mad about movies' blog

devil's backbone - review

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Devil’s Backbone (El Espinazo del Diablo)

For me, this was my first introduction to the writer/ director Guillermo del Toro.  Devil’s Backbone falls into the Horror genre, however; this is no hack and slash nudie fest they call horror movies these days.  This is more a supernatural thriller than a horror.

The tag line of the movie itself pretty much gives you an idea of the direction of the movie: “The living will always be more dangerous than the dead”.

This is a Spanish film. It is subtitled. The disk I got from Netflix did not have an option for “English dubbed”, so once again, if you don’t like subtitles this may not be for you.

This movie takes place in the late 1930’s at the tail end of civil war within Spain. A young boy, orphaned when his father dies in the war, is taken to an orphanage out in the middle of nowhere.  There are some of the normal trivial issues that go on with boys (aside from the interesting bomb sitting in the middle of the orphanage court yard that seems to be a dud but that is still ticking), including Carlos’ battle with the orphanage bully.  Carlos soon starts sensing something else going on, the presence of a ghost who seems to latch onto Carlos and sending him warnings of impending death and doom for all at that orphanage.

The war itself makes its way out to the area that encompasses the orphanage and add to this – a “deep dark secret” kept where a caretaker is always flipping out when any of the children try to go into a particular store room, and things get really interesting.  Could this be the secret of the ghost??

How the story gets its name is even more interesting, but also disturbing. I won’t ruin that for anyone wanting to see this film.

Like many of Guillermo films (Pan’s Labyrinth) the story line takes a bit to develop. Once it does, I found I was completely engrossed in the film and waiting on the edge of my seat for everything in the story to come together. I found myself very quickly becoming attached to the characters in one way or another, either being sympathetic or angry or cautious to other characters on their real "motives".

There is enough dark - creepy factor to provide enough chills. Like other good movies have taught me, it is not what you see that scares you, it is what you don't!

As a side note - for you comic book movie fans: Guillermo del Toro also Directed  Hellboy II: The Golden Army.  He also wrote the screenplay for Hellboy.  I think you can get a good dose of his "dark side" in Hellboy II - given many of the dark creatures - dark fantasy are more prominantely displayed in Pan's Labrynth.

But I'll save that for a discussion on directors for another time.

Devil's Backbone - I give 4 out of 5 starts and consider it a must see for those who like dark thrillers.