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The Devil's Backbone poster

Movies that feel likeThe Devil's Backbone (2001)

Spain, 1939. In the last days of the Spanish Civil War, the young Carlos arrives at the Santa Lucía orphanage, where he will make friends and enemies as he follows the quiet footsteps of a mysterious presence eager for revenge.

If you loved The Devil's Backbone, the closest films we have are Frankenstein (2025), November (2017) and The Orphanage (2007). All three share The Devil's Backbone's contemplative and dread feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Poison for the Fairies (1986).

🍅 93% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.3 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Guillermo del Torodreamlikecontemplativedreadunsettlingtense
11 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Peacock Premium

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If The Devil's Backbone hit the spot, these will too

Frankenstein poster
Frankenstein
2025 · dir. Guillermo del Toro
🍅 85%★ 7.4drama · fantasy · horrorNetflix

Guillermo del Toro directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

The difference: Trades the tension of The Devil's Backbone for an angle of its own

Dr. Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant but egotistical scientist, brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.

November poster
November
2017 · dir. Rainer Sarnet
🍅 93%★ 7.1drama · fantasy · romance

Both land dream logic and stillness at once

The difference: Sits closer to romance than The Devil's Backbone does

In a poor Estonian village, a group of peasants use magic and folk remedies to survive the winter, and a young woman tries to get a young man to love her.

The Orphanage poster
The Orphanage
2007 · dir. J. A. Bayona
🍅 87%★ 7.4horror · drama · thriller

Both are working the same pair: orphanage, gothic horror

A woman brings her family back to her childhood home, which used to be an orphanage, intent on reopening it. Before long, her son starts to communicate with a new invisible friend.

Viy poster
Viy
1967 · dir. Georgi Kropachyov
🍅 88%★ 7.1drama · fantasy · horror

Common ground: gothic horror

The difference: Made in the 1960s, in a different era of the craft

A seminary student on monastery holiday kills an old witch in a remote village. The hag then transforms into a beautiful young woman whose dying wish is for him to watch over her wake for three nights. With terrors occurring and his faith waning, he reads prayers on the overnight watch and tries to survive the supernatural encounters.

Tigers Are Not Afraid poster
Tigers Are Not Afraid
2017 · dir. Issa López
🍅 97%★ 6.9fantasy · horrorRent or buy

Both are built on the same subject: ghost

When her mother suddenly disappears with no one to care for her, young Estrella ends up on the street and joins a gang of children, triggering a dangerous and tragic chain of events.

Interview with the Vampire poster
Interview with the Vampire
1994 · dir. Neil Jordan
🍅 66%★ 7.5horror · drama · fantasyMax

Dread-soaked where it counts, unsettling underneath

The difference: The scrappier of the two with critics

A vampire relates his epic life story of love, betrayal, loneliness, and dark hunger to an over-curious reporter.

Blade II poster
Blade II
2002 · dir. Guillermo del Toro
🍅 57%★ 6.7fantasy · horror · actionPeacock

Both are Guillermo del Toro's work, and they rhyme

The difference: Leans harder into action than The Devil's Backbone does

Blade forms an uneasy alliance with the vampire council in order to combat the Reapers, who are feeding on vampires.

Poison for the Fairies poster
Poison for the Fairies
1986 · dir. Carlos Enrique Taboada
★ 7.2fantasy · horror

Fantasy with a pulse of dream logic, in both cases

In 1965 Mexico City, Flavia, a wealthy yet lonely schoolgirl, befriends Veronica, a young orphan girl who has a fascination with witchcraft. Veronica convinces Flavia that she is a real witch and forces her to be her assistant. The children's games gradually become more serious and Veronica demands more from Flavia.

Thesis poster
Thesis
1996 · dir. Alejandro Amenábar
🍅 86%★ 7.4horror · thriller

Both lean on tension more than on horror

While working on a thesis about audiovisual violence, film student Ángela finds a snuff video where a girl is tortured until death. Soon she discovers that she was a former student in her university, and that the authors of the video are not very far either.

Crimson Peak poster
Crimson Peak
2015 · dir. Guillermo del Toro
🍅 72%★ 6.5horror · mystery · romanceNetflix

The same preoccupation in both: ghost

In the aftermath of a family tragedy, an aspiring author is torn between love for her childhood friend and the temptation of a mysterious outsider. Trying to escape the ghosts of her past, she is swept away to a house that breathes, bleeds… and remembers.

Un Chien Andalou poster
Un Chien Andalou
1929 · dir. Luis Buñuel
🍅 100%★ 7.6fantasy · thriller · horror

Dread-soaked thriller in both cases

Un Chien Andalou is an European avant-garde surrealist film, a collaboration between director Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali.

Lake Mungo poster
Lake Mungo
2009 · dir. Joel Anderson
🍅 92%★ 6.2horror · thriller

Drama built on unease, twice over

After 16-year-old Alice Palmer drowns at a local dam, her family experiences a series of strange, inexplicable events centered in and around their home. Unsettled, the Palmers seek the help of a psychic and parapsychologist, who discovers that Alice led a secret, double life. At Lake Mungo, Alice's secret past emerges.

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The best-reviewed films that share The Devil's Backbone’s defining feeling.