair, Cluedo and Medics) and timelady Romana (Lalla Ward of The Prince and the Pauper, The Duchess of Duke Street, Hazell, Doctor Who and Riviera) have landed on the remnants of Skaro after its thousand year war.  This is Destiny of the Daleks.

Hello Swinden!!

The Doctor: Oh, look! Spoilers!









Having escaped the Black Guardian The Doctor and regenerated Romana find themselves on a planet with an unusual amount of radiation.  The Doctor suggests the anti-rad pills be kept at the ready and journeys onward.  After a rockslide holds one of his legs, Romana goes for K-9 as assistance.  A collection of silver haired individuals scoop up the Doctor and reveal that the planet in question is Skaro during some sort of mining operation on the planet.  Explosions reach a conflict between the Daleks and their enemies the Movellans and the Daleks are looking for any possible edge to end the steadfast war they have been in by stealing the remains of Davros.

Jem and the Holograms are tough on intruders!

In Genesis of the Daleks, they turned on their creator and presumably killed him but his life support systems actually left him in a state of suspended animation (that old chestnut)  After being revived and brought up to speed, Davros (Dave Gooderson of Hazell, Doctor Who, Codename -Icarus- , Seaview and A Touch of Frost) concludes that the logical parties have no means of imagination in which to wage war and with the lack of instinctual nature feels they will be stalemated indefinitely.

Caught between two warring parties, the Doctor must continue to play along with their madcap plans of conquest until he, Romana and K-9 are safely away.  Were either of these factions triumph over the other may mean more devastation to the known universe and therefore the Doctor must interfere.

A few bits of interest and trivia about this 4-part episode.  Several of the fans seems to believe that Romana burned through about 5 regeneration cycles to pick the look she wanted.  According the script she was projecting a 3D image similar to the Doctor's old mentor Kam-Po did.  So it is a wardrobe gag on what to wear, oh what to wear.

The book the Doctor is reading is called "The Origins of the Universe" by Oolon Coluphid, a character created by then script writer/editor and later author Douglas Adams of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, this character when on and wrote a series of philosophical best-sellers all depicting God and what we deem bizarre and inexplicable errors or creations.   Read the book and you too will enjoy.

This is also Lalla Ward's first appearance as Romana when previously she portrayed Princess Astra.  13 million viewers saw this on its original release in 1979.  

I say, these quarries are all starting to look alike.

Post Apocalypse Week: Damnation Alley

Howdy wastelanders and welcome back to Day 3 of Post Apocalypse Week. We have been chugging along nicely from the fallouts and viral plagues so how about a nice nuclear holocaust this time around?   Very loosely based on the heroic fantasy writer Roger Zelazny (The Guns of Avalon, The Hand of Oberon, Trumps of Doom, Blood of Amber, Jack of Shadows Isle of the Dead and Damnation Alley) comes a tale of survivors after the final war, World War III via nuclear strike.  Is there anything or anyone left out there to rebuild or is the world that was a thing of the past?   So keep your shotgun handy, watch out for radroaches and fire up your Landmaster.  This is Damnation Alley.

YOOOO JOOOOOOEEE!!

Maj. Eugene Denton: Tanner this is Denton! This whole town is infested with killer spoilers.  I repeat: KILLER SPOILERS!

With TV and Action film director Jack Smight (The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, I'd Rather Be Rich, The Third Day, Rabbit, Run, Midway and Airport 1975) calling the shots, there is little to no drag time from action beats to dialogue.  We don't have that typical story arc that is slowed down by massive amounts of exposition.   1st Lieutenant Jake Tanner (Jan-Michael Vincent of The Survivors, Shadow of the Hawk, Vigilante Force, Hooper, Airwolf, Dirty Games and Buffalo '66) is on ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missle) duty along with Major Sam Denton (George Peppard of Porkchop Hill, Breakfast at Tiffany's, How the West Was Won, The Bravos and The A-Team) who apparently doesn't like the 1st Lieutenant.   They make their tour around the complex meeting up with Airman Keegan (Paul Winfield of The Horror at 37,000 Feet, Conrack, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, The Terminator and The Serpent and the Rainbow) who is working on a piece he has been painting when early warning radar detects incoming missiles causing them to launch a counteroffensive barrage of their own bringing about the end of the world.

Lord have mercy. I'm the token, aren't I?

