Perhaps we shouldn’t say Guillermo del Toro makes “horror” films but rather “terror” films. Don’t get me wrong – there are plenty of things to be scared of in The Devil’s Backbone but “The One Who Sighs” isn’t one of them. After all, what’s so scary about ghosts when there’s so many horrible things of which the living are capable?
The Nationalists were strongly aligned with the Catholic Church during the civil war (the Falangists even wrote about how they were unsure if they were fascists due to their Catholicism). Republican attacks on the Church were a big part of Nationalist propaganda. Since the orphanage is aligned with the Republicans, it’s not surprising Catholic imagery has been removed.
The Republicans were actually joined by many volunteers from other countries. George Orwell was one of them, and wrote about it in Homage to Catalonia. The Soviet Union backed one faction amongst the Republicans who turned against the others, so Orwell (who by chance wound up with a Trotskyist group) was left very embittered against them, with the result being Trotsky & Stalin analogues in both Animal Farm & 1984.
That’s some interesting historical context. I wanted to read more about it, but also didn’t want to fall down a rabbit hole and be tempted to make the context the text.
The Nationalists were strongly aligned with the Catholic Church during the civil war (the Falangists even wrote about how they were unsure if they were fascists due to their Catholicism). Republican attacks on the Church were a big part of Nationalist propaganda. Since the orphanage is aligned with the Republicans, it’s not surprising Catholic imagery has been removed.
The Republicans were actually joined by many volunteers from other countries. George Orwell was one of them, and wrote about it in Homage to Catalonia. The Soviet Union backed one faction amongst the Republicans who turned against the others, so Orwell (who by chance wound up with a Trotskyist group) was left very embittered against them, with the result being Trotsky & Stalin analogues in both Animal Farm & 1984.
That’s some interesting historical context. I wanted to read more about it, but also didn’t want to fall down a rabbit hole and be tempted to make the context the text.