"Pan's Labyrinth" (ye be warned!)

Please be under no misaprehensions about this movie: it is not a magical almost-child-oriented Alice in Wonderland type film. It is far more accurately described as a fantasy/war/horror. The fantasy moments are absolutely stunning and the makeup is incredible (the Faun and the Pale Man were done entirely with make-up and costume, with Doug Jones' legs dressed in green to be edited out for both characters which just made them all the more real looking), and the scenery is stunning. The story takes place in Spain after WW2 during Franco's reign. A little girl, Ofelia, is taken to an old Spanish mill that's been converted to a military outpost. Her mother is pregnant with the Captain's child. There are major complications in the pregnancy and she becomes bedridden. The Captain is quite clearly the villain, clear from the very first mention of him. Ofelia is visited by a faerie which she follows to the labyrinth of the Faun. A legend of a missing Princess is explained and Ofelia starts trying to fulfill three tasks. I don't want to give too much away, but that's the jist of it. Much of the story revolves around the Captain trying to kill the rebels living in the woods outside of the Mill. There are scenes of violent torture that I can only describe as "no holds barred"...the camera focused directly on a close up of a man bashing another man's face in. There is a scene of a man being stabbed in the mouth that is, again, shot in a close-up. For good portions of the violence I closed my eyes (which made it very very difficult to read the subtitles as the movie is in Spanish). I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who would laugh at me calling the movie violent, and maybe it's not as bad as a lot of the movies out there, but I felt it was the in-your-face-realism of it that made it extreme. Many parts of the movie were disturbing (especially the Pale Man, who even creeped out Brad), and overall it was filled with relentless hardship. I think, though, that it was an excellent movie. I like it far better this morning than I did last night while I was watching it. Does that make any sense at all? And I'm pleased to report I did not have any nightmares as a result (though I was expecting them).