"The Devil's Backbone" Reviews/Discussion - 2010 Horror Challenge: Day 26
 

Re: "The Devil's Backbone" Reviews/Discussion - 2010 Horror Challenge: Day 26
 

Wow, what a great film.

Re: "The Devil's Backbone" Reviews/Discussion - 2010 Horror Challenge: Day 26
 

A simple, but effective ghost story that is told with more focus on drama rather than horror. You still experience the atmosphere that Del Toro creates in his other films, but it lacks the elements of the fantastic that he delivers in his more iconic works. I thought the interaction between the ghost and the real world was very unique visually. I was lost on the fact that the ghost continually spooked the other children but couldn't haunt the murderer that was at the school daily.

Re: "The Devil's Backbone" Reviews/Discussion - 2010 Horror Challenge: Day 26
 

Great movie -- thanks for putting it on the list! I think I had passed on it before because I thought it was just a typical blood/killer movie, and how wrong I was. The film had so many beautiful shots that added so much to the spooky mood. I found myself going back to look at them again and appreciate the cinematography. It's really hard to tie a scary movie to the frightening things that happen in real life on a larger scale, but Del Toro does it very successfully here.

And it may be sacrilege to say, but although I liked Pan's Labyrinth, I think I liked this one more.

Re: "The Devil's Backbone" Reviews/Discussion - 2010 Horror Challenge: Day 26
 

Beautifully-shot ghost story from Guillermo del Toro won me over in its first few shots, when we're introduced to the new kid at the school, Carlos. The actor that plays Carlos has one of those faces that I immediately related to; he didn't seem like a kid acting in a movie, he seemed REAL. I guess because I related to the character so quickly, I was all in from the get-go. For me, the most interesting thing in the movie was how the ghost was shown. I was fascinated by the blood that kept flowing out of his wound into the air around him, but looking like what (I imagine) blood flowing from an underwater wound would look like. It sort of floated out and dispersed into thin air. The film's villain was completely despicable, which made it doubly satisfying when he got his comeuppance. A good, solid film that builds its scares around the living, not the dead.

Re: "The Devil's Backbone" Reviews/Discussion - 2010 Horror Challenge: Day 26
 

Glad everyone is enjoying it so far. I was not available last night to watch it (it's been a couple years since I have seen it.) I will hopefully get to that tonight.

For the commentary buffs out there, like myself, the original release has a del Toro solo commentary and the release available now has the del Toro/Navarro commentary. Guillermo del Toro even mentions the original commentary in the newer commentary and how completists will want to own both versions because he focuses on completely different aspects of the movie in each commentary. The original release is OOP. I have not listened to the original yet, and so I found a seller on Amazon that was selling it for like $2, but then they discovered that there was "no stock of that item." :( I was really hoping to listen to that for this challenge.

Next year I will be suggesting Cronos, an earlier title from del Toro. Criterion has announced they are releasing it, so that should be a real exciting title for next year (it may be my dual Criterion/Horror Movie Challenge title next year.)

Re: "The Devil's Backbone" Reviews/Discussion - 2010 Horror Challenge: Day 26
 

I liked this a lot. Talk about atmosphere!