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)