01
The Orphanage
Why this pick
A mournful Spanish ghost story where an old institution, childhood trauma, and the lingering past create dread through atmosphere and emotional revelation rather than shocks alone.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE2001 1h 48m MEX
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Movies like
The Devil's Backbone
DramaFantasyHorrorThriller
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved The Devil's Backbone, try these.
01
02
Pan's Labyrinth
Why this pick
Del Toro again joins the brutality of Francoist Spain to a child's haunted, tactile fantasy world, balancing fable-like imagery with grave moral stakes.
03
The Others
Why this pick
Its isolated house, postwar unease, solemn visual palette, and compassionate supernatural tension closely echo the melancholy, restrained horror of The Devil's Backbone.
04
Crimson Peak
Why this pick
A lavishly physical gothic ghost tale with blood-red secrets, vulnerable protagonists, and spirits treated as sorrowful traces of violence rather than simple monsters.
05
The Innocents
Why this pick
It shares the unsettling seriousness with which The Devil's Backbone views childhood: young characters encounter frightening forces while adult cruelty and neglect loom nearby.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
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01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
Casares and Carmen operate a small home for orphans in a remote part of Spain during the Spanish Civil War. Helping the couple mind the orphanage are Jacinto, the groundskeeper, and Conchita, a teacher who is also involved with Jacinto. Casares and Carmen are aligned with the Republican loyalists, and are hiding a large cache of gold that is used to back the Republican treasury; perhaps not coincidentally, the orphanage has also been subject to attacks from Francisco Franco's troops, and a defused bomb sits in the home's courtyard.
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02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
Eduardo Noriega
Jacinto
Marisa Paredes
Carmen
Adrián Lamana
Gálvez
Víctor Elías
Federico Luppi
Casares
Irene Visedo
Conchita