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Ofelia
Ofelia / Princess Moanna
Played By: Ivana Baquero
A little girl who knows a little magic — enough to, say, restore a statue's lost eye to it, and to recognize a fairy no matter what it looks like. Ofelia adores fairy tales and making up stories, even though her mother tells her she's too old for them. But when the Call to Adventure comes — in the form of a mysterious Faun who tells Ofelia that she is the reborn Princess Moanna, of the underworld — Ofelia will do anything to fulfill her Quest.
- Action Girl: In the process of the movie she survives nearly getting eaten by a child-eating monster and escape with her baby half-brother from a household full of fascist stormtroopers with orders to kill her.
- Big Sister Instinct: Once her baby half-brother is born, she'd die for him. Literally.
- Break the Cutie: The whole movie is this. Her mother marries a sociopathic asshole, she's sent on a couple life-threatening quests by a scary faun, her mother dies... and then she's shot! How fun!
- Color Motif: Is constantly wearing green, to symbolize her connection with nature and life.
- Denied Food as Punishment: Setting up her ordeal with the Pale Man.
- Despair Event Horizon: After her mother's death.
- Died Happily Ever After: She gets to rejoin her father and mother at the fairy underworld.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: After getting shot by Vidal, she dies in Mercedes' arms.
- Doomed New Clothes: Her new dress of course.
- Kill the Cutie: Ends up getting shot by Vidal, but her spirit goes to the fairy underworld.
- Meaningful Name: In fiction, girls named Ofelia are commonly associated with mental illness or dying tragically.
- Pimped-Out Dress: Receives two — a beautiful dark green velvet her mother makes her, and a red and gold one when she dies and returns to the Underworld.
- Plucky Girl: She's determined and resourceful, no matter what she's up against.
- Reincarnate in Another World: According to the fairy tale, the princess originally died and reincarnated as a human on Earth. In the end, she dies again but reappears in the underworld.
- Too Good for This Sinful Earth: The underworld, on the other hand is just right for her.
- Troll: She smiles to herself when Carmen tells her that her behavior has aggravated Vidal.
- What the Hell, Hero?: From the Faun after causing the death of two of the fairies in the box.
The Human World
Captain Vidal
Captain Vidal
Played By: Sergi Lopez
Ofelia's new stepfather, a loyal Francoist enforcer, and a captain in the Armed Police.
- Abusive Parents: He's nothing but cruel to Ofelia, and, while he is extremely attentive towards his son, it's only because he's projecting his own daddy issues onto his child. He also shoots Ofelia.
- Ax-Crazy: Brutally murders two hunters under the merest suspicion of them being rebels.
- Allegorical Character: He is fascism personified, in his obsession with complete control of every aspect of his life, in securing a son only to carry on his name, and dying a glorious death.
- Asshole Victim: After all the evil things he has done, Vidal getting shot in the face at the end is a fate well-deserved.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: A villainous example, but he's quite observant, such as when he deduces that Ferreiro is a rebel collaborator by him having an identical bottle of antibiotics as the one recovered from the rebel campsite.
- Bad Boss: Downplayed. Vidal regards his underlings with professionalism even if he's frequently annoyed at their failure. However he has a few notable moments.
- When interrogating the hunters, he has his men restrain them. When his patience tires and he shoots the elder, he doesn't even bother warning the policeman holding him to move. If the policeman hadn't noticed on his own, he would have been killed with the hunter.
- When returning to find the compound under attack, Garcés hurries to inform him of the situation, and Vidal just shoves him out of the way mid-sentence.
- Big Bad: He is the leader of the Policia Armada in the area, an abusive parent to Ofelia and a cold sadist with no remorse.
- Blood Knight: Exemplified when he states to his underlings that the best way to die is in battle.
- Child Supplants Parent: A downplayed example. Just before his death in battle, Vidal's father smashed his pocket watch and had it delivered to his son so he would know the exact minute he died in (and by extension, how he died). Instead of honoring him, Vidal denies that his father ever had a watch, and fixes it in secret with the intention of repeating, and appropriating the stunt before his own son's eyes. However this ends in abject failure because none of his men survive to take the watch, and the rebels tell him that his son won't even know his name.
- Classic Villain: Pride and rage.
- Clock King: Downplayed, Vidal (who does have a clock motif) makes many plans, manipulating the rebels to come to him while reinforcing the countries power as well as estimating where the rebels will go and whether or not his house staff are trustworthy.
- Clocks of Control: A fascist villain who is obsessed with his watch. According to the director's commentary, his room is supposed to look like the inside of a watch.
