This came in a couple of days ago , but with the site upgrades etc... Father Geek here has not been able to post it till now.
I was lucky enough to be on set outside Madrid last August to see Guillermo del Toro in action shooting, among other scenes, the climatic finish to this dark chiller. The sets were outstanding. The night shoot under the twinkling Spanish stars was lit perfectly as a chase of some sort developed through the bombed out rubble of the once picturesque, but remote orphanage. As I walked thru the courtyard where filming had occurred a few hours earlier I had to be careful of my steps lease I step in blood drenched sand where earlier pools of blood had stood in the shadow of the huge unexploded bomb, rising like some insane sculpture where a fountain normally would be. In a room upstairs, down the hall from the headmistress' bedroom, I witnessed piles of dead bodies and body parts from previous shooting lying near the eerie disembodied head of the film's resident ghost. Drinking warm milk against the night's chill I watched Guillermo Navarro and del Toro film a scene by campfire light... I reached for another wonderful little torta and walked up behind the film makers to get the camera's perspective... perfecto!
All in all a thrilling experience by any stretch of the imagination, but it was even more so in Father Geek here's case because I had read long before Guillermo's 1st draft of the screenplay, and then later the shooting script. Because months before shooting started he had sat in World Geek Headquarters in Austin talking thru his plans for shooting "my little independent Spanish horror film." I KNEW this film would kick ass, removed as it was from Hollywood Studio meddling little could go wrong. Seeing the sets, effects makeup, and props was all I needed, to KNOW Guillermo del Toro would be in top form this time.
Its finally opened in Spain, and here is a review sent to me from there two days ago...
Hi, I'm a Spaniard who has seen this morning The Devil's Backbone (El Espinazo del Diablo) and here goes my review: Don't worry no spoilers around.
It is one of the best pictures I've seen in a long, long time. Even the usually horrible Eduardo Noriega gives an impressive performance, as the evil turn of the movie. The Visual Effects are amazing... if this was an American movie (with more money invested in the FX, this would be a possible Oscar contender), and not only the ghost kid... also the bombing shots are outstanding. In the acting... the vetern Federico Luppi is as great as he is always, Marisa Paredes - who I sometimes don't like - is almost perfect in her role, Eduardo Noriega is fine - a possible "Goya" contender this year - as well as Irene Visedo and the kids who are excellant.
The story is beautiful strange haunting horror, wonderfully shot by Guillermo del Toro, and watching this movie I began wondering if next year the Oscars would maybe choose this one as 2001's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"... perhaps though its just too dark for American audiences, because the kids clearly show their evil side: this is no "Home Alone", it's wartime (1939), the kids are on the wrong side and it's almost sure that they'll die soon: hunger, misery, illness, a haunting spectre, scavengers, or the fascists will kill them for sure. With almost nothing to lose, and well... beaten by life its self these kids can do ANYTHING in the name of survival.
As my English is not as good as I want it to be, so please excuse my limited review, just note down this: don't you for any reason miss this one, don't let ANYBODY spoil the ending of it for you, just go see what I think deserves to be a best picture Oscar Nominee in 2002... although I know they won't really nominate a small Spanish horror movie.
You can call me......
"I was a teenage filmmaker"