Two years later...yeah I know I was stunned that wasn't the end of the flick too.  *Ahem*  Two years later, the Earth is off its gravitational axis, plunged into high yield radiation and massive storms are spread across the planet.   Trying to find any sign of life, Denton settles on Albany as it is the only place they are getting a radio feed at all but the quest is dangerous and they have no back up.  Rather than cross the land on foot our boys have some impressive RVs called Landmasters.  a 12 wheeled juggernaut that manages rough terrain and also can navigate in water similar to a Hummer.  In order to get anywhere at all they must cross what Denton calls Damnation Alley.  the remains of Salt Lake City braving rad storms, rodents and insects of unusual size and possibly roaming bands of gun totting raiders.  Any of you Fallout fans thinking this sounds familiar?  The book it was based on and the movie came first so lump it.  

I had just a few thoughts and points about the film now.  Weighing in at 91 minutes this film gives a pretty impressive feel to the post apocalypse via military.  Their superior training, weapons handling and survival skills makes you feel they have a guanine chance of living.
Our killer cockroaches were actually the Madagascar hissing cockroaches and are about three inches long making my skin crawl enough.  However the giant scorpions are clearly super imposed with the film. Damnation Alley was 20th Century Fox's big budgeted science blockbuster back in 1976 when this dinky modest film called Star Wars was in production and you can pretty well guess which made more coin of the realm.

Roger Zelazny, the author of Damnation Alley saw the first script of the film and assumed that was the basis of the flick when in actuality they removed several key elements from the book to give the script some elbow room.  Zelazny shocked at the film was less than thrilled.

Welcome to the end of the world, baby.

Post Apocalypse Week: Things to Come

Howdy all and welcome to the end of the world as you know it.  Day 1 of Post Apocalypse Week and I thought I would start us off right with some H.G. Wells of a different standing.  As many of you are no doubt aware of The Time Machine and War of the Worlds, our gentleman story crafter gave us a short story that should given us pause.  In 1933, Wells published a short story describing social and political forces and all the possibilities they ensue.  The title is The Shape of Things to Come, which many believe this is less a story and more of a discussion for many to delve into. The impact it had on the world screamed for it to be put upon the big screen so director William Cameron Menzies (The Iron Mask, Alibi, Puttin' on the Ritz, Our Town, The Devil and Miss Jones, Duel in the Sun and Invaders from Mars) took the reins of this wild horse and did his level best.  This is Things to Come.

Alright, one more present and then the war simply must start.

Roxana: I don't suppose any man has ever understood any woman since the beginning of things, You don't understand our spoilers.





Hailing from Denham Studios our movie opens with the impeding threat of global war during of all times, Christmas Day a successful businessman John Cabal (Raymond Massey of The Speckled Band, The Prisoner of Zenda, Arsneic and Old Lace, East of Eden, Seven Angry Men and Dr. Kildare) queries to himself and his guests of what is to become of their city "Everytown" if and when this war reaches them.  His naive friend Passworthy (Edward Chapman of Murder, The October Man, The Spider and the Fly, His Excellency and X: The Unknown) assures him with technological marvels excelling as they do, the social conscious will rise with it.

A dissolve later we see Cabal in a biplane shooting down an enemy bomber, land and pull that bomber from the wreckage.  They both reflect on the madness that is war while conversing through gas masks when they see a little girl running around the dilapidated streets telling them they are done for anyway as it was so matter of fact.    Cabal takes the girl to safety in his plane as he wonders what is to become of Man's civilization.
Decades past as the war continues to wage on that even the survivors have no idea why they are fighting and who is the enemy anymore. The world ends up in a new Dark Age.  With cities and towns in ruins and little to no technology to be found aside from a scant amount of firearms to continue the killing.

That was me. Sorry little girl.

By 1966, a plague is introduced by some unknown enemy using the last remnants of aircraft to spread this gas about.  Dr. Harding (Maurice Braddell of Master and Man, Men of Tomorrow, Flesh and Women in Revolt) struggles desperately to find a cure to save what is left of humanity in order to rebuild and start over but with little equipement to harness a vacine is found dead.

By 1970, a despotic ruler calling himself the Boss (Ralph Richardson of The Avengers, Richard III, The 300 Spartans, Rollerball, Watership Down and Time Bandits) reigns over most of Southern England and has ceased the plague by shooting those infected.   This tyrant was a little man that came to power simply by being in the right place and time as so many conquerors.

