The Devil's Backbone

Name: The Devil's Backbone
Released: 2001-11-21
Cast: Marisa Paredes, Eduardo Noriega, Federico Luppi, Fernando Tielve

R
1h 48m
2001

93%

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His father killed in the brutal fighting of the Spanish Civil War, ten-year-old Carlos is sent to live at the desolate Santa Lucia School, now a makeshift shelter for war orphans. Soon after his arrival, Carlos has a series of seemingly supernatural encounters: strange shadows, voices and, most frightening of all, the apparition of a brutalized young boy. Turns out that Carlos is not alone in seeing these strange phenomena, many other children have experienced the "One Who Sighs," as the entity has come to be called. A classic ghost story, haunting as it is moving, "The Devil's Backbone" is also a subtle allegory for the war that rages on just beyond the school's walls.

Director:

Guillermo del Toro

Cast:

Marisa Paredes, Eduardo Noriega, Federico Luppi, Fernando Tielve

Rotten Tomatoes® Score

TOMATOMETER®

93%

Critics Consensus: Creepily atmospheric and haunting, The Devil's Backbone is both a potent ghost story and an intelligent political allegory.

Reviews

Film Frenzy

Matt Brunson

Fine performances, innovative effects, and the pointed backdrop of the Spanish Civil War.

Del Toro considers history, politics, and art through a gothically poetic lens...

The Devil's Backbone truly is a masterful film, one rife with both symbolism and story. This is a poetic piece of cinema that manages to expose the horrors of war through the lens of fantasy.

A microcosm, that is like a small war, combining living and dead, resentments, betrayals and revenge in an exceptional way with an impeccable cast. [Full review in Spanish]

Guillermo Del Toro's The Devil's Backbone is a really cool ghost story with an extraordinary human and political dimension.

August 15, 2017

FULL REVIEW