It is the closing months of the Spanish Civil War and young Carlos (Fernando Tielve) is abandoned at a remote orphanage by comrades of his father, who have neglected to tell Carlos that his father is dead.
Headmistress Carmen (Marisa Paredes) and Dr. Casares (Federico Luppi) do their best to look after the children but times are hard.
Almost as soon as he arrives Carlos has visions of a spectral child who whispers "many of you will die"...
Guillermo del Toro does the unsettling but ambivalent supernatural overlapping with mundane evil much as he would later to great acclaim in Pan's Labyrinth. The orphanage is haunted but it's not the ghost you have to fear.
Things have power and meaning. A ring, a knife, a cache of gold. Strong on melancholy there's a tragic trajectory to events that's been brewing for a while.
Recommended 7/10