This film brings about some of our worst fears to light.  The Luddites against progress to those that are enslaved to technology.  From warring nations to the Big Brother mentality that is sweeping the planet.  It portrays the best and worst of humanity in every conceivable way and frankly was an audacious piece of work for its time and holds true to our time.

But the Morlocks come out at night good sir!

Post Apocalypse Week

It's in our literature of books, comics and magazines. Our anime, movies and TV series.  This particular theme has scored from Science Fiction, Horror, Action to Drama Television.  Ranging as far back as Mary Shelly's Last Man in 1826, this genre normally establishes a virulent disease, a nuclear war or zombies roaming the Earth and those of us that remain are left to pick up the pieces and fight for our very lives.  Why is this concept so appealing is probably to that morbid wonder if you or I could survive without a government environment.  To live in a land where might makes right or whether or not we as a people could rise from the ashes of the old and start anew.   What sort of person would you become? What morals and convictions will you sacrifice to live another day?

H.G. Wells Time Machine and War of the Worlds is another example of this given the Science Fiction angle that humanity would be self-destructive in bloodier wars or an alien invasion that would bring civilization to a grinding halt.

No, we are not here to sing show tunes!

My era of this fascination hails to The Day After.  A made for TV movie giving the effect that NATO has failed, all treaties are out the window and all our SAC (Strategic Air Command) are on high alert.
Mad Max to my opinion gives the darker effect of the world attempting to make sense again and failing miserably at that.

This week we see different depictions of the end of the world, sharpen our blades and clean our guns for the dark days ahead... in fiction.

PC Games of 1997: Fallout

Hiyas spawn campers and welcome to Day 1 of PC games of 1997. I thought I would pick my personal favorite of this time era. An RPG of post-apocalyptic proportions of war torn United States with no Government to speak of and justice is dispensed from the barrel of a gun or the edge of a knife.   So grab your stimpacks, get that Action Boy extra and improve your Small Arms skill.  This is Fallout.

I'd fight the law but the law wins.

Mayor Killian Darkwater: Sure bet. May not be as big as in the Spoiler but most people find what they are looking for.

First off this game is approximately 16 years old at this time what with being produced in 1997 by Black Isle Studios.  A post-apocalyptic role playing game that is turn based similar to a table top RPG by Steve Jackson Games called GURPS. 

The world as we know it was destroyed due to atomic fallout during the year 2077.  Most technology is derived by this timeline hails from the conception of the 1950’s.  You will also find that most of the science-fiction tech from movies, pulp comics and magazines are an influence as well.

Just let him go walkies before the gunfight.

Your character is a vault dweller.  This means you have spent the better portion of your life underground in a fallout shelter that was contracted by the government.  Your task is to replace a water chip to replenish your water recycling and main plumbing or everyone you know will die of thirst.   So you will trek out into the unknown and encounter inhabitants of this wasteland that was once the world.   You are the vault’s last hope.   You and you alone will decide the fate of dozens of lives depending on you.

 As you progress throughout the game your skills will increase as you level up.  The lands have mutated into vast deserts and remains of once proud cities. You will see items, landmarks and vehicles that you will recall from your data tapes.  Your PIP boy 2000 is a device that will map your locations, describe artifacts that you pick up or examine and keep track of each task or furthering plot to each new town you happen to.

 The mass radiation has caused simple creatures of the past to grow in size and making it more deadly than before the Great War.  Rats and scorpions as your history stated are now twice if not ten times the size of their predecessors.

Bartering and conversation will be a must in order to collect more data about the world around you.  Townsfolk are leery of strangers but in general of good spirits to newcomers.  It boils down to proving if you are the sort that can be trusted.  Because the citizens of each town are comprised of farmers, cattle ranchers and laborers so you will seem out of place so they will be naturally confused and cautious.  

Main characters in each town will be voiced by many esteem actors.  The likes of Richard Dean Anderson, Clancy Brown, Ron Perlman, Tony Shalhoub and CCH Pounder.  Again, it is vital that you talk to as many people as are willing to talk to you.   Random encounters will raise an eyebrow or two depending on each thing, man, woman or monster so keep your wits about you and your weapon of choice handy.  To survive in this world means to take a life to keep yours.