- Control Freak: Over the course of the film, and notable rewatches, you will start to notice that when Vidal's plans go awry, he loses his shit. The more his planning is undone, the more unstable he becomes.
- The Determinator: Exemplified when he chases down Ofelia despite the pain of his facial wound and being drugged.
- Disappeared Dad: His father was killed in Morocco when Vidal was only a boy, which made him obsessed with having a son of his own. He in turn becomes one to his newborn son as Mercedes promises the baby will never know anything about him.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He is left utterly bewildered when Dr. Ferreiro chooses to Mercy Kill a captured rebel to spare him more Cold-Blooded Torture at Vidal's hands, despite knowing that Vidal would undoubtedly kill him for doing so.
- It's also why he's unable to see the Faun at the end.
- He's taken completely by surprise and left speechless again when the same rebels he has brutalized for the entire movie just refuse to honor his last request.
- Face Death with Dignity: Intends to go that way, but ends up subverted: upon being confronted by the rebels after killing Ofelia and knowing that he will be shot down, Vidal hands over his son to Mercedes, telling her to at least tell about the time of his death to his son so that the latter can continue on his legacy. However, Mercedes refuses by saying that the boy will never even know his father's name and Vidal visibly loses his composure right before Pedro shoots him in the cheek.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Parent: More so than Carmen, he violently dismisses Ofelia's fairy tales as "mierda" (lit. shit.).
- Faux Affably Evil: Best seen with the hunters and the stuttering rebel, Vidal retains his polite and calm demeanor, even as he's breaking bones or murdering people. With the Captive, he gives him a Hope Spot and even states he'll let him go, knowing full well that the man will fail his test. His voice barely rises as he's describing some torture techniques.
- Freudian Excuse: See Disappeared Dad above, since his own father's death shook him up badly. But it doesn't excuse his depravity at all.
- Graceful Loser: Upon realising that he has been defeated at the end, he calmly hands over his son to the rebels before allowing them to shoot him.
- Hate Sink: He is far scarier and eviler than any of the monsters in the Labyrinth. He first shows his nastiness when two poachers, a father and son, are brought to him in the dead of night, his men suspecting them of being rebels against the regime. He beats the younger man's face in with a bottle simply for defending his father against Vidal's accusations before shooting them both with a vague air of boredom and pleasure. When the men are proven not to be rebels, Vidal is regretful, but only because it means his men wasted his time and weren't careful enough. Vidal is married to the young heroine's mother solely so she'll bear him an heir, and shows no concern over the possible death of his wife in childbirth. When the doctor attending her gives the aforementioned stuttering torture victim a mercy kill, Vidal coldly guns him down. At the film's end, Vidal's stepdaughter Ofelia tries to rescue her baby brother, but Vidal catches her and promptly shoots her fatally.
- Heir Club for Men: He only wants a son to carry on his family legacy — not for something as ridiculous as having a boy to love.
- He-Man Woman Hater: Vidal is a chauvinist that underestimates women at best — Mercedes — or views them as little more than means to have an heir at worst — Carmen.
- Hero Killer: He slaughters a bunch of rebels, among these an older Jaime, tortures the stuttering kid horribly and murders Dr. Ferreiro. Oh, and he kills Ofelia at the end.
- It's All About Me: Vidal is more concerned about preserving his legacy than actually caring for his child. Even in his last moments, his main concern is that the child know about his exploits.Vidal: Above me, there's no one.
- Jerkass: Downplayed. He is in no way a nice person, but he tends to fall under Faux Affably Evil and acts more dissonantly cruel rather than openly obnoxious. However, there are times where he's just rude such as when he dismisses Carmen's story about how they met as a fairy tale, or when he shoves a bleeding Garcés out of the way when the man was only trying to do his job.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: If it looked like there's any shred of decency in him, it's really more about fulfilling his selfish desires.
- Karmic Death: He gets shot in the cheek by Pedro at the end. And considering he shot Ofelia in cold-blood, his fate is poetic justice at its finest.
- Kick the Dog: Vidal treats this as his daily routine.
- Killer Cop: He is a member of the Spanish Armed Police with a murderous streak.
- Knight Templar: While his mindless cruelty with the hunters can make him seem more like a Psycho for Hire, underneath that beats the heart of a proud fascist. As he states at the dinner with his superiors; he's happy to be stationed at the mill, and he wants fascism to win and destroy the "evils" of freedom and equality. He wants his son to grow up in a "new clean Spain" and he'll kill and torture all who defy the Francoist regime to see that happen.
