Devil's Backbone: Suspense

Devil's Backbone is a movie that is full of suspense and haunting images that will leave you hoping to fall asleep in the night and wish those images will not visit you in your dreams. One scene that really shook me was the scene about on hour in when Carlos confronts the ghost of Santi. This scene is somewhat what you would think a stereotypical horror scene is, but even so, it still makes you want to cover your eyes and turn away because of the fear it makes you feel.
The scene starts with Carlos coming into the kitchen to see the ghost of Santi's back. Santi begins to turn around, and as he does so, the camera begins to zoom in on his face, and this comes to highlight Santi's grotesque nature with his pale skin, cracked skull with blood coming out, and cold, dead eyes. This image is obviously haunting, and causes Carlos to run away.

Carlos runs back into the dormitory, and a long shot is shown of him bending over at the end of the hall, trying to catch his breath. It shows him up close bending over, then at the end of the hall, and then once again up close, but his head is covering the hall. This creates the feeling that maybe he is not so safe, and sure enough as he lifts his head, at the end of the hall there is a silhouette of a young boy, assumedly Santi.

The shot reverses back to Carlos, who shakes his head, obviously quite frightened, and the shot goes back to the end of the hall, but this time much closer, and sure enough this figure is Santi. This close up shows him walking towards Carlos, and its also makes it feel like Santi is walking closer to you. 

Immediately afterwards, the shot moves to an over the shoulder shot behind Santi that lets you know that Santi sees Carlos, is moving forwards, and going after Carlos. 

Santi begins walking towards Carlos at a very slow pace (about the speed that most horror movie monsters move) but even at this pace, you know that Carlos is going to be caught up to. A shot of Santi's feet is shown to even emphasize the fact that Santi is not moving quickly, but Carlos is paralyzed by fear, so this allows Santi to gain some ground on Carlos. A bit of shot reverse shot goes back and forth between Carlos and Santi, and then once again a long shot of Santi down the hall, similar to the first hall shot shown above, but this time Santi is moving. 

Carlos turns to run, tries to get in a door, and it is obviously locked, increasing the urgency of the situation. He turns to another door, and a close up of him opening the knob is shown emphasizing the fact that this door is unlocked, but inside is just a closet, so it creates a sense of false security. Carlos goes to get inside the closet, but Santi has completely caught up to him, and is now standing next to him. 

This shot can been seen as almost an over the shoulder, but it also emphasizes that Santi has the upper-hand. He has gained on Carlos, and the way he is closer and higher up on the camera indicated the idea that he has the power in the situation. Carlos quickly gets in the closet and holds onto the handle while Santi tries to get in. Then, a close up of Carlos holding onto the handle is seen to put emphasis on the fact that the handle moving stops, making it seem like Santi has finally gone away.  

Of course at this time, the music gets really quiet to put the viewer on edge. Is Santi really gone or is he still standing outside, remaining quiet so that Carlos will gain false security? Carlos looks through the keyhole of the door to see if Santi is truly gone. 

The keyhole is empty. This close up is shown from a point of view perspective of what Carlos is seeing. This shot creates such a sense of urgency, making the viewer pray that nothing will pop up on the screen and that perhaps Santi is truly gone and everything will be okay. The camera zooms in even closer, each passing second creating more suspense and more fear. The silence feels too fake, and there is no way that Santi is actually gone. And of course, a after a few seconds, surely the part in the movie that made me jump out of my skin, is Santi's eye staring into your soul right through the keyhole. 

Afterwards, we see Carlos again in the closet holding on for dear life onto the doorknob and the camera tracks back to show Carlos's struggle to keep the door closed. The scene fades to black, and then the next shot is of the same hallway, but the lighting is now orange and bright indicating that it is the morning. A woman opens up the door of the closet, Carlos awakes, yells and runs out. This shows that Carlos is safe and made it through the night. 

While this scene is somewhat stereotypical of what you would think a suspenseful scene would be, it still shakes you to your core. The cinematography makes you feel like you are also in Carlos's place, and the urgency to get away is heightened intensely. The dark colors, and the blues makes you feel hopeless and alone. I think this scene to create suspense was done flawlessly, and gave me quite a fright.