The Farmer's Market really has changed.

Babylon 5 Movie Week: Babylon 5: In the Beginning

Welcome back my blooming observers of the Omniverse.    It was hinted that the Minbari were a peaceful race but proud and willfull as well.  The year is 2245 and EarthForce has just managed to fend off their first threat; a species known as the Dilgar and EarthForce handed them their heads. So prime the main guns, set the twin particle arrays to stun and keep the commerce going.  This is Babylon 5: In the Beginning.

Mardi Gras got out of hand.

Delenn:  It is said that in every age, there is one singular spoiler that forever changes the world around us. A nexus if you will.

Our movie opens with the remains of Centauri Prime up in flames and tattered buildings, a young Centauri boy and girl play in the royal throne room. An aged Londo Mollari (Peter Jurasik of Hill Street Blues, Problem Child, Dear John, Babylon 5: The Gathering, Babylon 5, Sliders and 42) lets the boy be Emperor of all the Centauri Republic for 5 minutes, during this time the lad can give any order he wants.  The lad demands a story of epic battles between heroes and villains.  The young girl asks for a true story.  Mollari sighs with a heavy burden but decides to give the children both what they want and speaks of the Earth-Minbari war which occurred 35 years priop when he was still the ambassador to Earth.

 Before the war, Earthgov is cocky as hell due to their triumph over the Dilgar and they are expanding out into space, creating colonies and pushing their ships and cruisers in the reaches of space. 

You will bow before me Jor-El!!!

Meanwhile the Grey Council of the Minbari are ever vigilant to the resurrection of the Shadows and chose to investigate Z’ha’dum (the planet of the Shadows’ origin) when they encounter the Earth ships.  As a sign of respect, the Minbari open their ship’s gunports and the Prometheus (Earthgov ship) assuming this is the beginning of an attack and fires at the Minbaris’ flag ship.  With their leader Dukhat dead, The Grey Council consists of three casts or clans if you will.  The warrior cast, workers cast and religious cast are comprised bringing order to their people and speak for each cast in the wider picture of things.  The Grey Council screams for blood demanding a holy war against all of humanity. A war lasting over ten years writing the battles in space with gallons of blood; the Minbari are a deeply spiritual people discover that their fellow souls are being shared with the Earthlings.  Minbari must never kill Minbari creating an immediate cease fire. 

I just have a quick couple of concerns about this film in the grand scope of the series.   Even if you are not a Babylon 5 fan, this is a compelling story of battle, potential dark days and overtly prideful peoples.  G’Kar (Andreas Katsulas of True Identity, Blame It on the Bellboy, Babylon 5: The Gathering, The Fugitive and Star Trek: The Next Generation) and Dr. Franklin (Richard Biggs of Walk Like a Man, Days of Our Lives, Babylon 5: The River of Souls and Crusade) seemed relegated to cameo appearances and that just don’t fly with the fans, man and while a few scenes establish the pasts of most of our characters, Garibaldi is nowhere at the station or in the war.  A mild annoyance at best this film does cover almost every facet of the war. There is triumph, good humor, mass explosions and more than a fair share of tragedy.

Annual chili cookout ends in tears.

Western Week: Invitation to a Gunfighter

Hey Y’all!  Welcome back for Day 4 of the Western Week. Well we have tackled revenge, bank heists, train heists and even some good old fashioned land grabbing… so why not some more of that?   So tighten up your spurs and make that jingle jangle jingle.   This is Invitation to a Gunfighter.

Scruffy fella, ain't he?

Spoiler’s deceitful and downright no good!!

Our story following disgraced Southern man, Matt Weaver (George Segal of Ship of Fools, King Rat, Death of a Salesman, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Southern Star, Fun with Dick and Jane, Murphy’s Law and Just Shoot Me) who had the audacity to sign for the Union cause that after the war he returns home on foot to find his house has been ceased, bought and sold and his fiancée has married another man.  After a heated argument with John Medford, the now new owner of his home he finds out that town official Sam Brewster (Pat Hingle from Hang ‘Em High, Bloody Mama, If Tomorrow Comes, Gunsmoke, The Super Cops, Elvis, Batman and the The Quick and the Dead) stole his family land and home, grabs his shooting iron and proceeds to raise holy hell at Brewster’s.   Gets winged by the man that stole his girl and slapped in the pokey and the sawbones of the town fixes his arm and heck even the sheriff cuts him some slack and tells him to just leave town.  Off camera Weaver drops John Medford and the town is in uproar.  