- Legacy Seeker: Vidal's father died when he was a baby, but he clearly reveres the legacy he left in the form of his pocket watch — left so that Vidal would know "how a brave man died" — and wants to leave a legacy of his own: a son that will revere his memory and the new, "clean" Spain that he will inherit. His obsession is so great that he instructs the doctor to let Carmen die if it's a choice between her and the baby.
- Obliviously Evil: He thinks he's creating a "new, clean Spain" and that he will be remembered as a great soldier. In the director's commentary, del Toro states that Vidal is a sociopath, but legitimately believes that he is acting for the good of the community.
- Offing the Offspring: After Ofelia takes her half-brother away from him, Vidal eventually tracks down Ofelia, takes her half-brother back and shoots Ofelia.
- Parental Favouritism: He loves his son dearly but thinks nothing of Ofelia except as an unwanted requirement to marrying her mother and getting his son, and thinks nothing about killing the girl later on.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: He sees Carmen as little more than means to getting his child. After killing the doctor and Carmen's health deteriorating, he orders The Medic to make sure the child is born over the life of his wife.
- Pragmatic Villainy: He was annoyed that he killed two innocent hunters he's mistaken for rebels. Only because his men didn't check on them thoroughly, thus wasting his time, and killing innocent civilians would probably incite the townspeople to support the rebels.
- Rage Against the Reflection: In once scene, as he's shaving himself, he raises his razor to his mirror and slits across his reflection's throat. It says quite a lot about what a horrifying man Vidal is that this moment, when his daddy issues and misanthropy spills over into outright suicidal ideation, is one of the only humanizing moments he gets in the entire movie.
- Sadist: He clearly enjoys inflicting pain on others. Beating a young man's face in with a bottle in front of his father, before shooting them both dead, had no point other than the cruelty of it.
- The Sociopath: A psychopathic officer willing to torture and kill as many partisans as he has to to make sure fascists take power in Spain. He cares for nothing but his own power and legacy, not even blinking when he shoots his adopted daughter to keep his biological son under his thumb. The actor portraying him even described Vidal as an evil monster who is impossible to defend.
- Spoiled Brat: One of the maids calls him one in the novelization after he came down to the kitchen to complain about his coffee being burned.
- Supernatural-Proof Father: Is unable to see the Faun.
- Torture Technician: Does it in the town's barn.
- Troubled Abuser: Haunted by his father's death and his obsession with having a child of his own.
- Unperson: Mercedes won't tell Vidal's son of his true origins or his father's name.
- Villainous Valor: One of the other redeeming factors about him is that he's undeniably brave, as he leads his troops from the front against the rebels and faces the music with almost inhuman detachment.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: His father was a war hero, and is well-loved even after his death, and Vidal feels he could never live up to him. It's also inverted as he actually wants to become more admired than his father.
- Wicked Stepfather: To put it very, very mildly. He's cruel, uncaring, and violent. Taken to the extreme when he actually shoots Ofelia.
- Would Hurt a Child: Would kill one, actually.
Carmen
Carmen
Played By: Ariadna Gil
Ofelia's mother and Vidal's new wife.
- Alliterative Name: The novelization gives her last name as Cardoso.
- Broken Bird: The poor woman is quite depressed with her circumstances what with a dead husband, a Jerkass new husband, and a difficult pregnancy. Any time she tries to find joy it gets ruined or shot down. When she's yelling to Ofelia that magic isn't real, she sounds like she's at the end of her rope.
- Death by Childbirth: Because she burns down the mandrake root that was healing her, and The Medic that attends her has orders to save the baby over Carmen.
- Extreme Doormat: Her pregnancy and her need to support Ofelia makes her quite submissive to Vidal.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Parent: Though she's way more nice about it than Vidal. At least, until right before her death.
- Hoist by Her Own Petard: Played for Drama. When discovering the enchanted mandrake Ofelia put under her bed to aid her pregnancy, Carmen throws it into the fireplace and desperately yells at Ofelia that magic isn't real. Unfortunately, burning the mandrake results in her pregnancy complications returning, and she goes into labor which ends in her death.
Mercedes
Mercedes
Played By: Maribel Verdú
Vidal's housekeeper.
- Action Girl: Unlike Carmen.
- Badass Boast: To Vidal when she has the upper hand on him.Mercedes: I'm not some old man! Or a wounded prisoner! Motherfucker... Don't you dare touch the girl. You won't be the first pig I've gutted!
