Across his decade-long career as a director, Guillermo del Toro has proven countless times why he’s one of the most original voices in modern genre cinema. The Mexican-born auteur and Academy Award-winning director has gone through genres like horror, sci-fi, and fantasy, but he’s also dug deep into the crevices of hard-to-tackle subgenres and their respective hybrids. While there’s no questioning his current status – especially after his outstanding 2025 adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – not many have taken their time to explore his origins in the industry. And there’s no better time than now to revisit his 2001 film The Devil’s Backbone, the critically acclaimed horror drama that famed critic Roger Ebert himself called “mournful and beautiful,” and which is currently streaming for free.
The Devil’s Backbone is part of Tubi’s vast catalog of horror, and though there are other noteworthy scary titles, del Toro’s seminal ghost story truly stands out. Blending war drama and a coming-of-age plotline, The Devil’s Backbone is a character-driven horror movie featuring the director’s signature presentation of monsters – the ones that live in other realms, of course, but also the ones that reside among us. Strangely, this is one ghost story where the creepy ghouls aren’t exactly the scariest and most threatening figures. This doesn’t mean they won’t scare the pants off of viewers.
A Different Kind of Ghost Story
The story takes place in the late ’30s, right as Spain is going through the horrific Civil War, and thousands of children have become permanent residents in orphanages. Among them is Carlos, a new arrival in a remote orphanage that has a bomb that failed to detonate in the courtyard. Carlos begins hearing things in the dark, and he finds out that it’s the ghost of another boy who went missing.
When Jacinto, one of the caretakers, shows his true colors, and threatens to take down the orphanage, the owners decide to stand up to him. When Carlos keeps digging into the truth of Santi, the ghostly boy wandering through the orphanage, he finds out the terrifying truth behind his disappearance, and how it may have been the work of someone in the orphan’s home.
‘The Devil’s Backbone’ Is Early Proof of Del Toro’s Prowess in Horror
Although the war subplot becomes an essential part of the story, The Devil’s Backbone is a pure horror movie, with shades of Gothic elements and enough jump scares to make you feel very uncomfortable. It is essentially a movie about a boy discovering the truth about a ghost that keeps haunting him. But it is also a story about Carlos’ courage coming into play in order to realize that the real monster is not the one hiding in the dark.
The Devil’s Backbone currently sits at 93% on the critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, boasting a Certified Fresh label. Ebert gave the film three out of four stars, and wrote in his review, “Ghosts are more interesting when they have their reasons. They should have unfinished affairs of the heart or soul. Too many movies use them simply for shock value, as if they exist to take cues from the screenplay. The Devil’s Backbone, a mournful and beautiful new ghost story by Guillermo del Toro, understands that most ghosts are sad, and are attempting not to frighten us but to urgently communicate something that must be known so that they can rest.”
The film was del Toro’s realization of an old passion project after his first Hollywood film, Mimic. It was based on his script, co-written with Spanish filmmakers David Muñoz and Antonio Trashorras. It is a co-production between Spain and Mexico, and features prominent Spanish stars Marisa Paredes and Eduardo Noriega, as well as Federico Luppi, famous for starring in del Toro’s debut, Cronos. It is, by far, one of the director’s best horror movies in his impressive filmography.
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