Guillermo del Toro's latest is a strikingly beautiful lesson in how to do fantasy properly.

Set in fascist, war-torn Spain in 1944, any political overtones are wonderfully offset by central character Ofelia (12-year-old Ivana Baquero) and her need to remove herself entirely from the moribund, skewed life that exists around her. Petrified of her new stepfather (the gruesome Franco-ite Captain Vidal played by Sergi López), Ofelia discovers a secret labyrinth underneath her house, inhabited by a faun who tells her she's a princess. To realise her destiny she must complete three arduous tasks, entering into a world of the supernatural to do so. What follows is as horrific and beguiling as it is banal.

Not one for the faint-hearted (or stomached), del Toro conveys the gruesome horror of Spain in the grip of civil war with aplomb, making Ofelia's submersion into her fantasy world all the more justified. Pan's Labyrinth is, aesthetically, mesmerising with nods to Goya and early fantasy writers like Arthur Machen. Exhilarating from the off, there can be little doubt that del Toro has raised the bar in terms of visionary filmmaking with this. (Matt Wilkinson)

Pan's Labyrinth is released on DVD on 12 March.