Del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone (2001) presents itself as a horror film about an orphanage in Spain caught in the midst of the Spanish civil war. However, del Toro’s construction of this narrative is far more based around an allegory of newer ideologies overcoming the previous fascist regime. Del Toro’s exploration of this is evident through both the character of the ghost, Santi, and also the climax of the film, in which the main characters of the film trick and kill the antagonist, Jacinto.
Del Toro very much constructs the character of Santi to be sympathetic, and for him to be presented in this manner, del Toro gives the ghost far more screen time than would usually be expected for a monster within a horror film, Santi’s appearance is not a mystery to the audience, “Rather than withhold the image of the monster... the ghost is exposed and made known to the audience and to Carlos early on in the film.” (Tierney, 2014, p. 170). Santi’s sympathetic representation is being used to simply highlight the brutality of the Spanish civil war, with his death occurring for no other reason than the simple unforgiving violence that the Nationalist party caused, with the film utilising the character of Jacinto to highlight the fascist ideology itself.
Jacinto’s antagonistic actions throughout the film are used allegorically to portray what del Toro believes to be the ahorrent acts of the civil war, with the conflict within the orphanage itself serving “The conflicts that arise and develop throughout the film function as a microcosm that reflects on the historical account of the Spanish Civil War” (Ibarra, 2012, p. 59), with Jacinto’s character playing the role of Francisco and the Nationalist party. Jacinto’s demise in this film is led by his own greed, and the ghost of Santi pulling him down further into the water, which del Toro is using to imply that the fascism will always be haunted and eventually defeated by its own actions. However, it could also be an ironic statement from del Toro in that the the boys have to defeat the aggressive, very masculine violence with more violence “They have ironically taken up weapons that suggest the virile, precisely in order to defeat the virile” (Davies, 2006, p. 145). By doing this, del Toro is implicitly stating that the mere presence of a fascist regime causes violence in that of itself, whether it be intentional or not.
In conclusion, I believe that it’s fair to state that, despite the fantastical element of Santi’s ghost, The Devil’s Backbone attempts to present itself as a far more real film due to its use of allegory of that of the civil war. Del Toro evidently throughout the film is attempting present his anti-Franco ideology through a far more realistic setting and through the use of sufferers of a fascist dictatorship.
Bibliography:
Davies, A. (2006). The Beautiful and the Monstrous Masculine: The Male Body and Horror in El espinazo del diablo (Guillermo del Toro 2001). Studies in Hispanic Cinemas, 3(3), 135–47. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2007443953&site=eds-liv
Del Toro, G. (Director). (2001). The Devil’s Backbone [Motion Picture]. Spain: El Deseo/Tequila Gang.
Ibarra, E. A. (2012). Permanent hauntings: spectral fantasies and national trauma in Guillermo del Toro’s El espinazo del diablo [The Devil’s Backbone]. Journal of Romance Studies, 12(1), 56–71. https://doi.org/10.3167/jrs.2012.120105
Tierney, D. (2014). Transnational Political Horror in Cronos (1993), El Espinazo Del Diablo (2001), and El Laberinto Del Fauno (2006). In A. Davies, D. Shaw & D. Tierney (Eds.), The Transnational Fantasies of Guillermo del Toro (pp. 161-182). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
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