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Set in the final months of Spain's 1939 civil war, The Devil's Backbone is a creepy, atmospheric ghost story that has a great deal in common with The Sixth Sense and The Others.
Carlos (Fernando Tielve) is the last boy to be housed at a remote, dilapidated orphanage sympathetic to the Republican cause.
When Carlos is assigned his bed, the other boys begin to whisper. It once belonged to Santi (Junio Valverde), a shy boy who disappeared and is believed to be dead.
Dead he is and his bloody, battered ghost keeps appearing to Carlos, beckoning him to one of the abandoned cellars of the orphanage.
The ghost also keeps telling Carlos that many people are soon to join him, but he doesn't say who or when.
The audience, like Carlos, has to try to discover before all is revealed what happened to Santi the night a bomb fell from the sky and lodged itself in the courtyard.
It did not explode and sits like another chilling omen of horrible things to come.
The orphanage is run by Carmen (Marisa Paredes), the wife of the headmaster who was captured by General Franco's Nationalists.
Casares (Federico Luppi), her husband's best friend and fellow-teacher, has been her not-so-secret admirer for years, but Carmen has been seducing former student Jacinto (Eduardo Noriega) ever since he turned 17.
He's now the faithful caretaker, but his motives are most suspect seeing he knows Carmen has a hidden stash of gold bars she keeps feeding to the Republican army forces.
Like Cronos, del Toro's 1993 vampire tale, The Devil's Backbone pulsates with sexual tension, as well as foreboding.
The performances of the children are outstanding and Noriega brings a genuine sensuality to his character's evil.
There are a couple of excellent plot twists in The Devil's Backbone, but what makes the film so haunting is del Toro's confident direction.
(This film is rated R)