This past year has seen a deluge of what I will call art house horror. Highly stylized and written for a literate audience, movies like \The Others,"" ""Donnie Darko,"" ""Jeepers Creepers"" and ""From Hell"" tried their best to reclaim the genre from the slasher and teen flicks of the '80s and '90s. ""The Devil's Backbone,"" directed by Guillermo del Toro, leaves them all in its dust. Tightly crafted, both visually and narratively, this Spanish film shows what a horror movie can be at its very best.
""The Devil's Backbone"" takes place in a remote orphanage during the Spanish Civil War. Carmen and Dr. Casares, the orphanage caretakers, use it to support the rebel cause, hiding a stash of gold and the sons of fallen comrades. However, also hidden is the ghost of a young boy, Santi, stirred by the arrival of the recently orphaned Carlos. Carlos must endure torment by the ghost, a bully named Jaime, and an evil hired hand named Jacinto.
The plot is intricately woven, yet not confusing. It's beautiful how well del Toro tells a story, almost as though he were reading poetry. For instance, in the scene that gives the film its name, we see Dr. Casares lecture Carlos, showing him jars of deformed infants. The locals believe that the rum in the jars can cure impotency, so Casares happily sells it to them. On one level, the scene is a funny attempt by Casares to discourage Carlos' superstitious fear of ghosts, a belief that is actually well-founded. It also explains how the orphanage can survive financially without letting on that it's hiding gold. Finally, when Carlos leaves, Casares himself takes a sip of the rum, explaining why his love for Carmen is unrequited.
It's hard to call ""The Devil's Backbone"" a ghost story. Yes, it has its bump in the night, whispers in the hallway moments. But, it shows its ghost too much to be scary. (Maybe that comes from del Toro's background as a makeup artist.) Soon, it becomes apparent that this isn't a story about the horrors of ghosts but the horrors of man. It's hinted when we first enter the orphanage's courtyard and see a giant defused bomb stuck in the ground. This is a story of war and its casualties, and ghosts are just a part of that.
I had gone to see ""The Devil's Backbone"" to check out the skills of Guillermo del Toro. He's the director for the upcoming movie adaptation of one of the world's greatest comic books, ""Hellboy."" He had earned credibility behind the camera with ""Cronos"" and ""Mimic,"" but I still had my doubts. See, he also directed ""Blade 2,"" which will come out soon. Now after seeing ""The Devil's Backbone,"" I'm really excited for both ""Blade 2"" and ""Hellboy."" My fingers are crossed.
If you see ""The Devil's Backbone,"" which I highly recommend you do, you might be reminded of ""The Sixth Sense,"" another daytime ghost story. At the same time, it has some of the savagery of youth of ""Lord of the Flies"" and the boy-trapped-in-a-desert-war feeling of ""Empire of the Sun.\
