The Devil's Backbone (DVD)

The devil’s backbone - Guillermo Del Toro. I first got into Guillermo’s work having watched Pan’s labyrinth. How ironic it was that that was his most recent work, and I worked from it, backwards to his humbler beginnings. Guillermo is possibly better known for his work on Blade 2, and also cult classic, Hellboy. His passion is definitely for fantasy, and having watched Pan I simply adored his style, so immediately went to my local HMV and got them to look up other work of his. They had to order it for me but within a week I received a copy of the Devil’s Backbone for only seven pounds. What the critics said - “Magnificent ...  Read the complete review

Que es un Fantasma?, asks El Espinazo del Diablo (The Devil's Backbone) - what is a Ghost? Crafty and chilling, the movie is described by director Guillermo Del Toro as the "sister film" to his smash-hit Pan's Labyrinth. Just as its better-known sibling is a stylish adult twist on a prototypical fairytale, The Devil's Backbone builds out from a simple ghost story to spin its narrative. Much of the success of Pan's Labyrinth was a result of the vivid contrast it scored between its fantastical story and the fractious combat of the Spanish Civil War, and this film too interweaves the underlying tension of the conflict with its more immediate ...  Read the complete review

In the final days of the Spanish Civil War, a young boy named Carlos is orphaned and taken to a remote orphanage, the home of many other children from Republican families. Watched over by an elderly couple named Casares and Carmen, the inhabitants of the orphanage live in the shadow of fear, terrified that the fascists will find them. To add to the strain of their lives, the boys live in fear of the school caretaker, a cruel, disturbed young man named Jacinto, whose loyalty to the orphanage is limited at best. Alone and bewildered, Carlos is soon the target for the orphanage bully, Jaime. When Jaime challenges him to venture out into the darkness of the school ...  Read the complete review

‘The Devils Backbone’ is set in Spain during the final days of the Spanish Civil War. Francisco Franco’s fascists have victory within their sights, and in a small orphanage the children from Republican families await their fate. In an effort to fool the fascists Casares (Frederico Luppi) and Carmen (Marisa Paredes), an old couple who run the orphanage, have erected a giant crucifix on its roof, hoping to disguise the institution as a Catholic school. In the courtyard an unexploded fascist bomb sits ominously on its nose, embedded into the dirt. A young boy named Carlos (Fernando Tielve) has just been made an orphan (not that he knows it) and is being ...  Read the complete review

The Devil's Backbone or El espinazo del diablo is for me rather like the older, but potentially slightly less accomplished sister of Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth or El laberinto del fauno. Like Pan's Labyrinth however, it offers an incredibly accomplished intertwining of the supernatural narrative on the surface, and the undercurrents of the story of the Spanish Civil War. Well, I am going to give a brief outline of the film but forgive me for it will be far less detailed than alot of the film reviews I have read on the internet, as for me there's nothing worse than reading a review only to discover there's not really much point watching the movie ...  Read the complete review