THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE
Visionary director Guillermo del Toro crafted something beyond a traditional horror film with his third feature motion picture, "El Espinazo del Diablo" or "The Devil's Backbone" in English. Subtlety is the key in this film that has no real jump scares, violent gore (in my opinion), beautiful cinematography, and very rich characters. Not a typical horror film, that is for certain. The film was shot in Spain and features English subtitles for non - Spanish speakers.
Spain, 1939: Professors Casares (Federico Luppi) and Carmen (Marisa Paredes) are the heads of an orphanage located in rural Spain in the final year of the Spanish Civil War. Living on the grounds are Jacinto (played by Eduardo Noriega in what is easily one of the most evil roles in my recent memory) and his girlfriend Conchita. Casares and Carmen are loyalists to the Republican political cause in Spain, hiding bricks of gold in the school that back the Republican Treasury. As a result, the school had been attacked many times in the past. Most curiously, at the center of the courtyard is a diffused bomb, a "dud" if you will. The story begins when Carlos ( is dropped off at the orphanage by his "tutor" after his father, a Republican hero in the war, was killed. He strikes up a friendship with Jaime (Inigo Garces), the resident bully and tormentor of other children.
Eduardo Noriega as Jacinto
It is a wonder to see these two young kids act together. The chemistry between Garces and Fernando Tielve as Carlos is a stroke of wonder to see two young children filling out complex roles so nicely. Noriega's turn as the young and dirty groundskeeper Jacinto makes for a perfect foil to the aura of positivity and wonder created by the cast of children in this picture. The adults in the film add most of the drama through their dealings of keeping the hidden gold from the wrong hands. The film's villain, Noriega, is dirty, mean, and downright despicable as the orphanage's groundskeeper who seems to have more to hide than he says. His girlfriend Conchita, portrayed by Irene Visedo plays a sad woman who was probably fooled by the handsome good looks and charm of the young Jacinto, himself a former student of the professors at the orphanage.
One of the things that immediately caught my eye upon viewing the film was the way it looked. Cinematographer Guillermo Navarro captured the "feelings of the colors" he shot. Dry, arid, and empty. The film has a very gritty look to it, yet the image still comes across as The school is located in the middle of nowhere, a desert where the nearest town is some 30 kilometers away, a distance that has to be walked by one of the characters when the school is in distress, an attempt to steal the gold (coming from inside the walls of the school), with no one to come help.
The most interesting aspect of the film is the representation of what the characters stood for. What were the things that made these people tick? Jacinto, once an orphan, now a two-faced caretaker with no one to care for but himself. Cazares and Carmen were the tired, old, and weary Republicans who were about to fall. Is the orphanage Spain? Possibly. The trouble began when a bomb fell and failed to go off in the courtyard. Soon after, a boy named Santi disappeared and is said to haunt the school. The Spanish civil war raging on across the country, while the battle to keep a large sum of gold hidden where paranoia runs rampant because it must be kept safe.
Santi's character represents more than just the ghost aspect of this film. Discussing what I thought his character stood for would represent spoiling a major aspect of the film. As I am trying to keep these as spoiler free as possible, here's your warning, feel free to scroll over:
SPOILERS
Santi, to me, stands for the fallen politicians of the war. The fallen, Republican politicians that is. After the war, the country was taken over by fascism. He was murdered by one of the very people who worked at the orphanage (Spain) that looked after him and cared for him, yet he stood in the way of finding the stash of gold. He was a price to pay, that did not even face Jacinto (a murderous backstabber on the place that cared for him) when he killed him.
Del Toro's film is a masterpiece. A superbly shot, written, acted, and edited film. It is paced like the horror films of yesteryear, focusing more on the intention of the story as opposed to the action of the story, which would move the picture along. The only downside that I can think of is that we saw too much of the film's much talked about ghost too soon. A lesson should have been taken from Steven Spielberg's forced implication of the shark in "Jaws" and Ridley Scott's denial of showing the titular creature in "Alien" to the audience pretty much at all. Otherwise, the score, sound design, and overall film create for one of the best ghost stories of the 21st century. A true classic from a visionary filmmaker that goes beyond the narrative being told and the label of the "horror" genre placed on this film.
8/10
EL ESPINAZO DEL DIABLO
THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE (2001) - Rated R
- Directed by Guillermo del Toro
- Written by Guillermo del Toro, David Trashorras, David Munoz
- Runtime - 106 minutes
- Suggested edition: Criterion Collection Blu Ray/DVD release; Spine #666
- 7.5 stars on IMDb
- 91% on Rotten Tomatoes
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