The Devil's Backbone

Happy Halloween, folks. 

As is only appropriate for day like today (er... or late last night) I watched a horror movie. A Guillermo del Toro horror movie, The Devil's Backbone. I've been seeing this film on a number of internet top horror movie lists and finally got around to seeing it for myself. General impression: it's a good story with strong characters, but nothing really to write home about... plus it's not scary at all. 

The film is center around a Spanish orphanage sometime between the early- to mid-1900's (I'm just going off the models of the cars shown in the movie). There's some sort of war going, but I really don't know anything about Spanish or European history so that's as much as I'll go into on that. Regardless, a new boy shows up at the orphanage and is reluctantly taken in considering the dangerous predicament the orphanage is in during these war times. Soon after being taken in, this boy, Carlos, starts seeing signs of a strange ghost lurking around the grounds. Without ruining anymore of the story, I'll leave it there. A boy in an orphanage tries to track down a ghost harmlessly roaming the ground. 

The story is actually far more involved than just ghost story, but the main narrative does end up pivoting about this strange ghost child and the mystery behind his demise. However, I'm going to leave it up to the rest of you to watch it for yourself. 

As with most of Guillermo del Toro's work, I like this movie. Well shot, well acted, interesting story. All that aside, it's far beneath what I witnessed in Pan's Labyrinth (what I think most would consider his best movie), but definitely still worth a watch if you find yourself attracted to del Toro's style. 

One thing that bothers after watching this whole movie is what exactly the Devil's Backbone is. Now, if no one has seen this film, then I'm basically just going to be rambling to myself. Still, I have to get this off my chest. In the middle of the movie, Carlos is having a conversation with the doctor of the orphanage. He reveals all these jars in his office where it looks like dead fetuses are being contained and preserved in a rum-like substance. These fetuses also all have exposed vertebrae; the deformity that the doctor refers to as the Devil's Backbone. He then proceeds to pour himself a shot of rum from this tank that the fetuses are marinating in and explains that they sell these libations to the public as a miracle healing tonic. All that aside, I fucking don't know what to make of it? Without trying to explain the whole movie, this rum product doesn't have a whole lot to do with the plot. Although there are elements of the supernatural, there's no direct correlation to this dead baby-rum drink. 

I don't know. The movie was in subtitles. Maybe something got lost in translation, or maybe I'm just too dense to pick up on something obvious. Whatever... The movie seems to be titled around this dead baby-rum drink, yet it has practically nothing to do with the plot. 

Speaking of being dense, there's also an old bomb jutting out of the ground in the middle of the orphanage's courtyard. It was dropped sometime before the start of the film during a failed attempt to blow the joint in the middle of a bombing raid. People talk about it from time to time explaining it's just a dud, but no one has the strength to move it from the ground. People also explain they can hear ticking and that it has the potential to blow one day. Once again, serves no point in the plot of the story. Is it for symbolism only? That this whole orphanage is just a ticking time bomb waiting to go up in flames? And since when is symbolism pointed out directly in dialogue... on more than one occasion? Apologies for ranting. I can't figure this shit out and it's beginning to bug me.

For that reason, I encourage others to go out and see this film and return to me to help answer my questions/frustrations. 

Thanks... and happy Halloween.