At the beginning, when Ofelia opens up her fairy tale book, it lights up her face. This is a feature commonly used in films. There is a great contrast between the blue lighting of reality with the yellow lighting of the pale man set (also low key to high key), we also get a reverse tracking shot to see how big the red and gold room is. The red and gold are used throughout the film, commonly to represent the fantasy world compared to the blues and greens of the reality. Del Toro said that red and gold are internal colours, and are used to portray Ofelia’s want to be close to her mother again, or even back inside her. This could be due to loneliness because of the war/Vidal. Throughout the scene, the main focus is on Ofelia, she is in almost every shot. After Ofelia has eaten the food, after being told not to (theme of disobedience), the audience can see the paleman in the background. There is dramatic irony when we know that he is coming before she does. The camera then keeps flicking back and forth between the two, building tension. When Ofelia is trying to escape, the camera goes out of the fantasy world and into reality, causing a clear separation.

The paleman is rigid, stiff and slow. Ofelia could easily overpower him (with the dagger) but doesn’t even consider doing so, which contrasts her to Vidal who murders her at the end of the film for no reason. The paleman links to Vidal because he staggers and is slow like Vidal at the end of the movie after being drugged, and because he also sits at the head of the table. Ofelia picks the left lock. This has a political link as Vidal is commonly linked to the right as he is a fascist. This also shows disobedience as the picture showed her picking the middle lock, throughout the film obedience is related back to fascism and how obeying commands isn’t always good. Ofelia disobeying, is something she has to do in order to complete this task and the last one, contrasting her to Vidal and fascism. (Pan’s Labyrinth and Disobedience)As well as this, Ofelia climbs up to get out of the room, linking that room to hell. You could argue that the pale man is the faun is disguise. The faun moves in a rigid and stiff way like the faun and poses no real threat to Ofelia as he is slow, possibly showing that it was a task on morality made by the faun and that Ofelia was never in danger. Plus, the fairies laugh at him, suggesting that he is the faun as otherwise we would believe they would be afraid. Plus, at the end, all of the fairies are in the golden afterlife with Ofelia and her parents, despite the paleman having killed multiple of them, suggesting that the task wasn’t actually real and instead just testing Ofelia’s morality.

There is lots of red in the paleman’s room suggesting danger, it is also a colour commonly linked to the fantasy world. The food on the table is even read, also suggesting danger. There are horrific images around the room, which possibly foreshadow the final task with the brother, and look like church paintings therefore giving a powerful image and links to the theme of religion. The horrific images show babies and children dying, which is a contextual reference to Goya’s Saturn eating his son. The fallopian tube symbol is shown again, which links to the theme of Ofelia’s loneliness and wanting to be closer to her mother and woman hood, in the book as the paleman’s arms curve round to form the shape. There are also more political and social contextual references, the shoe pile could have a link to the Nazi’s with the concentration camps. As well as the fact that Ofelia picks the left lock, contrasting her with right wing fascism. There’s also another hell reference, there is a fire in the room near the paleman. In terms of props, the dagger makes the audience feel more tense as it’s dangerous. I think there could be link between the fact that the paleman has holes in the centre of his hands, which is were he puts his eyes, which is the same place that one of Vidal’s men (or Vidal?) shots one of the rebels in an elongated moment, especially since the paleman can be linked to Vidal. The idea of seeing for himself and obedience is blurred, showing the cruelness and violence of fascism and Vidal.

There are exaggerated sounds, such as the sound that the dagger makes and the sound that the key makes which adds to the fantasy feel of the scene. We also hear the eye make sound which makes the audience feel gross and possibly a sense of danger. We also hear the close sonic perspective of Ofelia’s heavy breathing again, making us feel close to her and worry for her, especially when the paleman wakes up with his overly loud bang noises. The paleface man has strained and cracking like breathing linking him to animals. Plus, there is drumming which could mimic Ofelia’s heartbeat, adding to the them of mortality and death. We also hear sounds of what we see (as well as the eye) such as the fire, and the non-diegetic noise of the babies screaming when we see the pictures. Once Ofelia has returned to the reality world, there are mechanical noises which emphasises that she has returned and could be because of the mill.

The editing builds tension. There are action reaction shots of the paleman and Ofelia when she is running away from him and parallel action of Ofelia trying to escape and the the timer, making the audience feel tense as we don’t want her to be trapped with a murderous creature. When Ofelia does try and escape, her head and feet are separated, she is in separate worlds, emphasising that the fantasy world isn’t just in her head.