it has some wonderful images in it, though: the bomb sticking in the middle of the school, the ghost of the boy santi, and just the general look of the film. there are times when i think the film could have been richer, visually, and when some of the characters could have been fleshed out more, but the main characters are well handled. considering two of these and young boys, no older than twelve, and how much i actively dislike films with children protagonists, this is no mean feat.
(i can't stand that haley joel whateverhisnameis kid from the Sixth Sense. stop putting him and children in films, just stop it.)
the Devil's Backbone is about carlos, a newly orphaned boy who is left in a school for other orphaned children, and the ghost that haunts it, and the civil war raging around it. i suspect i might have been some things as i'm not huge on my spanish civil war history, but even without that, it's a good film, worth the time.