Guillermo Del Toro’s 2001 film, El Espinazo del Diablo translated to The Devil’s Backbone, is a chilling ghost story set in Spain in the middle of their civil war. A young boy named Carlos arrives at an orphanage that is haunted by a ghost. The ghost isn’t the only looming presence, as there is a large bomb in the center of the courtyard. It is here at the orphanage that the young boys, along with their headmistress, caretaker, and doctor, must attempt to retain normalcy as a distant war creeps ever closer.
Del Toro uses this film to show how war affects those who aren’t directly connected to it by fueling their inner turmoil and how this leads people to seek an outlet resulting most commonly on relying on violence or superstition. The Devil’s Backbone shows how wars affect those who aren’t involved in the actual fighting. This unintended consequence prods character’s emotions and heightens already existing problems. Del Toro shows this impact on the isolated setting of the orphanage where the film primarily takes place. The building itself is miles from civilization surrounded by brutal desert.
The orphanage is a sandy brown with occasional red brick and rust surrounding the windows which serves as a backdrop and mimics its inhabitants bland lives marked with the red of war. The bomb which resides at the heart of the courtyard serves as a physical manifestation of the war and the silent tension it creates. The bomb is deactivated but the children say they can still “hear it’s heart ticking,” which intensifies the presence of the war amongst innocents. The film primarily follows Carlos, who’s father died in the war, although he is unaware of this death, which is why he is left at this orphanage.
Here he meets the caretaker, Jacinto, whose dark ambitions are only heightened by the looming sense of destruction of war. The film itself is washed in a brownish hue with pops of amber and red particularly in scenes when violence or malintent is present. Along with the setting itself, the ever present hints of red never let violence leave the forefront of the viewer’s mind. Del Toro explicitly shows how the violence of war has crept into the safety of the orphanage walls and into the lives of its inhabitants. This is to show the unintended consequence that war has and how it builds the tension amongst them.
With this looming over them the orphanage seems less like a safe haven and more like a cage which causes the characters to look outside of themselves for solutions to their ever present problems. Fear and stress is a primary result of the ever present tension of war. This causes individuals to act more rashly than they may if the war wasn’t present. This is particularly evident with Jacinto. He had been trying to steal the headmistress’s gold to run away and save himself and his fiance but with the rumor of war brutality coming closer to the orphanage, he makes the rash decision that it is worth killing for.
His violent tendencies which ranged from cutting Carlos with a pocketknife to murdering Santi are magnified by his fear. This malice grows in him until he pours gasoline over the kitchen to blow up the orphanage, kills his fiance, and tries to kill the remaining orphans. To justify his actions he says “We’re at war, it’s a drop of water in the ocean. ” The headmistress reveals that Jacinto was at the orphanage as a boy and he had grown to resent it. This was the original sentiment that causes him to act out this way. The boy that Jacinto kills, Santi, returns as a ghost.
The ghost appears the same night the bomb lands in the courtyard of the orphanage. He terrifies the boys living there but seems to want to talk with Carlos. He is seeking justice against his killer, justice through death. The Devil’s Backbone integrates justice into violence showing how sometimes the two meet. The presence of the vengeful spirit is the culmination of the rash violence that a war-like mentality causes. Santi was an innocent bystander who was murdered out of fear driven by the encroaching war.
It is significant that Del Toro include the ghost because it shows the repercussions of these violent actions and he effects it has on innocent lives. Jacinto’s violent rampage started off as simple frustration stewing inside of him for years. The outbursts of rage shown in the film serve as a series of cracks in the dam holding back his true malice. With the reality of impending danger, his true character shows through as it intensifies his emotions like a pressure cooker. To find a sense of security he grasps onto cruelty and violence. To him, as well as to many others in this time of war, violence becomes the core of their values and decisions out of fear and self preservation.
But the war isn’t entirely responsible for those actions, it simply stirs up the turmoil already bottled up inside of them. The irony of Jacinto’s cruelty is that it was his greed and violence that led to his death, in which Santi was able to find his justice. Beyond violence, a major theme of The Devil’s Backbone is reliance on superstition and religion in times of war and desperation. This is commonly due to the fact that people find solace in the thought that a greater power beyond themselves may be able to help them.
With this being a ghost movie, the supernatural and paranormal are explicitly present throughout. The ghosts in the film have a sort of supernatural ability to help those searching for justice. The group of orphans are the most aware of the paranormal presence and are the most receptive to it as they are the ones who need protection the most. When the boys are locked in the broom closet with their potential death looming over them, a ghost opens the door for them.
An injured bov outside the door witnessed the ghost and told the rest of the orphans,” Dr. Casares opened the door. He said I’d be alright and that we should be brave. ” This is a prime example of how their belief in the supernatural gives them hope and guidance. When Carlos first believes he sees the ghost of Santi, he goes to Dr. Casares asking if he also believes in ghosts. He expresses his belief in the sciences over superstition adding, “Spain is full of superstition. Come now. Europe is sick with fear now, and fear sickens the soul and that in turn makes us see things. ”
There is a certain irony in that Dr. Casares doesn’t believe in ghosts, yet ecoming one himself. It is important that it’s not just the boys being superstitious because it could easily be dismissed as childish imagination, but because it’s the entire country it becomes clear that the war has impacted where its citizens get their hope from. The war has scared the people of Spain so badly that most turn to superstition. Within this it has caused a surge in religious belief as well. When the boys are being punished for sneaking around at night, they are told to clean up a statue of Jesus on the cross and take it to the courtyard.
The next scene is the headmistress placing several religious portraits around the school and revealing a statue of John the Baptist. These props also reappear when the boys are locked in the broom closet, desperate for hope. Noticing the surge in religious figures, Dr. Casares says, “Christ in the yard and John the Baptist in here. Are things really that bad? ” This appearance of religious figures is not uncommon for times of desperation for a lot of people find hope in them. When war ravages a country, its people often feel backed into a corner. They seek a form of hope that is bigger than themselves.
Some people believe in something hard enough to make it work for them, others have to go and make it happen for themselves. The tensions and ever present sense of mortality heightens emotions and acts like a magnifying glass. The belief in superstition or violent tendencies don’t simply come out of nowhere, but it takes preexisting character traits and enhance them, sometimes to fatal degree. The Devil’s Backbone shows these enhanced traits to reveal how vulnerable mankind is and how it is very easy to become reliant on anything that brings hope when it seems that there is none elsewhere.
