The Devil's Backbone R

What is a ghost?
The Devil's Backbone
106K ratings
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Format:  DVD
item number:  H3RJ
on most orders of $75+
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DVD Details

  • Rated: R
  • Run Time: 1 hours, 48 minutes
  • Video: Color
  • Encoding: Region 0 (Worldwide)
  • Released: July 27, 2004
  • Originally Released: 2001
  • Label: Sony Pictures

Performers, Cast and Crew:

Starring , , , &
Directed by
Screenwriting by , &
Produced by &
Director of Photography:

Entertainment Reviews:

Certified Fresh92%

TOMATOMETER
Total Count: 119

Upright89%

AUDIENCE SCORE
User Ratings: 35,041
Rating: 3/4 -- Guillermo Del Toro's The Devil's Backbone is a really cool ghost story with an extraordinary human and political dimension. Full Review
New York Daily News
Oct 15, 2014
...THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE remains the work of a great stylist with a uniquely disturbing attraction to, and vision of, the frontier between life and death...
Sight and Sound
Dec 1, 2001
...Mr. Del Toro takes an almost sensuous delight in weaving aural and visual textures of fear....Mr. Del Toro provokes your screams and shudders, but he also earns your tears...
New York Times
Nov 21, 2001
Though it fails in its final reels to capitalize on its early promise, pic is still stylish, accomplished and tremendously enjoyable fare. Full Review
Variety
Oct 18, 2008
An entertaining and atmospheric revenge tale. Full Review
Chicago Reader
Sep 24, 2007
Rating: 9/10 -- The Devil's Backbone truly is a masterful film, one rife with both symbolism and story. This is a poetic piece of cinema that manages to expose the horrors of war through the lens of fantasy. Full Review
Starburst
Jul 24, 2017
Rating: 4/5 -- Though the whodunnit takes a fairly predictable course, the Spanish Civil War background adds powerful narrative and symbolic weight, while the striking imagery is simply poetic. Full Review
Radio Times
Oct 7, 2013

Product Description:

During the Spanish Civil War, newly orphaned Carlos is taken to a school for the children of those who died fighting against fascism. He is given the bed that formerly belonged to Santi, a boy who recently died during an attack in which a bomb dropped, landing in the school's courtyard undetonated, a reminder of impending danger. As the amputee headmistress (Marisa Paredes, ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER) and the embittered caretaker, Jacinto (Eduardo Noriega), engage in a love affair, the headmistress' cuckolded husband, the impotent but benevolent school doctor (Frederico Luppi) sits by passively. Meanwhile, after Santi's ghost repeatedly reveals itself to Carlos, another student spooks Carlos with a dark secret about the boy's death. War surrounds the school, violence infests it from within, and Carlos sets out to avenge the death of Santi.

Taking on themes such as the brutality of war and the loss of innocence, Guillermo del Toro's (MIMIC) film skillfully combines elements of war, gothic horror, melodrama, and adventure to create a work that functions as both a genre film and a politically resonant piece of nostalgia. THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE uses history as a means of transforming what would otherwise be a routine ghost story into a powerful and affecting statement.

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Product Info

  • UPC: 043396056763
  • Shipping Weight: 0.25/lbs (approx)
  • International Shipping: 1 item

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