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{es} El Espinazo del Diablo / The Devil's Backbone [1] (Spain, 2001), directed by Guillermo del Toro.

After Carlos - a 12-year-old whose father has died in the Spanish Civil War - arrives at an ominous boys' orphanage, he discovers the school is haunted and has many dark secrets which he must uncover.

Mexican director Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) is usually the title that makes it into lists like this. But spare a thought for this earlier effort – an effective ghost story set towards the end of the Spanish Civil War in a remote school for orphan boys. An unexploded aerial bomb has landed on the school’s grounds, but that’s not the only problem facing its pupils. There’s a sadistic janitor and, of course, a dank basement’s worth of unsettled spirits. Del Toro’s third feature is not as polished as his later fantasy, but it remains an enjoyable, old-school spinechiller.

<Best Spanish Films>