I tells ya the Batman ain't to be trusted!!

But enough of all that saddening history and worldly nonsense, let’s talk about Yul Brynner’s character. Jules Gaspard d’Estaing(Yul Brynner of The King and I, The Ten Commandments, The Magnificent Seven, Westworld, The Ultimate Warrior and Death Rage), a well-mannered, cultured dandy that also happens to be have the reflexes of a rattler and willingness to blow a man’s head off.  The town’s “savior” gunfighter bails after seeing d’Estaing, jumps on the very coach he came it to town and hightails it.  Hope they didn’t agree on half up front. 

Ruth now Ruth Adams (Janice Rule of Starlift, Gun for a Coward, Bell Book and Candle, The Subterraneans and The Chase) conflicted on her former feelings of Weaver but her convictions to her husband Crane Adams (Clifford David of The Last Mile, Hamlet, The Party’s Over, A Woman Called Moses, Blind Ambition and Ebony, Ivory and Jade), a one armed man that is a drunk and apparently lousy shot makes for a difficult path for Ruth.  

Brewster is typically the wrong man in at the right time.  A coward and a rabble rouser that keeps his town in check by pointing out the horrors of the Civil War and how they must remain united in their upstanding ways.  He calls out for blood and demands the town put cash together for a gunfighter.  God forbid they take pity on another battered soldier even if he was on the other side.  So poor Matt Weaver is truly on his own, scared and armed. 

Face it, this is a cool cat.

I would like to take this time to point out a few things about the film.  One thing I noticed was Sam Brewster’s house is unmistakably the Bates house above the Bates Motel via Psycho. Producer Stanley Kramer (High Noon, Judgment at Nuremberg, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and The Defiant Ones) apparently loves films of a message of racism, sexism and realism if you will.  The fiction is better represented with a touch of reality.  Frankly this has to be the filthiest town on the US soil. Gritty living conditions, battered and beaten men from the war and the war widows, this town wouldn’t know hope if it bit them in the keister.  Love the crane work, low pans and killer dolly track work.   This is a much underrated film and deserves much more credit than it got, the characters are complex and could go any direction.  A forgotten gem of a movie.

No power in the verse can stop me...

Okay readers I am back again with another TV series that went well before its time but nevertheless receive the love from yours truly.  I need you to sit back in your seat, put your tray tables in their up lock position.  This is Firefly.

Gorrahm spoilers in my space…

Show creator Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Dollhouse and The Avengers) embarked on a TV quest to make the encompass of both past and future and prep it for the present folk kick back and enjoy.  Firefly was in essence Wagon Train in Space.  Put on the air in 2002 (Yes 10 years ago…ooOoOoO ancient.) The Earth as we knew it grew full of Homo sapiens and we began colonization into other worlds such as terraforming (creating an environment artificially for oxygen and nitrogen atmosphere for human life) and the more “civilized planets or core worlds as they were called are part of a large conglomerate of civic minded citizens called the Alliance.  The planets that had more of a rustic nature, almost a throwback to Steam Age were simple known as Independents. Hard working people that had no desire of joining a universal government that told them how to live their lives instigated a civil war spanning across the universe and all neighboring planets.    After many years of this conflict the Alliance won and the Independents were crushed. 

 Enter a band of thieves and smugglers sneaking contraband on the down low is the crew of the Serenity, firefly class cargo vessel.  Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan FIllion of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Miss Match, Slither, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along and Castle), First mate Zoe (Gina Torres of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Cleopatra 2525, Angel and Suits), gunfighter Jayne Cobb (Adam Baldwin of Independence Day, Stargate SG-1, Angel, The Inside and Chuck), goofy but amazing pilot Hoban ’Wash’ Washburne (Alan Tudyk of A Knight’s Tale, I, Robot, Ice Age, Young Justice and Tucker and Dale vs Evil) and sweet, innocent mechanic Kaylee (Jewel Staite of Flash Forward, Just Deal, Wonderfalls and Stargate Atlantis). Barely escaping Alliance custody with their ill-gotten gains; the crew is underpaid, tired and ship is running on fumes.  The scams, hustles and usual snow jobs pay better than honest cargo hauling but are just as equally risky.  The crew has no option but to pick up passengers that want to see the galaxy for a reasonable fee.

