YMMV / The Devil's Backbone

• Catharsis Factor: You will cheer when Jaime stabs Jacinto in the armpit with a spear, followed by the rest of the boys overpowering him and shoving him into the pool to drown. Bonus points for the fact that he might have been able to escape the water in time if he hadn't filled his pockets with gold.
• Complete Monster: The ruthless caretaker Jacinto is revealed as the murderer of the ghost boy Santi. Jacinto begins delving further into darkness when he is consumed by greed as he tries to steal gold that will go to fund the Republican loyalists against Franco. Burning the orphanage to try to kill everyone within and get to the safe containing the gold, Jacinto callously murders his own girlfriend Conchita before he returns to steal his treasure. Upon encountering all the boys there, he tries to kill them as well without any hint of remorse, just to feed his bottomless greed.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Carlos and Jaime are seen again briefly as young guerilla fighters in Pan's Labyrinth where both are killed by Captain Vidal and his forces, showing just what little of a future they really had. Guillermo del Toro confirms that it indeed is them.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Guillermo del Toro creating a story with fetus symbolism. I'm sure we'll never see that again.
• Jerkass Woobie: Jaime. He bullies Carlos (at first), but he has understandable reasons for being the way he is. He's traumatized from living through the horrors of the Spanish Civil War and the death of his parents, as well as witnessing the murder of his friend Santi and not being able to do anything to stop it.
• Moral Event Horizon: Jacinto burning the orphanage to get to the safe.
• Tear Jerker: Oy vey..:
  • Jaime confiding in Carlos that he witnessed Jacinto not only kill Santi, but dump in body in the basement pool. The trauma of seeing his friend murdered as well as seeing the bomb fall and not explode makes it clear affected him into what he became.
  • The ending: Carlos, Jaime, and the other survivors leave the orphanage...only for Cesare's spirit to watch them as they do so.
  Cesare: Ese fantasma...ese soy yo.^note That ghost, that ghost is I.

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