The Devil’s Backbone (2001, 92%)
The Orphanage (2007, 87%)

After Mimic got stomped on at the 1997 box office, Guillermo del Toro looked to be the latest victim in Hollywood’s game of courting young international directors only to see their careers implode on our studio backlots. Del Toro returned to Spain and put together Devil’s Backbone, an exquisite classical ghost story set at an orphanage and about the young boy who unravels its grim past.

Years after Backbone, Del Toro was in position to foster new filmmaking talent, producing J.A. Bayona’s directorial debut: The Orphanage. Here, we shift to an adult point of view: a mother whose son goes missing just as she attempts to re-open the orphanage she grew up in, now ostensibly be occupied by spirits. A terrifying and tender picture.