Yo, fantasma

El espinazo del Diablo (The devil's backbone)

(2001)

Had a really difficult time picking a movie tonight, but finally the del Toro appetite-whetting I got last Sunday carried the day. The violence of this film always surprises me, but the beautiful eeriness of the ghost story never disappoints me. It might fairly be said that the characters are black and white, either heroically saintly or irretrievably wicked, but it is, after all, archetypal myth, a genre not really known for its subtle moral gradations. Bottom line: it works.