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Falcus
The Devil's Backbone
Spain, 2001
[Guillermo Del Toro]
Eduardo Noriega, Marisa Paredes, Federico Luppi
Horror / Drama
  
Director Guillermo del Toro brings this supernatural tale of a group of orphans in a school trapped in the middle of nowhere during the Spanish Civil War. Carlos is a young boy sent there from his relatively affluent background, and he quickly makes an enemy in 'leader of the gang' Jaime. The school has an undetonated bomb earthed in the yard, and shortly after Carlos arrives, he sees the spectre of a boy stood in a hallway. The classic horror eeriness begins, and as Carlos takes the bed of Santi, a boy who disappeared the same night the bomb fell, he begins to experience strange goings on from the ghost the other boys know as the "one who sighs".

As Carlos continues to try to find out what happened to the not-talked-about Santi, he sees the ghost many times, yet his courage never causes him to run away, as is expected of horror films. An apparant sub-plot develops into the main story, seemingly abandoning the ghost story for a while until it all comes together towards the end. Jacinto, a former orphan at the school who is now caretaker along with those who run the school: Dr Casares and Carmen (Marisa Parades). He is secretly after the gold held there and will stop at nothing to get it. But the ghost of Santi has other plans.

This film is a refreshing change back to classic horror from the more recent set of teen horror with cheap scares. It follows on from the success of
The Sixth Sense with the same creepy idea of having children see ghosts.

The sound and make up effects are first class and never fail to scare, but the ghost does appear a little too often, weakening the effect slightly. There are also a lot of characters and storylines that are not picked up on and developed. However, the dialogue is more intelligent and poetic than Hollywood has ever been.
This is a creepy ghost story with an excellent setting and production. You will be on the edge of your seat throughout.
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