An Oscar-winning wartime fantasy epic survives a dark and dangerous trip to the streaming underworld

Nine times out of 10, you know exactly what you’re going to get from a Guillermo del Toro movie; there’s a foreboding atmosphere, stunning production design, impeccable practical effects, and an overbearing sense of something dark and dangerous lurking just around every corner, which has arguably never been encapsulated better than it was in Pan’s Labyrinth.

Of course, the filmmaker now has three Academy Award wins to his name after his Best Director and Best Picture gongs for The Shape of Water were joined by his Best Animated Feature trophy by way of Netflix’s Pinocchio, but his World War II-era fantasy still managed to win three Oscars on its own.

In one of the biggest shocks in modern Oscars history, though, Pan’s Labyrinth was beaten to Best Foreign Language Feature by The Lives of Others, but it nonetheless emerged victorious in the Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Makeup categories, all three of which couldn’t have been more deserved.

For a lot of people it stands on its own as the single finest and most definitive entry in del Toro’s entire filmography, and almost two decades on from finding widespread success on the critical, commercial, and awards season front, Pan’s Labyrinth is terrifying an entire new generation of audiences.

Per FlixPatrol, the jaw-dropping descent into the bowels of the titular structure has become one of the most-watched titles on iTunes – and a Top 10 hit in the United Kingdom – reinforcing its credentials an always-watchable all-time great.