The Devil's Backbone (2001)

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

When I started watching The Devil's Backbone, I had no clue of how great the movie would prove to be. The story of the film is that a young boy Carlos, whose father has recently died in Spanish Civil War in 1939, is brought in an orphanage and school run by a kind old lady Carmen who has a love interest on a school doctor named Dr. Casarus. Moreover, there is a sadistic caretaker of the school named Jacinto who was a former student of in the orphanage and has a fiancé Conchita. Soon after arriving in, Carlos meets the school bully Jamie and other friends and also the school ghost. He sees that there is a bomb in the courtyard of the school intact which was diffused a day after it fell during which according to many children in the orphanage a boy named Santi disappeared. Now there are further events set to occur in the orphanage in the coming days that may change all the boys and teachers' lives forever.I found the first half of the film to be very gripping, entertaining and quite spooky, thanks to the excellent direction, cinematography, editing, performances and musical score. I became curious to know what will happen next as the story is extremely unpredictable! This made the film brilliant.I was absorbed into the film in the very first half. By the beginning of the second half, the film became very intense and more than a mere supernatural horror flick and I found myself connected to all the characters, a quality which a perfect movie must possess. By this time, I didn't care about the technical aspects of the film as I was deeply connected with the characters and their interactions with the situation they have fallen in. I cheered for the characters as they underwent a development. This whole part including the climax and the ending made the film a masterpiece.The film works on various levels from a potential ghost story to political aspects to psychological depth of the characters to the effects of war on children.Overall, the film is a 21st Century Horror, wait not Horror, a Supernatural Political War Drama Masterpiece.

This is what European cinema is all about. Great movie, great story. Hardly a horror movie. There are some appearances of a child ghost but nothing too scarry. The atmosphere is luxuriant and almost dream like, with surreal elements. The only problem for me was Jacinto who became almost overnight a maniac killer and killed without remorse the children and his girlfriend. There was no building up to this moment. Maybe they should have shown something from his previous life at the orphanage so you could understand what drives him to do it, as the desire for gold was not enough in my opinion, there should have been something more.

The Spanish Civil War is coming to an end and Carlos is placed in an orphanage after his father died in battle fighting for the Republicans.Carlos finds it difficult to feel comfortable in his new home, partly due to unpleasant characters within the orphanage and his new school but also because of the presence of a ghost known as Santi. A ghost haunts the inhabitants, bringing chaos and seeking revenge on its killer.Great cinematography and good plot but the storyline is poorly told by the film. It is difficult to care about or believe in any of the characters and some of the events don't fit smoothly into the overall narrative.

During the Spanish Civil War, the twelve year-old boy Carlos (Fernando Tielve) is left behind by his family in an orphanage in the middle of nowhere. Dr. Casares (Federico Luppi) and his wife Carmen (Marisa Paredes) run the orphanage and the former orphan Jacinto (Eduardo Noriega), who lives with the teacher Conchita (Irene Visedo), is responsible to take care and for the maintenance of the place. Jacinto is an ambitious and violent man and has a love affair with Carmen trying to steal the key of the safe where Dr. Casares and his wife hide the gold that is used to support the Republican forces. Carlos is bullied by the strong boy Jaime (Íñigo Garcés), who is the leader of the other boys. One day, Carlos feels the presence of a ghost and soon he learns that he is the orphan Santi (Junio Valverde) that is missing. Carlos sees Santi several times and one day he learns the dark secret of his disappearance."El espinazo del diablo" is a sad and creepy ghost story in a dramatic environment. Having the background of the Spanish Civil War, Guillermo del Toro discloses the melancholic story of a boy abandoned by his family and his difficulties to adapt to his new life. The greedy Jacinto represents the worst that exists in the mankind, a cold and despicable man moved by ambition only. The performances are outstanding and the conclusion is heartbreaking since the boys are left with no perspectives in life. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "A Espinha do Diabo" ("The Devil's Backbone")