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Special Features
- Brand-new director-supervised HD transfer
- Deleted scenes with optional director commentary
- Making-of documentary
- Director's thumbnail track
- Excerpts from director's notebook
- Conceptual art galleries
- Storyboard thumbnail comparisons
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Seething passions, wandering ghosts, and an unexploded bomb fill this beautifully filmed tale of war and suspense. Though The Devil's Backbone was advertised as a horror movie in the States, it's really more of a drama that happens to have ghosts in it. During the Spanish Civil War, young Carlos is abandoned at a completely isolated orphanage. The tensions therein have been building for years, exacerbated by the unexploded bomb resting menacingly in the courtyard. Bullies scheme, tempers flare, and a ghost that visits Carlos's bed seems to be the key to it all. The movie is full of excellent performances, especially by Marisa Paredes as the gruff-but-kind headmistress, Eduardo Noriega as the handyman with secrets to keep, and Federico Luppi as the benevolent professor who likes to keep deformed fetuses in jars. A rich, satisfying drama with some good, spooky fun thrown in. --Ali Davis
Product Description
From "Chronos" director Guillermo del Toro comes a haunting ghost story set in a Spanish orphanage that houses children of left-wing families during the final days of the Civil War. As a huge, unexploded bomb rests in the school's courtyard, Carlos, the young son of a dead war hero, is visited by the spectre of one of the orphanage's late residents, who tries to warn him of impending doom. Federico Luppi, Eduardo Noriega and Marisa Paredes star; co-produced by Pedro Almodovar. 108 min. Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtrack: Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1; Subtitles: English; audio commentary by Del Toro; deleted scenes; "making of" documentary; storyboards; theatrical trailers. In Spanish with English subtitles.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
61 of 65 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
"What is a ghost? A tragedy condemned to repeat itself time and again? An instant of pain perhaps. Somthing dead which still seems to be alive. An emotion suspended in time. Like a blurred photograph. Like an insect taped in amber".
It is this rumination which opens THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE, a ghost story set during the Spanish Civil War directed by Guillermero Del Toro (Mimic, Blade 2) and presented by Pedro Almodovar.
Carlitos is an orphaned 12 year old who is sent to a boarding school that shelters orphans during the last days of the war.
One unwelcome occupant is the ghost of a murdered boy, called "The One Who Sighs" by the other pupils. Carlitos is unlucky enough to come face to face with the hideously disfigured apparition one night where as a dare, the other boys send him downstairs to get some water; but for some reason he ends up in the slug infested basement; where "The One Who Sighs" dwells in a pool conveniently located there.
The movie gets its title from the name given to the deformed spine of dead foetuses, which is preserved in alcohol by an ecentric teacher. The alcohol is then sold in town and touted as a "cure all" remedy...BR>THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE is a horror thriller that takes its time getting started, but once it does it makes Hollywood's regular crop of horrors look anemic. Scary, stylish and twisty (in addition to twisted) THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE doesn't undermine the viewer's intelligence either. This is a must see for horror fans and film buffs.
Extra features on the DVD include a doco about the making of the movie, trailers, storyboard comparisons and commentaries by Del Toro and the cinematographer.
It is this rumination which opens THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE, a ghost story set during the Spanish Civil War directed by Guillermero Del Toro (Mimic, Blade 2) and presented by Pedro Almodovar.
Carlitos is an orphaned 12 year old who is sent to a boarding school that shelters orphans during the last days of the war.
One unwelcome occupant is the ghost of a murdered boy, called "The One Who Sighs" by the other pupils. Carlitos is unlucky enough to come face to face with the hideously disfigured apparition one night where as a dare, the other boys send him downstairs to get some water; but for some reason he ends up in the slug infested basement; where "The One Who Sighs" dwells in a pool conveniently located there.
The movie gets its title from the name given to the deformed spine of dead foetuses, which is preserved in alcohol by an ecentric teacher. The alcohol is then sold in town and touted as a "cure all" remedy...BR>THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE is a horror thriller that takes its time getting started, but once it does it makes Hollywood's regular crop of horrors look anemic. Scary, stylish and twisty (in addition to twisted) THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE doesn't undermine the viewer's intelligence either. This is a must see for horror fans and film buffs.
Extra features on the DVD include a doco about the making of the movie, trailers, storyboard comparisons and commentaries by Del Toro and the cinematographer.
34 of 38 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Like del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth" which has made huge waves in the non-Hollywood world, "The Devil's Backbone" is not easily categorised. Ghost story? yes, but much more. Picture of the scary tensions in Spain in the early days of the Civil War? yes, but more. Wonderful tale of how a group of children mature amid disaster and tragedy and come to be almost their own family, to replace the ones they never had or are separated from? Yes, but more. Rich in symbols and allegory...yes, but...
The richness of what T.S.Eliot called the "objective correlative" gives one that sense of underlying depth. For instance, there's the huge unexploded bomb stuck in the middle of the school courtyard. What is it but a metaphor for the hidden ghastly secret that waits to explode and reveal the reason for the mysterious ghost of the boy Santi? We only find out Santi's story near the end. Then there's the Devil's Backbone itself - in reality a congenital deformity where the spine is exposed, but spooky-looking in the sample floating in a jar of preservative - doesn't Jacinto exactly match that name? An irredeemable core of evil, like a Shakespeare villain or the Captain in Pan's Labyrinth. del Toro doesn't want to claim that there's something good in everyone: he says no, some characters are just irreversibly turned to the dark side, the very backbone of evil.
