The Devil's Backbone (El Spinazo del Diablo)

 Valuable Lessons for the Dedicated Film Watcher:
1. As a person of film, one must be open to watching any type of film, no matter the language, the beliefs, the genre, the content or the actors.
2. Watching horror movies in Spanish does not make the movie any less scary.

So recently, my Spanish teacher assigned us summer homework. The assignment? Watch/ listen to up to 5 hours of Spanish. So where (whom?) does one turn to when faced with such a problem? Guillermo del Toro of course.

I absolutely idolize the man. He is a brilliant mastermind and my hero (besides George Lucas).

El Spinazo del Diablo is a horror movie, but not with disgusting and ugly monsters. No, these horrors are horrors of the flesh- of humans and tragedies.

First, lets start off with technicalities. The cinematography was gorgeous. Simple, rustic and the colors of each scene really lend to the overall tone. Some parts, everything was brown, so warm and earthy. Those were the scenes where things were good and fine. Then, there's the dark ominous parts, foreshadowing encounters with the paranormal. Where nightmares come to life.
The fact that this entire movie was in Spanish made it that much more enjoyable. I love listening to this rich language coming from the mouths of children. Also, I recognized a lot of the words, which made me feel accomplished.
The casting was phenomenal. The main character, Carlos, has to be the cutest boy in the entire universe! He is a doll as are all the other kids. Also, the "antagonist", Jacinto the caretaker, is pretty handsome. Finally, the old couple were perfect. All in all, the casting = amazing.

Here is a quick summary of the movie taken from Counter Currents, written by Trevor Lynch.

It is set in an orphanage for boys run by two elderly Communists, Carmen (Marisa Paredes), an iron lady with a wooden leg, and Dr. Casares (Federico Luppi), an impotent poet in love with Carmen. The two are hiding a horde of Republican gold and caring for the orphans of fellow Communists. As Franco’s grip tightens, however, they decide they must take the gold and the children and flee to France.
But somebody has other plans:  Jacinto, the caretaker of the orphanage, who was raised there and feels enormous resentment towards Carmen and Dr. Casares. He knows of the gold and plots to steal it. Jacinto is a shockingly ruthless and brutal villain, brilliantly portrayed by the handsome Spanish actor Eduardo Noriega.
While the adults are occupied with politics and gold, the boys at the orphanage are chasing a ghost. The night a bomb fell in the courtyard of the orphanage, one of the boys went missing. When a new boy, Carlos, arrives at the orphanage, he sees the ghost of the missing boy and tries to learn the secret of his disappearance. As the movie unfolds, the two plot lines and levels of reality intersect in a shattering conclusion.
 
There is a lot of symbolism in the movie, drawing connections and parallels to other movies, such as Tristana.

This is a great movie and I would totally advise it to everyone. It is, in a sense, a beautiful movie that manages to cause absolute disbelief. This takes paranormal to another more realistic level. I love it. It is number 2 on my "Favorite Guillermo del Toro movies", right after Pan's Labyrinth (you can read my Pan's Labyrinth post here)

Coraline

I feel that this movie, Coraline, was actually just a drop of brilliance that fell from the heavens onto the head of film director Henry Selick. Where else could this stroke of genius have come from?

Multi-verse theorists rejoice, for this movie captures the idea of an alternate universe. A universe where a dastardly monster resides. The beldam... a creature that feeds off the lives of unsuspecting children, indulging their every whim until reality holds no interest for them. It is at this point that she stakes her claim on them by sewing simple black buttons on their eyes, forever holding them in her world.

*spoilers* 

But which foolish children would even consider living with this horrible being? Certainly not a young girl named Coraline! Yes, Coraline...not Caroline...it's Coraline. The story begins with dear Coraline and her hum- drum parents who movie into a seemingly hum-drum house with exceedingly eccentric neighbors. She meets a boy named Wyborne (whom she "affectionately" *heavy sarcasm* dubs as "Why-Were-You-Born"). He gives her a doll that is an exact replica of herself- from her blue hair to her yellow swampers, except it has black button eyes. After exploring the house on a rainy day, she stumbles upon a small door. After an anti-climatic discovery of a wall of bricks behind the door, Coraline heads off to bed only to be awoken. Running down to the door, she sees it open up to another world! Adventure, danger and excitement assumes.

