Christian Jones Starburst Apr 7, 2026

Del Toro’s touch is everywhere: suspense unfurls with patient precision, and the production design – scarred courtyards, dim cellars – mirrors the story’s buried secrets.

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Steve Rose Guardian Dec 23, 2025 5/5

The political and the supernatural come together beautifully (and violently), and the unsentimental portrayal of childhood is refreshing, with terrific performances from the boy actors. It’s altogether a supremely satisfying tale.

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Matt Brunson Film Frenzy Dec 5, 2022 3/4

Fine performances, innovative effects, and the pointed backdrop of the Spanish Civil War.

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Josh Larsen LarsenOnFilm Jul 8, 2022 3.5/4

Del Toro considers history, politics, and art through a gothically poetic lens...

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Ford Maddox Brown Starburst Jul 24, 2017 9/10

The Devil's Backbone truly is a masterful film, one rife with both symbolism and story. This is a poetic piece of cinema that manages to expose the horrors of war through the lens of fantasy.

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Lucero Solórzano Excelsior (MX) Oct 31, 2016

A microcosm, that is like a small war, combining living and dead, resentments, betrayals and revenge in an exceptional way with an impeccable cast. [Full review in Spanish]

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Jami Bernard New York Daily News Oct 14, 2014 3/4

Guillermo Del Toro's The Devil's Backbone is a really cool ghost story with an extraordinary human and political dimension.

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Austin Trunick Under the Radar Sep 8, 2014 7/10

Although spooky, The Devil's Backbone becomes weighed down by perhaps one too many subplots.

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Serena Donadoni Metro Times (Detroit, MI) Oct 7, 2013

What Del Toro provides with The Devil's Backbone is the recognition that evil exists within the most routine of circumstances. That knowledge is as old as humanity's belief in the fantastic, and just as powerful.

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Michael Sragow Baltimore Sun Oct 7, 2013

You may find that images from this movie clamber back into your memory weeks after you see it, and give your spine a chill.

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Bruce Diones The New Yorker Oct 7, 2013

Del Toro's elegant pacing and gothic touches imbue the proceedings with a cool mystery.

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Andrew Collins Radio Times Oct 7, 2013 4/5

Though the whodunnit takes a fairly predictable course, the Spanish Civil War background adds powerful narrative and symbolic weight, while the striking imagery is simply poetic.

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Joe Morgenstern Wall Street Journal Oct 7, 2013

It's a horror flick, and a creepily good one, that also functions as an allegory of the war that still haunts Spain seven decades later.

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David Sterritt Christian Science Monitor Oct 7, 2013 3/4

This moody ghost story follows generally familiar lines despite its unusual historical setting, but it's imaginatively filmed and builds a sense of brooding emotional power.

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Nathan Rabin AV Club Oct 7, 2013

The Devil's Backbone augments its abundant creepiness with an equally powerful poignancy.

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James Kendrick Q Network Film Desk Aug 21, 2013 4/4

an elegant, emotionally fraught ghost story

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Peter Canavese Groucho Reviews Aug 12, 2013 3.5/4

Pure, uncut del Toro. The filmmaker accomplishes riveting scenes of suspense and scares he honestly come by, sticking the landing of every effect he attempts. [Blu-ray]

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David Nusair Reel Film Reviews Jan 15, 2013 2/4

...a hopelessly erratic piece of work.

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Kelly Vance East Bay Express May 4, 2010

It's a schoolboy ghost story, the kind best told after lights-out.

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