The Devil's Backbone (2001)

“What is a ghost?”

Everybody loves a good ghost story. The best ones are the local ones; the ones that took place in your house, your school, or even your neighborhood. But the scariest and most complex are the foreign ones. They revolve around scandals…and orphanages.

In The Devil’s Backbone, a little boy Carlos goes to an orphanage in Spain during the Spanish Civil War in 1939. There he meets a mean janitor, a bully, and a ghost. The ghost is a subject not too discussed between the kids, but they know all about it. Some even know way too much. This frightens the staff and orphans, as well as the bomb that was dropped in the center of the orphanage. The bomb didn’t explode, but it is ticking. The janitor, Jacinto, was a former orphan, but now that he’s older, he now works there. He despises the place and knows of a stash of gold hidden in the orphanage, so he manipulates the one-legged headmistress so he can gain access to the vault.

The film was written, directed, and produced by the great Mexican filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro, who is known for his political allegories and dark subject matter. While the film doesn’t revolve entirely on the ghost or bomb, the two themes really support the whole plot and the latter part of the film. Upon first encountering the ghost, Carlos is told by him “Many of you will die”. With the bomb in the courtyard and war escalating, the ghost’s prediction seems very accurate. Meanwhile, the real danger is taking place in the late hours of the night.

The title is taken from a Spanish superstition. A child born with a “devil’s backbone” is deemed to be alone, parentless, or a “nobody’s child”. It reflects the main antagonist during the second half.

The film had great scares. Any scene with the ghost was very eerie. The sight of the character is frightening enough to send a shiver down one’s spine. Another scary thing is the way the kids toy around with the ghost story and joke about it. They’re little orphan kids who are isolated; they are only half-aware of the war and what’s going to happen to them.

All in all, the plot of the film is a little unnoticed, as new things start to get picked up, especially in the second half. It’s almost a wonder of what it is. Del Toro really knows how to perfectly intertwine horror with romance, producing a very eerie gothic thriller. I give the film a 4 out of 5 and it’s out now on DVD.