- Better to Die than Be Killed: Mercedes preferred to take her own life than give her pursuers the satisfaction of killing her, and she's holding her knife to her throat, just before she is rescued by the rebels.
- Broken Bird: Implied. Take notice of the look in her eyes.
- Chastity Dagger: Mercedes carries such a knife. It's the same knife she uses in the kitchen, and she's shown multiple times folding it back into her dress after she's done chopping vegetables. Her knife is not only used against Vidal, as is traditional, but also to cut through ropes binding her wrists.
- Final Girl: With almost everyone dead, including Ofelia, she is left as this.
- The Glomp: She and her brother share some Big Damn Hugs.
- Mama Bear: Although Ofelia isn't her child, Mercedes protects her as if she were.
- The Mole: For the rebels.
- Parental Substitute: In the end she takes Vidal's baby.
- She has elements of this towards Ofelia as well.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: To Vidal, who wanted his son to know all about him and his father's watch.Mercedes: No. He will not even know your name.
Dr. Ferreiro
Dr. Ferreiro
Played By: Álex Angulo
A doctor in the service of Vidal who is also a secret member of the Republican faction (of the Spanish Civil War) and aids the rebels.
- Face Death with Dignity: Faced with certain death, Ferreiro just calmly walks away. After being shot, he takes his glasses off rather calmly before slumping to the ground.
- In the Back: Vidal shoots him from behind as he walks away.
- Mercy Kill: He euthanizes a captured rebel to spare him more of Vidal's brutal torture.
- The Mole: Like Mercedes, he pretends to loyally serve Vidal but is secretly helping the rebels.
- Nice Guy: The only kind and humane member of Vidal's staff.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: He gives a small but effective one to Captain Vidal.Dr. Ferreiro: To obey—just like that—for obedience's sake... without questioning... That is something only men like you can do, Captain.
- Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: The novelization shows him to have this mindset toward the rebels, though he still does his best to help them.
The Mayor
The Mayor
Played By: Juanjo Cucalón
The town's mayor, who attends Vidal's dinner.
- Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: He assumes Vidal is merely doing his job and doesn't really want to be fighting the rebels. Vidal is quick to set him straight.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: He seems to be a caring man and questions Vidal's orders to cut rations, noting that one ration card per family may not be enough.
The Priest
The Priest
Played By: Francisco Vidal
A priest who attends Vidal's dinner.
- Hypocrite: He states that families will need to be careful to get by on limited rations, while piling his own plate full of food.
- Lack of Empathy: He's dismissive of the rebels' suffering when he hears one of them is wounded."God has saved their souls. What happens to their bodies hardly matters to Him."
- Les Collaborateurs: A member of the Catholic Church who gladly assists the fascist regime.
Pedro
Pedro
Played By: Roger Casamajor
Mercedes' brother, and leader of the Republican cell in the area.
- Big Damn Heroes: He and his rebels save Mercedes from the Captain's henchmen right when they're about to take her back to inflict Cold-Blooded Torture on her.
- Chummy Commies: Wears a pin of a red star with a hammer and sickle in it, showing his devotion to communism. He is also the unambiguously heroic leader of La Résistance.
- The Glomp: He and his sister share a few Big Damn Hugs.
- Hero of Another Story: While the movie focuses on Ofelia, there's fighting going around and he's in the middle of it.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: He is the one to kill Vidal in the end, placing a bullet right in Vidal's cheek.
- Rebel Leader: Commands the local resistance fighters.
- Scarf of Asskicking: He wears a blue scarf in the film.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Defied Trope. He refuses to give up the fight even when Dr. Ferreiro encourages him to, although after that talk he at least urges Mercedes not to risk her life with him.Dr. Ferreiro: You must take care of Mercedes. If you love her, take her away. This is a lost cause.
Pedro: I'm staying, doctor. That's it.
Garcés & Serrano
Garcés & Serrano
Played By: Manolo Solo (Garcés) & César Vea (Serrano).
Vidal's thuggish sergeants and subordinates.
- Double Tap: Garcés can be seen performing it on the rebels his men have shot in the battle, much like the rest of the policemen in the movie.
- Co-Dragons: To Vidal.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Downplayed, they have stone faces in war and executing prisoners, but look shocked by Vidal's brutality against the hunters. Serrano also can't look when Vidal executes a prisoner with a throat wound.
- Fat and Skinny: Downplayed, Garcés is slimmer and while Serrano isn't fat, he's certainly more broad than Garcés.
- Kick the Dog: Garcés gloats when he has Mercedes at his mercy, seconds before his death.
