The Devil's Backbone

Director: Guillermo del Toro

2001 / 108min / 35mm

In 1939, the final year of the Spanish Civil War, newly fatherless 10-year-old Carlos (Fernando Tielve) arrives at the Santa Lucia School, dedicated to the care of the orphaned children of Republican loyalists, its permanent staff comprised of stern headmistress Marisa Paredes, physician Federico Luppi, unhinged groundskeeper Eduardo Noriega… not to mention other lurking spectral presences. An unnerving, atmospheric, and emotionally potent work of Spanish Gothic horror. “Balances dread with tenderness, and refracts the terror and sadness of the time through the eyes of a young boy, who only half-understands what he is witnessing.” —The New York Times

Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics

Part of Maybe If You Smile They Will One Day All Return