Wonkette Movie Night: The Devil's Backbone
'What is a ghost? A tragedy condemned to repeat itself time and again? An instant of pain, perhaps. Something dead which still seems to be alive. An emotion suspended in time.'
This is a super creepy yet deeply moving film. You are going to want to wrap a blanket around yourself because blankets are a well known defense against creepy things. Also lift your feet up off the floor to make sure nothing reaches out from beneath your chair to touch your feet. Have your snacks and beverages at hand because you do not want to be the one leaving the room, saying I’ll be right back, as we know what happens to those people!
It is the Spanish Civil War and ten year old Carlos has arrived at a compound that seems to be made from dust and despair. In the center sits an unexploded bomb dropped by Francisco Franco’s troops. Carlos is clueless that this place is an orphanage after arriving with his tutor, a friend of his father. Carlos sees a mystery boy who is there one second and gone the next.
Carlos settles into life with the other boys but sees “the one who sighs” in shadows and drifting bits of blackness. While going for water when he should be in bed he discovers there’s more than ghosts hidden in the orphanage’s walls. There’s gold, greed and dark secrets and when those things collide, death can follow.
A restless spirit wanders in the shadows and dark corners, seeking light and resolution. A restless man with no spirit also stalks this space, his is the vileness of guilt and greed that can a drive a hollow person to even darker depths. What is at first perceived as the true thing to be feared, a ghost with haunting eyes becomes the opposite. While a handsome man with haunting eyes reveals who the monster truly is.
The film’s horror lies not only in the phantom spirit that lurks in the shadows, but in the evil that lurks in the hearts of men. Against a backdrop of civil war between the Republican Faction and the Nationalist faction, these lost boys still managed to be boys, reading comic books, getting crushes and crushing bullies.
The Devil’s Backbone is available for free on OKru (Russian video streaming site similar to YouTube.) $3.99 in the usual places.
The Devil’s Backbone stars Fernando Tielve, Iñigo Garcés, Federico Luppi, Eduardo Noriega, Marisa Paredes, Junio Valverde, Andreas Muñoz, and Irene Visedo. Directed by Guillermo del Toro.
To make requests and see the movie lists and schedules go to WonkMovie.
The animated short is Madame Tutli-Putli from The National Film Board of Canada.
Our next Movie Night selection Let The Right One In is free with ads on Tubi, Pluto, The Roku Channel, Xumo Play and Fandango At Home. Free with subscription on Prime.
𝐁𝐎𝐍𝐔𝐒 𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐀:
Guillermo del Toro wrote the film when he was in college. Spending 16 years to perfect it, he has said that this is his favorite movie of his own.
After del Toro's poor results with Mimic (1997), he declared he had trouble getting any further films financed, as the Weinstein brothers were "badmouthing him everywhere". Pedro Almodovar, who loved his previous work with Cronos (1992) had offered to help him get a movie produced in Spain. Del Toro ultimately accepted his offer, rewriting the original script, which was originally meant to take place during the Mexican Revolution, to be adapted to the Spanish Civil War times.
If the cops had listened to me when she first went missing they could have arrested the killer. I saw her the day she disappeared as she jogged on my street every day. that day i had just got back from grocery shopping. I saw her killer too, a man following her that i didn't realize was following her till it was way, way too late. And I know that sounds crazy but it is a story I should write a book about someday. I saw her killer. I described him in perfect detail to the police two days after she went missing. But my info got lost before they found the body. And i assumed I was completely wrong about what I'd seen the day she disappeared, because no cops asked for a follow up. Then a year later a suspect was identified, it was the same motherfucker i had perfectly described to cops. I was shocked how perfectly i had gotten the description. But when I contacted the detectives there was no record of my first call to police. The lead detective told me they knew this man had done it but could not prove it. Her murder still is unsolved. That story is totally true and i repeat that because sometimes I, myself am still shocked by it.
https://www.trailwentcold.com/e/the-trail-went-cold-%E2%80%93-minisode-32-%E2%80%93-sarah-fox/
I should go to bed now. Vodka, the crowbar for prying stories loose! Fuck I've experienced some crazy shit. Good night all!