- Lean and Mean: Garcés, thinner, shorter and meaner than Serrano.
- Perpetual Frowner: Serrano usually has a dour expression.
- Pet the Dog:
- In the opening scene, Serrano stops the car at Ofelia's request when Carmen feels sick, and asks Carmen if she's okay.
- When Dr. Ferreiro euthanizes the torture victim, Serrano has his back turned (despite Vidal having ordered him to watch the doctor), suggesting that he's letting him do it.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Serrano comes off as this compared to Garcés, who takes more pleasure in his actions.
- Smug Snake: Garcés especially in his final scene.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Garcés is shot repeatedly by the rebels. Though multiple gunshots aren't uncommon in the film as most combatants make sure to shoot their victims more than once to ensure death.
- Those Two Guys: Up until the end they don't get much differentiation in terms of personality until they chase down Mercedes.
- Uncertain Doom: Serrano gets wounded by the rebels' Big Damn Heroes that rescues Mercedes, but manages to return to the base to tell Vidal. Presumably he is finished off during or after the final rebel assault, but we don't know for sure.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: When Garcés sees Mercedes making her escape, his first idea is to pull a pistol and try to shoot her, but he's interrupted by Vidal who demands she be taken alive.
The Underworld
Faun
The Faun
Played By: Doug Jones
Voiced By: Pablo Adán
Voiced By: Pablo Adán
An ancient creature, he has been waiting in the Labyrinth for the reincarnated princess to return.
- The Beastmaster: The novelization says he uses bats, rabbits and ravens as messengers as well as his fairies.
- Berserk Button: He really doesn't like it when rules are broken, especially when it results in the loss of his fairies.
- Decomposite Character: One of the intermissions from the novelization includes a tale revealing that the older version of him in the human world is actually a wooden magical replica created by the redhead, younger faun from the Underworld realm.
- Evil Redhead: Subverted in the end when he looks young again with red hair, revealed to be a good guy after all.
- Fauns and Satyrs: He's a Faun.
- I Have Many Names: Claims to have had many names over the years.
- I Know Your True Name: The novelization says he controls his fairies this way.
- Invisible to Normals: When Vidal walks in on him and Ofelia talking, Vidal just sees the latter talking to herself.
- Merlin Sickness: Gets visibly more healthy and youthful as the film goes on.
- Mood-Swinger: He can go from tender to menacing at the drop of a hat.
- Plant Person/Planimal: He seems to be made from rotting wood.
- Punch-Clock Hero:
Word of God says the Faun doesn't care if Ofelia gets home or not. - Rapid Aging: Inverted; he becomes visibly younger as the film progresses. When we first meet him, he moves as if his joints are stiff; by the film's end, his movement is quite normal.
- Shadow Walker: The novelization explains his teleportation by having him melt into shadows.
- Swiss-Army Tears: According to the novelization, he feeds the fairies his tears to help them remember the missing princess.
- Time Abyss: He's so old, his true names can only be pronounced by "the wind and the trees."
-
True Neutral: Word of God says that he's neither good or evil. He just does his job to observe and shepherd Ofelia while not particularly caring if she lives or dies. - The Unpronounceable: Claims to have had names that only the wind and the trees can pronounce.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: The Faun didn't actually want to harm the baby, although he's pretty effective at playacting otherwise.
Fairies
The Fairies
Three fairies that are friends with the Faun.
- Back from the Dead: The two that were eaten by the Pale Man show up in the end.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Green, blue, and red.
- Face Palm: When Ofelia eats from the Pale Man's banquet.
- Fairy Companion: To the Faun, and later Ofelia.
- Forgetful Jones: The novelization says that fairies tend to be forgetful creatures.
- Off with His Head!: The blue and red fairies get their heads bitten off by the Pale Man.
- Our Fairies Are Different: They first appear as stick insects, but transform after Ofelia shows them what they're "supposed" to look like.
- The Unintelligible: The fairies speak through insect like chattering, but the Faun knows what they're saying. Especially when the surviving fairy told him how Ofelia disobeyed him.
Toad
The Toad
A giant toad that lives under a fig tree and is part of Ofelia's first task.
- Amphibian at Large: It's a toad that's bigger than normal toads.
- Was Once a Man: The novelization says it used to be a human soldier named Umberto Garces, who was cursed after he helped drown a witch named Rocio.
Pale Man
The Pale Man
Played By: Doug Jones
A child-eating monster, whose lair Ofelia enters at the Faun's instruction to get a precious dagger. The Pale Man sits frozen at the head of a banquet table, his eyes sitting on a plate in front of him. He springs to life when Ofelia disregards the Faun's warning and eats the forbidden food.
