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When Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth came out in 2006, the goth kid world as we knew it completely changed. For two decades, weird kids the globe over have been connecting with the story of Ofelia and the Faun, have fallen in love with its moody fairy tale vibes and its memorable creature designs. However, there was one weirdo who wasn't enjoying it for much of that time:

Guillermo del Toro himself. 

The Frankenstein director revealed as much during a Reddit AMA that took place September 9. Part of the reason del Toro was there, we presume, was to help promote the Pan's Labyrinth 20th anniversary rerelease, coming just one month after the AMA went down. Ironically, though, a question posed by fan u/NarrowBill3292 sparked del Toro recounting that, in the years after the film originally debuted, he stayed away from viewing it.

"The fact is," The Shape of Water director wrote, "For many years, I could not watch the movie objectively, because shooting it was very difficult. Harrowing, even. It was really, really hard, and I could only remember that. But when I did the retransfer, the 4K, I recolored the movie, and I started to enjoy it. I started to enjoy it finally."

We looked it up so you didn't have to - the 4K restoration of del Toro's groudbreaking dark fantasy film came out in 2019, which is a whopping 13 years after the original film debuted in 2006. That's a long time to go without seeing your own work, especially if it's a film that so many creatives say changed the way they look at art. In any case, we're just happy that del Toro is into the film enough now to give us the rerelease it so richly deserves. 

Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth returns to theaters for its 20th anniversary October 9.

In the immortal words of Danny Elfman, "Life's no fun without a good scare." Join Popverse's freaky forays into frightful filmology with:

• The best horror movies of all time, according to horror aficionado Greg Silber
• The most underrated horror movies from the past couple years
• All the new and upcoming horror movies for 2025 and beyond

And much gore. Er, more. Much more.