October 22, 2011

31 Days of Creepy Kids, Day 22: Santi (The Devil's Backbone, 2001)

Santi
Another Guillermo Del Toro movie, another creepy Orphanage. Themes of childhood, abandonment, war, and death are very big with our beloved Guillermo, as they tend to be present in most of his work in some way or another. It's all right though, because it all makes for some creepy goodness.

The unexploded bomb gag always impressed me, when watching this movie.
Santi is another ghostly kid, hanging around another Orphanage and creeping another group of kids and adults out. He has a reason for this though, and a fairly benevolent one, but that doesn't make it any less unsettling. Why can't little ghost kids ever just look cute and harmless, you know, like Casper?

"He who sighs."
The drawback to this movie is that the creepy ghost kid isn't evil, but rather sympathetic and helpful. We really wanted him to go on a ghostly murder spree, and use his creep factor to its full potential. Then again, that's not really why you watch a Guillermo Del Toro movie to begin with. That being said, Santi is creepy as all get-out, and his lurking in the shadows and sighing is very unsettling and eerie.

Even ghost kids have dreams....sigh...
We've said it before, and we'll say it again; Guillermo Del Toro is a Master Filmmaker. Sure, his movies can get bogged down in his own sentimentality, but that doesn't make them any less amazing or impactful. He's also got a knack with making kids creepy, even when they truly aren't. This is a great movie, with a great creepy kid, and you should definitely check it out. Maybe watch it back to back with The Orphanage. They'd go well together.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CEIOH3M/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00CEIOH3M&linkCode=as2&tag=thehorclu0a-20&linkId=CQ4GYXOB5QR2UHDZ

We know you'll get At the Mountains of Madness made one day, Guillermo, we will wait patiently.

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