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El espinazo del diablo
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El espinazo del diablo (2001) More at IMDbPro »

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El espinazo del diablo (2001) -- Open-ended Trailer from Sony Pictures Classics

Overview

User Rating:
7.6/10   13,922 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 11% in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
Guillermo del Toro
Writers:
Guillermo del Toro (written by) and
Antonio Trashorras (written by) ...
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Contact:
View company contact information for The Devil's Backbone on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
20 April 2001 (Spain) more
Tagline:
The living will always be more dangerous than the dead. more
Plot:
It is 1939, the end of three years of bloody civil war in Spain, and General Franco's right-wing Nationalists... more | full synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
6 wins & 7 nominations more
User Comments:
Masterful Spanish ghost story - an instant classic more

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

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 (as Paco Maestre)
Junio Valverde ... Santi
Berta Ojea ... Alma
Adrián Lamana ... Gálvez
Daniel Esparza ... Marcos
Miguel Ortiz

Juan Carlos Vellido
Javier Bódalo ... Owl (as Javier González Madrigal)
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
The Devil's Backbone (Europe: English title) (UK) (USA)
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MPAA:
Rated R for violence, language and some sexuality.
Runtime:
106 min | Australia:108 min
Country:
Spain | Mexico
Language:
Spanish
Color:
Color
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Dolby Digital
Filming Locations:
Madrid, Spain
Company:
El Deseo S.A. more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Guillermo del Toro wrote the film when he was in college. more
Quotes:
Casares: Stay by my side as my light grows dim /as my blood slows down and my nerves shatter with stabbing pain / as my heart grows weak / and the wheels of my being turn slowly / Stay by my side /as my fragile body is racked by pain /which verges on truth / and manic time continues scattering dust / and furious life bursts out in flames. Stay by my side / as I fade / so you can point to the end of my struggle /and the twilight of eternal days / at the low, dark edge of life. more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in 'Hellboy': The Seeds of Creation (2004) (V) more
Soundtrack:
Besos Frios more

FAQ

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44 out of 49 people found the following comment useful:-
Masterful Spanish ghost story - an instant classic, 6 May 2005
10/10
Author: Libretio

THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE (El Espinazo del Diablo)

Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Sound format: Dolby Digital

During the Spanish Civil War, a young orphan boy (Fernando Tielve) is sent to an isolated boarding school where he encounters the ghost of a murdered child (Junio Valverde) who warns him of impending disaster...

A masterpiece. Filmed in Spain by writer-director Guillermo del Toro following his unhappy Hollywood debut (MIMIC), this spellbinding melodrama works both as an examination of the political turmoil which characterized the Spanish Civil War, and as a simple ghost story in which a tragic spirit seeks vengeance for a terrible crime. Employing restless camera-work and atmospheric set designs to their best advantage, del Toro visualizes his own script (co-written with Antonio Trashorras and David Muñoz) as the story of a vulnerable child cast adrift in a strange new world, where he must contend not only with everyday problems (such as the school bully, Ínigo Garcés, whose motives are rather more complex than they first appear), but also his frequent encounters with the unhappy ghost, some of which are genuinely unsettling (watch out for the heart-stopping sequence in which Tielve is besieged in a closet by the enraged phantom).

Production values are first-class throughout, ranging from César Macarrón's evocative art direction and Salvador Mayolas' ultra-creepy sound design, through to Luis de la Madrid's crisp editing skills and Javier Navarrete's unforgettable music score. Visual effects and makeup designs are also superb, though deliberately underplayed for maximum emotional effect. The cast is toplined by Spanish movie veterans Marisa Paredes (a favorite of Pedro Almodóvar) and Federico Luppi (CRONOS), and there are impressive turns by Irene Visedo as a young woman whose loyalties are divided by circumstances, and rising star Eduardo Noriega (the Spanish equivalent of Brad Pitt) as Visedo's boyfriend, an orphan-turned-caretaker whose volatile nature leads to a dramatic conclusion, with appalling consequences for everyone around him. Tielve is magnificent as the wide-eyed innocent at the center of the narrative, and Garcés is every bit his equal as the bully who reclaims his dignity during a climactic showdown with the forces of evil. Released around the same time as THE OTHERS (2001) - another Spanish ghost story, filmed in English as a vehicle for Nicole Kidman - THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE was consigned to Art-house distribution by virtue of its status as a subtitled movie and suffered a comparative loss at the US box-office, though del Toro's magical fever dream is unquestionably the better of the two films.

(Spanish dialogue)

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Recent Posts (updated daily)User
How accurate are the subtitles? eponine_t
Better than pan's? tburrowes
Good ghost non horror movie coricycle
Blurred photograph baggerman0
overrated anyone?? shootme243
Jacinto, the lonely prince shoshirosie
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