The Pale Man from Pan’s Labyrinth and the Fish Man from The Shape of Water, both played by Doug Jones.Ĭreatures like these are often used to inject subtext and deeper meaning into film.
The Pale Man in Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) represents excessive greed, as Del Toro once candidly pointed out, while the fish-man from last year’s The Shape of Water (2017) is subjected to the same abuse endured by minorities in American society. Filmmakers like Guillermo Del Toro have made an entire career out of this idea, using the creatures in his fable-esque films for social commentary. Fantasy and horror films have been an ideal conduit for filmmakers to explore ideals and fears. The Greek tragedy of Icarus and Daedalus warn of the dangers of reckless ambition, as Icarus ultimately falls to his death for “flying too close to the sun.” Stories have the great power of communicating a larger point by framing them within a fantastical narrative, as the shroud of fantasy constructs the broad concepts into a more palatable form.
The G rimm fairy tales spin stories of fantasy, like that of Little Red Riding Hood and the ravenous Wolf, which is a larger lesson about being wary of strangers. Artistic entertainment has always been used to teach us lessons about the world and ourselves.
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