Spain, 1939. In the last days of the Spanish Civil War, the young Carlos arrives at the Santa Lucía orphanage, where he will make friends and enemies as he follows the quiet footsteps of a mysterious presence eager for revenge.
Direction
Del Toro's most personal ghost story, before he had Hollywood money.
Production
The bomb in the courtyard: Chekhov's explosive, ticking with dread.
Cinematography
Golden hour in hell, amber tones that reek of decay.
Director
Guillermo del Toro
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Del Toro calls this his 'brother film' to Pan's Labyrinth—both examine childhood innocence crushed by fascism, but this one lacks fantasy's escape hatch.
The unexploded bomb in the courtyard was real: Spanish orphanages often housed actual civil war ordnance, and del Toro grew up hearing these stories.
ES
