The most personal film by Guillermo del Toro is also among his most frightening and emotionally layered. Set during the final week of the Spanish Civil War, The Devil’s Backbone tells the tale of a ten-year-old boy who, after his freedom-fighting father is killed, is sent to a haunted rural orphanage full of terrible secrets. Del Toro effectively combines gothic ghost story, murder mystery, and historical melodrama in a stylish concoction that reminds us—as would his later Pan’s Labyrinth—that the scariest monsters are often the human ones
Blu-Ray
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:
New 2K digital film restoration, approved by director Guillermo del Toro and cinematographer Guillermo Navarro, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
Audio commentary featuring Del Toro
Video introduction by Del Toro from 2010
New interviews with Del Toro about the process of creating the ghost Santi and the drawings and designs made in preparation for the film
¿Que es un fantasma?, a 2004 making-of documentary
Spanish Gothic, a 2010 interview with Del Toro about the genre and its influence on his work
Interactive director’s notebook, with Del Toro’s drawings and handwritten notes, along with interviews with the filmmaker
Four deleted scenes, with optional commentary
New featurette about the Spanish Civil War as evoked in the film
Program comparing Del Toro’s thumbnail sketches and Carlos Giménez’s storyboards with the final film
Selected on-screen presentation of Del Toro’s thumbnail sketches alongside the sections of the final film they represent (Blu-ray edition only)
Trailer
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Mark Kermode
