Not your usual ghost movie, The Devil's Backbone weaves an actual backstory and a premise for the presence of a ghost that holds water. In the middle of the Spanish Civil War, young Carlos (Fernando Tielve) is brought to an out-of-way orphanage by his guardians. He quickly befriends most of the boys but has to take his knocks standing up to de facto leader/bully Jaime (Íñigo Garcés). The school's administrators, Carmen (Marisa Paredes) and Dr. Casares (Federico Luppi) reluctantly take Carlos in, owing to budgetary constraints and dwindling resources (they secretly support the Communist movement and are rumored to have a hoard of gold). This reputed treasure is what drives school handyman Jacinto (Eduardo Noriega) to hang around (and be Carmen's lover) - though he is hiding some deadly secret of his own. Where does the ghost figure in all of these? Ah, a young boy, Santi (Junio Valverde), seems to have died awhile back under mysterious circumstances and has been incessantly haunting the children at odd times, and now Carlos has been the favored 'hauntee'. This, plus the schoolyard's unusual fixture, a defused bomb that didn't go off when it landed there during a bombing raid, raises omens for bad times ahead. Luckily, Carlos is made of sterner stuff, and forming an alliance with Jaime, manages to solve the mystery despite losing his mentors. A labor of love by Del Toro, who's slowly becoming the master of dramatic thrillers that come across as intelligent and scary.
"Now THAT . . . is Da BOMB!"
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