The Devil's Backbone (2001)

I thought it was going to be a horror movie but it wasn't really. This was more a "some people are bad and ghosts don't like those people" movie.

The setting, a boys' orphanage, is full of atmosphere. We arrive with young Carlos and experience the place with his fresh eyes. It's a lonely place with a brutal pecking order. It's more than a little creepy. The handyman is a jerk who enjoys threatening the kids. Plus there's a big ol' unexploded bomb stuck, nose first, in the dusty yard in front of the main structure. So the place is already unpleasant enough and then things get downright scary when the ghost of a former child resident shows up (giving nothing away -- this happens way too early for it to be considered a secret).

But, with all that, I was bored. The story seemed kind of all over the place and without enough focus on why I rented it in the first place: I wanted to be scared. In the end, I just felt duped.

C-