The Devil's Backbone (2001)
What is a ghost?
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.
In The Devil's Backbone, consciousness is carried by the dead — a plane of “haunted orphanage”. The story fights on E8/E9 of the E0–E14 reality ladder, compressing war, ghost, memory, trauma, authority.
Same rung, same subject
Films fighting at the same level of reality, about the same things.
Same subject, different rung
The same preoccupations examined at another scale — one mind versus a nation.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)E12/E14 · rare rung · authority, war
WarGames (1983)E12/E14 · rare rung · authority, war
Starship Troopers (1997)E12/E13 · rare rung · authority, war
Warcraft (2016)E12/E13 · rare rung · authority, war
War, Inc. (2008)E12/E13 · rare rung · authority, warAlso hides consciousness here
Other films that move a human interior onto the same kind of thing.
Shutter (2004)consciousness in the dead · haunted Bangkok
The Awakening (2011)consciousness in the dead · haunted boarding school
The Haunting (1999)consciousness in the dead · haunted manor
Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995)consciousness in the dead · urban legend horror
An American Haunting (2005)consciousness in the dead · haunted family
Shutter (2008)consciousness in the dead · haunted photographySame subject, different mask
The same preoccupations carried by a different kind of thing — grief told through the dead, an animal, a machine.
It (2017)consciousness in monsters · memory, trauma
It Chapter Two (2019)consciousness in monsters · memory, trauma
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014)consciousness in objects · authority, memory
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010)consciousness in animals · authority, war
The Water Horse (2007)consciousness in animals · authority, war
Green Lantern: Emerald Knights (2011)consciousness in aliens · authority, war
