Director: Guillermo del Toro
Starring: Fernando Tielve, Íñigo Garcés, Eduardo Noriega, Marisa Paredes, Federico Luppi

Del Toro is a proud Mexican, but he has made Spain part of his film canon with Pan’s Labyrinth and this earlier chiller. This first Spanish effort, shot in Madrid and set in the countryside of Spain during the final months of the Spanish Civil War, is a rare ghost story where the live characters are more dangerous than the dead. Well, we say rare: it’s relatively common in these Spanish efforts, which might be why they succeed in surprising us.

The plot sees a young boy investigating strange goings-on at the orphanage where he has been left – apparently to await his father’s return from the war, but in fact because his father has died. There are ghostly figures to be seen, nefarious staff members to be trailed, and an unexploded bomb standing to attention in the courtyard (are you allowed to have those around boisterous children? Where’s Health and Safety when you need them, eh?). Just as Franco’s Nationalists prepare for the final defeat of the Republicans in the wider field, so events build to a head inside the walls of the orphanage, and long-buried secrets come to light. Creepy, convoluted and rather gripping, this marks – along with the likes of Pan’s Labyrinth and The Spirit Of The Beehive – another high point for child performances in scary circumstances.