Guillermo del Toro returns to Spanish-language thrillseeking with this creepfest, a period piece ghost story that often gets under your skin, though not quite with the same dramatic flair as Cronos. Del Toro puts the action at the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939, plopping us at a remote orphanage in the desert countryside. The orphanage has bigger problems than Franco, however: There's gold hidden in them thar walls, an unexploded bomb in the courtyard, and a dead kid at the bottom of a pool. Throw into the mix some pickled fetuses (and one horrific scene where the old patriarch drinks some of the brine), and you're set up for a freakshow royale.
Aka El Espinazo del diablo.
