The devil's backbone

Language : Spanish

 

Year of release : 2001

 

Run time : 1h43min

 

Genre : Horror / Drama

 

Director : Guillermo del Toro

 

 

This was the first Spanish movie I ever watched,many years ago,maybe 20,which got me hooked on Spanish movies.

 

The Devil's Backbone tells the story of Carlos who is left at the orphanage,in the early 1940's, by one of his father's battle comrades,after his father died.

Carlos starts seeing "the one who sighs" right away,a ghost which started haunting the place after a bomb was dropped over the orphanage but never exploded.

 

The ones in charge of the orphanage are leftists who help the left in the war against nationalists. They hold 10 gold ingots which the lady of the orphanage wants to give back to the soldiers as she can't buy food with it.

 

Jacinto,a former pupil / ward of the orphanage ,is now working for the orphanage and has big dreams,of becoming rich,but without any work,but by stealing the gold ingots.

 

Carlos finds out the ghost haunting him is Santi,the boy who disappeared when the bomb dropped. Santi appears to him as if he is somewhere underwater,with blood pouring out of his head wound upwards. He tells Carlos many of them will die.

 

The title of the movie is given by the fact the doctor of the orphanage is keeping jars with preserved babies with spina bifida - the devil's backbone- in a special rum,which he sells to people,a mixture which apparently heals anything from blindness to impotency.

 

The acting is great,everybody is amazing. The visual effects are great,those who watch Guillermo del Toro movies know all his movies have the same cool visual effects .

 

I loved the poems the old man recites to the old woman,especially the 'What is a ghost ' poem which opens and closes the movie.

 

The movie is streaming on HBO Max (the first time I ever watched the movie was on HBO !), and is for rent or sale on Amazon Video, Apple iTunes, Google Play Movies, Microsoft Store, YouTube.

 

Rating : It's so money !