31 Days of Horror Recommendations: El Espinazo del Diablo [The Devil's Backbone] (2001)

 

Year: 2001

Country: Spain (joint production w/ Mexico)

Subgenre:  Ghosts/Haunted House-Habitations/War Horror

Runtime:  106 minutes

Director: Guillermo del Toro

My absolute favorite horror genre is haunted habitations/houses. I would recommend nothing but if I didn't stop myself from doing so. When done right, I find it far more spine chilling, engaging and thrilling than any other type of horror. Guillermo del Toro did it RIGHT here. This movie scared me stupid the first time I watched it. If I had been in a theater, I most likely would have been hiding behind the seat in front of me! This is a "watch it through your hands" kind of film.  Of course, once you've seen a haunting/ghost film--most of which are also mysteries of some sort--you've seen it. What I look for are the films that stand up to repeat viewings even after you know what is going to happen/why it's happening. The Devil's Backbone passes that test with flying colors!  It's a deeply haunting film and story on many levels, not just the supernatural. It is set in a war time orphanage during the Spanish Civil War--a truly dreadful atmosphere; there is also a kind of "mad scientist" bent to it that make it more tragic and deeply sad rather than weird, while at the same time adding to a sense of dark fate. The late Argentinian actor Federico Luppi (who is the lead in del Toro's Cronos) begins the film with a haunting voice over

What is a ghost? A tragedy condemned to repeat itself time and again? An instant of pain, perhaps? Something dead which still seems to be alive? An emotion suspended in time? Like a blurred photograph. Like an insect trapped in amber.

If you haven't seen it, you are in for real scare (treat); if you have, then you already know it's worth a rewatch. A beautiful story, a deeply disturbing story, a film as much about what the horrors of war do to children, as it is a film about children afraid of a lurking presence. Del Toro has said that he considers his Pan's Labyrinth a sibling to this this film. This is the brother, while Labyrinth is the sister. 

 

British Horror: Deathwatch (2002)

Political Thriller #3: Corilanus (2011)

One might not think of a Shakespeare play as a political thriller, but the modern treatment in this version makes it solidly so in a big way.

ALIENS: Edge of Tomorrow AKA Live, Die, Repeat

We've moved on to one of the more entertaining movies that Tom Cruise has made in the last few years; involving a very unsual form of time travel.  This after we took 30 minutes out to watch the Soyuz take off live from Kazahkstan around 5:30 during Prometheus...wish those guy God's speed and NO hostile alien encounters!  Safe docking too.

Macbeth (Michael Fassbender 2015)

This is wholly new to the household--never seen it before.  Love Michael Fassbender as an actor of range (English spy in WWII Germany to "robot" in an Alien film); I think this would put any one's acting chops to the ultimate.  I'm always interested in the portrayal of Weird Sisters in any production of "the Scottish play," no matter in what time frame it is set during--historical to modern (could do a whole Friday on nothing but the Macbeth witches).  Here there is a little twist, an little girl--apprentice of some sort.  Also, I was just informed a that the same composer for the Australian horror of extreme menace (scared the shit out of me anyway) The Babadook, Jed Kurzel composed the soundtrack for this!