Upon getting new passengers we see a loosely based member of the crew, companion Inara Serra (Morena Baccarin of Justice League Unlimited, Stargate SG-1, V, Homeland and Old Days) a lady of refinement but also of solicitation.   The good but enigmatic Shepherd Book (Ron Glassof Barney Miller, The New Odd Couple, Rhythm & Blues and Teen Angel) Doctor Simon Tam (Sean Maher of Party of Five, The $treet, The Playboy Club and Make It or Break it) has smuggled his brilliant sister, River Tam (Summer Glau of Angel, The 4400, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Dollhouse, The Cape and Alphas) away from an Alliance secret project so this just increases the stakes.

Whedon and crew referred to Serenity as the 10^th character of the show and in many ways this massive set fits the bill.  Dirty, rusty and falling apart, this old girl has plenty of charisma but looks like a mild popcorn fart would tear it to shreds.  Yet as a vessel this was really a home for lost souls seeking a sense of belonging and peace.    But out on the rim lurks pirates, slavers and the worse of all, reavers.  Men and women had gone cannibalistic.  So keep a hogleg handy, yer wits about you and you’ll make it through the day.  Oh best part of this storyline is the mixture of American and Chinese culture.  Even if you have the IQ of a nerf herder you can speak Mandarin. 

Pan's Labyrinth...wow

Hello all… we are at the climax, the cusp of Guillermo del Toro week and what better film to end on then a tailored fairy tale.  So get comfy in your seats, grab a beverage and imagine.  This is Pan’s Labyrinth.

Spoilers can be magical…

Guillermo del Toro’s creation describes a fascist Spain of the year 1944.  The story is once again told through the eyes of a young child.  Ofelia (Ivan Baquero ofRomasanta: The Werewolf Hunt, The Anarchist’s Wife, The New Daughter and The Red Virgin) and her pregnant mother Carmen (Arianda Gil of The Age of Beauty, Nuts for Love and Soldiers of Salmina) must journey to the North and Carmen is wed to Captain Vidal (Sergi Lopez of An Affair of Love, With a Friend Like Harry and Dirty Pretty Things), a ruthless dictator that delights himself with torturing rebels.   And you thought your step-dad was kooky.   Ofelia, her head in the cloud realms of dreams and myth does not want to take this monster of a man as her new father, her part-time nanny Mercedes (Maribel Verdu ofCanguros, Y Tu Mama Tambien, The Blind Sunflowers and The Red Virgin) tells Ofelia of a magical garden that she may explore to her heart’s content.   Ofelia roams the garden only to discover a massive maze, a labyrinth if you will and encounters Pan (del Toro regular Doug Jones of Hellboy, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, The Wager and Fallout: Nuka Break), a faun guarding the labyrinth.   He identifies Ofelia as the long last Princess Moanna and tells her of three sacred tasks she must perform before the next full moon to reign for all eternity in the Underworld.  With these tasks complete she will escape the holy hell that is her life.

Now while this sounds like your typical Disney movie tripe, let us be clear on our director.  With a man that combines macabre, humor, fantasy and harsh reality for his films, so we are in for a bumpy ride.   Ofelia is operating on her limited logic and emotional plight.  With her country struggling to rebuild and the post-war angst, to her mother suffering from a complicated pregnancy and her tyrant of a stepfather, it is not difficult to see why she would want to escape this madness in this realm, but what of the other?     I was asked recently if this is a family film and I have to be honest, I really do not know.  The film is terrifying in parts of the sheer brutality of humans tormenting one another; to the emotional rollercoaster of the world but any many ways for me I had the same response to the Devil’s Backbone too.   If anything it shows the audience that not all tales of history and fantasy are mad dash excitement and good triumphs over evil every time.  It gives perspective but at the same time it may fall under more enjoyment for the horror fans.  This film offers a dark gothic tale of cruelty in either realm of dream or consciousness so it is really up to the parents to show this one to the kiddies.   The visuals alone will blow you out of your seat.  Del Toro’s patented panoramic cinematography and melodious pacing of storytelling is what truly makes this mystifying and ominous tale the very life it needed.    Be warned Parental Units, this film has a whole lot of bleak.