This is definitely not a sunshine-and-rainbow animated movie. No, this movie is dark yet funny. Creativity just oozes from each frame. I believe this to be one of the most brilliant movies I have ever seen. In fact, I loved it so much that I went on to watch it ten times in a row, pausing almost every ten seconds, just to analyze it. It astounds me to no end the amount of detail that went into making this phenomenal movie. The whole film was a stop-animation film. Who had the patience for that? Henry Selick did and I worship him for that.

The movie seems to contain a simple and well-known moral for younger generations: the grass isn't always greener on the other side...because the other side might just have a hunger monster waiting to eat you. But for older people here are some ways I interpreted the film:

The Other Mother: Oh, wouldn't everyone want a mother like her? So perfect and warm. Nice to the core and all her attention is focused only on you! Plus, she cooks the most amazing meals! Be wary, don't fall into her trap. She wants to distract you from the true horrors she is leading you to by surrounding you with tempting things. It's like feeding a pig everything its ever wanted just so that the farmer can slaughter it and eat it for Christmas dinner. The button-eyes signify that she is trying to blind you- to get you to blindly follow her so that you cannot rely on anything, or anyone, else. You are solely her property.

The Cat: I love cats, especially this "wuss-puss". He represents the people of the world who can resist the "Other Mother". He sees only the truth and can ignore the distractions thrown at him. He sees things for what they are...and who they are.In the end, the Other Mother thinks of him as a danger to her prey and continuously tries to get rid of him.

 Coraline: I think that Coraline is a representation of everyone. We all want something better; a better world, a better life, better friends, better parents, better jobs... But really, we won't know how much we care about those things until they're gone and we're left to rot. Fantasy is a mirage. It seems like a much more promising picture, but in the end, it's nothing more than just that- fantasy...a thought. Reality will never leave us hanging, no matter how bad things seem to get.

Would I recommend this movie? Absolutely. I give this 5 stars, ten fingers, ten toes, two thumbs, 3 Michelin stars, a Nobel Peace Prize and any other honor/ award available out there.

The Twilight Saga

A frenzy that swept the nation...Vampires and werewolves seemed to have taken over reality, dragging twi-hard fans into another world. Females of all ages envy Bella, wishing to take her place...being able to be the object of affection for both Edward Cullen, (Robert Pattinson) the gorgeous vampire and Jacob Black, the young and hot werewolf.

I was one of those people who sat back and made fun of Twilight Fans. I absolutely despised the books and the movies, even though I never watched any of the movies. To me, Bella was such a Mary Sue! I criticized the style of writing for the books and set them aside, determined never to set eyes on them again. But recently, I began to search for new movies to watch. I was bored and couldn't think of any good ones...and that's when I happened to glance at my old Twilight book. It got me thinking. It wouldn't hurt to watch all the movies would it? I was bored after all. So I gave it a chance. I watched all four movies so far:

- Twilight
-New Moon
- Eclipse
- Breaking Dawn: part 1

I have to admit, the first three movies were okay. But my favorite was Breaking Dawn. This is where everyone's characters really come out. I thought it was amazingly made and I have to admit that this was an extremely beautiful movie. Bella (Kristen Stewart) actually acts amazingly! I give her props for being able to pull off the "extremely starved" and "skin and bones" look while acting through the pregnancy period. The computer effects to achieve her gaunt look were out of this world! The soundtrack is beautiful and strong. I am not a Twilight fan, nor am I ever going to join a Team Edward or Team Jacob feud, but I have to admit that Breaking Dawn really redeemed the whole Twilight saga in my eyes... and that's coming from a cold hearted person who used to ridicule Twilight! (oh and if any, I would be on Team Charlie...he has the best line ever- "I know he's going to be a good husband...because I'm a cop...and cops know things..." *chuckle*)

I think what really did it for me was the music- Bella's lullaby. The last scene in Breaking Dawn, where Bella's transformation of human to vampire is coming to an end, is the most beautiful and heartwarming scene. I think its brilliant how they make all her memories come back, starting from her pregnancy and moving back to when she herself was a baby. And then they ended it with all the venom pouring into her heart. Everyone looks up and her eyes open. She's a vampire. It was really good and I never thought that I would say this, but yes...I am eagerly awaiting for the arrival of Breaking Dawn: part 2 coming out on November 16. For all you Twilight scoffers and haters out there, I would just say to give the movies  a chance...Kristen Stewart can actually act!

 

P.S. This is the song I fell in love with. Even if you hate Twilight the movie and books, give the song a chance. It might change your mind :)