2. The Devil's Backbone
Perhaps as a means of compensation for his unsavoury experience on Mimic, del Toro decided to return to Spain in 2001 for the micro-budgeted, Pedro Almodovar-produced Gothic horror classic, The Devil's Backbone. This film shares a lot of DNA with the director's later Pan's Labyrinth, acting as something of a blueprint for that idea, an existential exploration of the effects of war on the young and innocent, taking place largely in an orphanage during the Spanish Civil War. Like Labyrinth, Backbone is at once a visually stunning, spellbinding tale and also utterly uncompromising in its depiction of the queasier aspects of war. Arguably more emotionally overwhelming than Pan's Labyrinth because it's not so firmly rooted in the mystical and magical, what's undeniable is that this is one of the director's most assured, visually striking works, and all he needed was a $4.5 million budget to do it. The $180 million he received for Pacific Rim may have achieved many things, but a visceral, emotional engagement with the characters is certainly not one of them. Watch this in a double bill with Pan's Labyrinth and you've got quite the night in indeed.