The Devil's Backbone

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The Devil's Backbone
Spanish poster for The Devil's Backbone.
Directed by	Guillermo del Toro
Produced by	Guillermo del Toro Pedro Almodóvar
Written by	Guillermo del Toro Antonio Trashorras David Muñoz
Starring	Eduardo Noriega Marisa Paredes Federico Luppi
Music by	Javier Navarrete
Cinematography	Guillermo Navarro
Editing by	Luis De La Madrid
Release date(s)	April 20, 2001
Running time	106 min.
Country	Spain Mexico
Language	Spanish
Budget	$4,500,000 (est.)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Devil's Backbone titled in Spanish as El espinazo del diablo is a 2001 Mexican / Spanish film written and directed by Guillermo del Toro, produced by Pedro Almodóvar. It is set in Spain in 1939.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Trivia 4 See also 5 External links

[edit] Plot

The year is 1939. The Spanish Civil War is nearing its bloody end. Ten year-old Carlos, the orphaned son of a slain Republican, is abandoned by his tutor at an isolated orphanage for boys. The school is destitute, barely able to provide enough food for the children, but headmistress Carmen and Dr. Casares do the best they can. Carlos accepts his fate bravely, but there are still school bullies to contend with, an unexploded bomb sitting in the courtyard as a constant reminder of the war which still rages, and an abusive caretaker named Jacinto who has his own secret agenda. As if that were not enough, a ghost begins stalking Carlos, the ghost of a boy named Santi whose demise is shrouded in mystery and who solemnly warns Carlos that many will soon die. As the war begins closing in on the orphanage, violence erupts within and Santi's prediction comes sadly true. But the worst has not yet happened. The abandoned boys must band together if they hope to survive, and the dead will aid their cause if they are to be avenged. In the end the boys are freed by Dr. Casares' ghost and they lure Jacinto to Santi. They stab him numerously and throw him into the water where he murdered Santi. He drowns because of Santi and the boys leave the old, destroyed orphanage but not before we see Dr. Casares' ghost

[edit] Cast

Actor	Role
Eduardo Noriega	Jacinto
Marisa Paredes	Carmen
Federico Luppi	Casares
Fernando Tielve	Carlos
Íñigo Garcés	Jaime
Irene Visedo	Conchita
José Manuel Lorenzo	Marcelo
Francisco Maestre	El Puerco

[edit] Trivia

• During the director's commentary in the DVD, Del Toro stated that out of all the movies he made, this was the one he loved most.

• A lot of the film deals with duality of the images, which was inspired from Alfred Hitchcock's films.

• Fernando Tielve, the boy that plays the main character Carlos, had originally auditioned to be cast as an extra before Del Toro decided to cast him as the lead. This was his first movie.

• This film was #61 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.

[edit] See also

• Pan's Labyrinth, which Del Toro has called a sequel in spirit to this film.

[edit] External links

• Official site
• The Devil's Backbone at the Internet Movie Database
• The Devil's Backbone at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Devil's Backbone at Box Office Mojo