The Unenthusiastic Critic's 2020 Halloween Movie Marathon continues with Guillermo del Toro's The Devil's Backbone (2001).

First, this week—to help convince Nakea of the value of this marathon—we're talking about a new study from the University of Chicago, which proves that horror movies help people prepare psychologically to deal with real-world problems like global pandemics. 

Then, we're sitting down for Nakea's first viewing of The Devil's Backbone, del Toro's predecessor and companion piece to Pan's Labyrinth. Set during the Spanish Civil War, The Devil's Backbone is simultaneously a war movie, a ghost story, a coming-of-age tale, a heist movie, and a love story. Beautiful, creepy, and haunting in more ways than one, The Devil's Backbone is a classic fable about how, sometimes, there are much scarier things than ghosts.  

Program

00:00: Prologue: Guillermo del Toro on ghosts
00:40: Preliminary Discussion: How Horror Prepared Us for the Pandemic
15:44: Interlude: Del Toro on the value of scary movies
16:42: Cultural Osmosis: Pre-Viewing Discussion
22:41: Interlude: Trailer (and shameless appeal)
24:18: The Verdict: Post-Viewing Discussion
58:56: Outro and Next Week's Movie
1:00:22: Outtake

For links, show notes, additional episodes, and other information, please go to unaffiliatedcritic.com.