Then there's the subtle end-to end connections that add more richness. In the early scene of the school classroom, the children are shown the picture of a mammoth and the teacher makes the point that in these days the creatures were so big and strong that the hunters could only succeed by working closely together as a group. At the end, the children - that have survived - do exactly that as they hunt the gunman, and with pointed wooden spears yet!
I don't really agree with the reviewers who see a strong parallel to "The Lord of the Flies." The children here (wonderfully acted, by the way) don't regress to a primitive kind of anarchical ritual-filled state: in fact they bond ever more closely and deal very directly with the real world around them.
One thought: having seen this, I now don't think any more that in Pan's Labyrinth we are absolutely, definitely meant to take Ofelia's fantasy scenes as all in her mind. Clearly del Toro doesn't mind creating "real" supernatural entities. Perhaps in "Pan" he just wants to leave us in a state of permanent uncertainty, though the majority view among reviewers is that it's literally just fantasy.
The richness of what T.S.Eliot called the "objective correlative" gives one that sense of underlying depth. For instance, there's the huge unexploded bomb stuck in the middle of the school courtyard. What is it but a metaphor for the hidden ghastly secret that waits to explode and reveal the reason for the mysterious ghost of the boy Santi? We only find out Santi's story near the end. Then there's the Devil's Backbone itself - in reality a congenital deformity where the spine is exposed, but spooky-looking in the sample floating in a jar of preservative - doesn't Jacinto exactly match that name? An irredeemable core of evil, like a Shakespeare villain or the Captain in Pan's Labyrinth. del Toro doesn't want to claim that there's something good in everyone: he says no, some characters are just irreversibly turned to the dark side, the very backbone of evil.
Then there's the subtle end-to end connections that add more richness. In the early scene of the school classroom, the children are shown the picture of a mammoth and the teacher makes the point that in these days the creatures were so big and strong that the hunters could only succeed by working closely together as a group. At the end, the children - that have survived - do exactly that as they hunt the gunman, and with pointed wooden spears yet!
I don't really agree with the reviewers who see a strong parallel to "The Lord of the Flies." The children here (wonderfully acted, by the way) don't regress to a primitive kind of anarchical ritual-filled state: in fact they bond ever more closely and deal very directly with the real world around them.
One thought: having seen this, I now don't think any more that in Pan's Labyrinth we are absolutely, definitely meant to take Ofelia's fantasy scenes as all in her mind. Clearly del Toro doesn't mind creating "real" supernatural entities. Perhaps in "Pan" he just wants to leave us in a state of permanent uncertainty, though the majority view among reviewers is that it's literally just fantasy.
21 of 23 people found the following review helpful
If you have seen the trailers for The Devil's Backbone, and you were intrigued enough to see the movie, you won't be disappointed. The trailer only scratches the surface of the film's context and message, which is unusual in that it doesn't give away the film's most important moments (like many of today's movie trailers out of mainstream Hollywood.)
The many themes presented in the movie (war, love, loss, greed, death and revenge) are visited upon us in very subtle ways. It is hard to describe how the filmmakers have done it, without giving away the plot's clincher. The story unfolds slowly at first, drawing a very somber picture of life during the Spanish Civil War in a remote orphanage.
On a technical level, the special effects serve to heighten the emotional and psychological tension as the story progresses. This is a ghost story in more than one way: not only that of a child who appears from the beyond, but also of the metaphorical ghost of war that hangs over not only the orphans, but of all those who are struggling to survive through it. There is a great sense of despair and deprivation that is felt throughout all the characters' actions and emotions. This is not a particularly violent war film physically, but more one psychologically that IMPACTS you very deeply after you have had time to think it through.
Marisa Paredes' performance is far and away one of the most compelling this year. It would be nice to see her get some recognition state-side for her contributions to the cinema. Overall, the entire cast is excellent and the production as well as the screenplay are first-rate.
VERY highly recommended!!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
devils backbone
I give this movie a 3 star rating, even though I have not seen it. The revues make me really want to see it' but I can not stand SUBTITLES. Read more
Published 2 months ago by red edward 53
What is a Ghost?
El Espinoza del diablo
I don't know why I watched this movie because it was presented to me as a ghost story and I'm not a big fan of ghost stories. Read more
I don't know why I watched this movie because it was presented to me as a ghost story and I'm not a big fan of ghost stories. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Michael Fishman
Devil's backbone
Great director and great movie.He was many other good movies to watch. I would purchase his other movies and see the similarities to Alfred Hichcock's movies.
Published 9 months ago by Bolivar Medina Jr.
Beautifully Chilling Drama
This movie came on my TV screen late one night, as I was just about to switch off and head to bed. But such was the instant atmosphere of dread and immediate intrigue conjured up... Read more
Published 10 months ago by ChrisLovesCinema
Not so scary ghost story
With out getting into all the art school hype and lingo that overwhelms the rest of these reviews,lets just say Det Torro did the best he could with an "ok" script. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Michael E
My kind of ghost story movie
So much has already been written about the plot, etc. that I just want to give my thoughts on this movie. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Joker
It will haunt you for a while
What you are about to see is one of the best movies ever made!It was one of the first foreign movies(few years ago) I completely loved start to finish. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Yuki-kun
BAD BOY
This movie is a mystery and kind of slow suspence to watch, Guillermo del toro has done much better after this one, thanks goodness for that.
Published 15 months ago by badboy
Less spine-tingling, more spell-binding
This is a tragic allegory that unfolds around a fairly conventional ghost story. It is not, however, a horror film, as it is often billed. Read more
Published 17 months ago by sft
A beautiful but sad movie.
I don't remember what made me drop this in my que to start with but the movie showed up in the mail and I popped it in. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Brian Nallick
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