- Adaptational Villainy: While he was fare from being a benevolent creature in the movie, in the novelization he's even worse. He's used to be a human who was cruel even as a child and later he'll grown up to be a Torture Technician for the The Spanish Inquisition before killing his own master and eat his heart. As a result of his crimes be became the lean and eyless monster we see in the movie.
- Allegorical Character: According to del Toro, the Pale Man represents the Catholic Church, which was highly complicit in Spanish fascism at the time the movie takes place.
There is also the part about him sitting at a table loaded with all sorts of delicious food that he does not eat, but will kill and consume anyone who takes as much as an apple. - All There in the Manual: The Bonus Comics on the DVD reveal he was once a being of excess banished to that room, and unable to eat the food before him, turning into the emaciated being Ofelia encounters. He believed that the dagger was the only thing that could harm him but in reality it was all that was keeping him alive, and when Ofelia left, he collapsed in on himself and disappeared.
- Berserk Button: He does not tolerate anyone taking so much as a piece of fruit from the vast feast in front of him, even if he doesn't eat any of it.
- Child Eater: Frescoes on the ceiling of his lair depict him killing and devouring young children. His lair also contains heaps of shoes from the children he consumed. Despite this preference he doesn't mind the taste of fairies, either.
- Eats Babies: His eating of children, even toddlers, shows him to be a creature of frightening evil.
- Eyes Do Not Belong There: His eyes fit into his palms.
- Eyeless Face: His eye sockets are on his palms, and his face is eyeless with only two holes for nostrils and no lips.
- The Fair Folk: A supernatural being who preys upon humans, but is also bound by magical rules and has a magical weakness.
- Food Chains: Ofelia was told not to eat any food of his table. He wakes up when she takes some fruit.
- Formerly Fat: He's designed to look like a fat man who lost a huge amount of weight. Now he has flaps of excess skin hanging off his bony frame.
- Humanoid Abomination: Even if he was human at one point, he certainly isn't now, having been so horrible that The Fair Folk had him imprisoned.
- Lean and Mean: An emaciated creature that eats children (when he can get any, that is).
- Light Is Not Good: A pale creature that lives in a church-like golden room, and yet eats children. To quote del Toro: "The Pale Man represents all institutional evil feeding on the helpless. It's not accidental that he is a) Pale b) a Man."
- Rule of Symbolism: Most of it is related to Greed and the exploitation of the weak.
- The Pale Man sits at a table filled with the most delicious food, which he does not partake in. However, if anyone dares to take as much as a single apple, he will mercilessly hunt them down and eat them.
- The Pale Man has eyes in the palms of his hands, representing how he only sees that which he reaches out to take.
- The Scrooge: A non money variant. He has a vast banquet of delicious food in front of him that he never touches but flies into a rage if someone else takes any amount off it, no matter how small.
- Sibling Murder: The novelization says his first human victim was his brother.
- Sinister Nudity: A perpetually naked Monstrous Humanoid responsible for the murders of many, many children... though thanks to his advanced age and emaciation, his genitals are hidden beneath a layer of loose skin.
- The Speechless: He never speaks a word and only screams.
- Was Once a Man: The novelization says he used to be human.
King & Queen of the Underworld
King & Queen of the Underworld
Played By: Federico Luppi & Ariadna Gil
- Big Good: Of the Underworld.
- Casting Gag: Doubling as The Cameo, Luppi played one of the main characters (and also a supernatural one) in The Devil's Backbone.
- Dimension Lord: Ruling the Underworld.
- Hair of Gold: The Queen has an unearthly shade of blonde hair, as opposed to the dark hair Carmen has in the normal world.
- Light Is Good: Their throne room is brightly lit.
- Time Abyss: They're content to wait until the end of time for their daughter to come home.
Mandrake
The Mandrake
A plant "that dreamed of being human." The Faun gives it to Ofelia in order to help cure her mom.
- Blood Magic: Requires two drops of blood from Ofelia everyday.
- Kill It with Fire: Carmen throws it into the fireplace when Vidal discovers it under her bed. It doesn't end well for her.
- Plant Person: It resembles a root shaped like a human baby.
- Synchronization: After being placed in a bowl of milk by Ofelia, it begins to simulate Carmen's movements (i.e., tossing and turning when she does the same in bed.) This is probably why Carmen begins to go into pained labor when the Mandrake is burned.
