Criterion to release Guillermo del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone on Blu-ray

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Criterion has just announced their release of Guillermo del Toro’s THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE on Blu-ray which will be available on July 30th. The stunning new transfer will also come with a ton of great special features which you can check out below for all the details!

The most personal film by Guillermo del Toro is also among his most frightening and emotionally layered. Set during the final week of the Spanish Civil War, The Devil’s Backbone tells the tale of a ten-year-old boy who, after his freedom-fighting father is killed, is sent to a haunted rural orphanage full of terrible secrets. Del Toro effectively combines gothic ghost story, murder mystery, and historical melodrama in a stylish concoction that reminds us—as would his later Pan’s Labyrinth—that the scariest monsters are often the human ones.

The Disc Includes:

– New 2K digital film restoration, approved by director Guillermo del Toro and cinematographer Guillermo Navarro, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
– Audio commentary featuring Del Toro
– Video introduction by Del Toro from 2010
– New interviews with Del Toro about the process of creating the ghost Santi and the drawings and designs made in preparation for the film
– ¿Que es un fantasma?, a 2004 making-of documentary
– Spanish Gothic, a 2010 interview with Del Toro about the genre and its influence on his work
– Interactive director’s notebook, with Del Toro’s drawings and handwritten notes, along with interviews with the filmmaker
– Four deleted scenes, with optional commentary
– New featurette about the Spanish Civil War as evoked in the film
– Program comparing Del Toro’s thumbnail sketches and Carlos Giménez’s storyboards with the final film
– Selected on-screen presentation of Del Toro’s thumbnail sketches alongside the sections of the final film they represent (Blu-ray edition only)
– Trailer
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Mark Kermode