Alright, we’ve had enough of Japanese horror movies, especially scorned girls with overly long hair that badly needs trimming and scares us by means of crawling on the floor. However, THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE came out before the explosion of the Japanese B-movie monopolisation of horror cinema, and Guillermo Del Toro, the genius director behind the magnificent PAN’S LABYRINTH, seemed to have prophesied the coming of this era. It’s no fluke, this horror film, because it doesn’t scare us by mere apparitions and the cue of loud frightening music but relies most in heavy atmospheric moods and tones that creeps in like a slow chill.

This is a fine ghost story that rises near to the level of THE OTHERS. It focuses on the story of a distant orphanage during the Spanish Civil War period with the children were left as only remaining evidences of the devastated left-wing families. Carlos, the newest kid around, was deceived when he was dropped off in the institution without him knowing what happened to his family and discovered four things: 1) there was a tremendous crucifix put on display to disguise the orphanage as a Catholic school, 2) there was a enormous unexploded bomb that was stuck in the courtyard like a sculpture, 3) he sleeps in Bed Number 12, a former bed of a student named Santi who went missing ages ago, and 4) he learns about the students, the friends, the enemies, and the school itself that nothing was normal around it.

We were introduced to the story of Santi. The students refer to him as “the one who sighs”, and in a eerie sequence as Carlos and a bully student meanders into the kitchens at night to get a jug of water, we see Santi for the first time. We know that he’s a ghost but what was brilliant about how Del Toro achieved it was that he never uses the ghost as his main regal shocker; instead he uses the sighs, the situation’s eeriness and the dark atmosphere to convey the film’s effective chill. Then we are moved into another element that is not so childlike ghost story, there are adult themes crosshatched all over it: Jacinto, a former student now janitor, has a lover, the maid Conchita, but elicits an affair with Carmen, the school’s Headmistress, who had a wooden leg of her own. In one of the most disturbing scenes shot here, more horrifying that most scary scene in this film, Jacinto was having sex with the old Carmen with her unsettling wooden leg beside her, and her husband listening in the other room. We also discover that Jacinto was using Carmen to locate the gold bars hidden within the orphanage.

Then as though STAND BY ME suddenly appeared in this film, the boys set out in an adventure that would change their lives forever. They discover the real story behind Santi’s life and I’m not going to disclose it right here but it all involves a pool, a stone and a bloody forehead.

I quite admire this film. Guillermo Del Toro had shown his early signs of his mastery in PAN’S LABYRINTH and even crafted a beautifully shot ethereal ghost story. Watching the film was like sitting in front of the fire or warm lamp during a rainy night, listening to a grandfather’s creepy story. This is a good story because the ghost doesn’t exist without a reason. This DEVIL’S BACKBONE has a brain, heart and a touch of sense. It may not be better than the classic THE OTHERS but it’s nearly as good.

RATING: B+