Good film, no Pan's Labyrinth or The Devil's Backbone though

Rating: 7/10 (25 March 2008)

It's a Spanish ghost story and whilst not a horror film in my opinion it certainly has creepy moments in it but there is also a lot of emotion, it's very sad. It lacks the imagination of either Pan's Labyrinth or The Devil's Backbone, Guillermo Del Toro "presents" it according to the credits and his influence is certainly there. Did i hear it was the director's first feature film? Impressive if it is. For me the story suffers from being too predictable - if there were any twists they didn't seem as such to me. Due to the emotion in the story though i think it's a film which will stay in your mind a long time. It will be interesting to see how the English language remake turns out, Del Toro is on board so hopefully it won't be spoilt. Go see this version if you can find it on anywhere, one cinema in the whole of West Yorkshire is currently showing it.... (sigh).