Tuesday, October 11, 2016

31 Days of Halloween - Day 11



Guillermo del Toro's The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth - Studies in the Horror Film  edited by Danel Olson

Centipede Press. 2016.

Part of Centipede Press' Studies in the Horror film series, this book is a collection of essays and interviews pertaining to the pair of Guillermo del Toro's outstanding fantasy films set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War. As someone who finds that dry academic analysis of anything tends to tell more about the pomposity of the writer than the subject, I'm happy to report that the analytical essays here are informative and insightful and only one of them crosses the line into going into intellectual grandstanding, but even that essay had its moments. The interviews with various cast and crew members from both films, along with a group with del Toro himself were also insightful both to art of filmmaking and the construction of character and story. Recommended.





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