Spain's official submission to the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2008 Oscars, a ghost story produced by Guillermo Del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth).
A woman brings her family back to her childhood home, where she opens an orphanage for handicapped children. Before long, her son starts to communicate with an invisible new friend.
Mighty Ape
DVD
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Guillermo Del Toro may only be listed as producer for this award-winning Spanish chiller (directed by newcomer Juan Antonio Bayona), but the crisp, elegant visuals and poignant supernatural themes have his magical fingerprints all over. This would be a worthy addition to his own canon, had he been at the helm, and that's high praise. More
The set-up may sound familiar - spooky old house with sinister past, kids seeing dead people, freaky sack masks and so on. But far from a workaday 'things that go bump' exercise, this is horror with heart. Like Nic Roeg's grief-stricken '70s creep-out Don't Look Now or indeed Cronos - Del Toro's 1993 tale of love, faith and blood-sucking - The Orphanage is as sadly moving as it is frightening, and builds to a heart-rending emotional climax.
That said, when things do get jumpy, make sure you've got a spare pair of underpants handy - it's skidmarks central. Through masterful timing and superb sound design (silence is so much scarier than noise), Bayona has wrung the maximum level of tension out of some time-honoured techniques. And by keeping the amount of distracting CGI under careful control, everything feels so much more tangible and terrifying.
Oddly, it's been reported in some places that Del Toro will produce an English language remake of this too - but that would be a pointless endeavour. The Orphanage is gracefully shot, perfectly paced, wonderfully acted and scary as hell - a magnificent directorial debut. Can't they just leave it be? Hide
3 ratings and 3 reviews
Cracking old-fashioned ghost story that gets the pulse racing AND manages to be moving enough to linger in the mind afterwards. Simple yet effective, and beautifully shot. Loved it.
Breath-taking cinematography, poetic story-telling. This film is pure kindness, sadness, horror and hope. If you loved Pan's Labyrinth, you will love The Orphanage.
Freaked me out. There's something about children that is just so creepy. All that innocence. Silly games. Nursery rhymes. Little clothes and toys. It's all too much. Throw in an old orphanage, where who knows what went down years ago, and you've got yourself a cracker of a scary film. The Orphanage is beautifully shot in soft tones. and indeed has its artistic merits. There were a few discrepancies, though they didn't linger.
Haunting and heartbreaking, The Orphanage delivers a double whammy of chills both real and supernatural. Full review.
A good old-fashioned horror in the best possible way, this is a beautifully told, terrifying ghost story that lingers with you long after the shivers have stopped. Full review.
Accomplished first feature... High profile producer (Guillermo Del Toro) – check. Creaking mansion and murderous ghost children – check. All the performances are well-directed, especially lead actress Belen Rueda’s engaging turn as a conflicted mother. The cinematography and mise-en-scene is well-crafted and beautiful. There’s nothing wrong with it – indeed, there is a lot about it that is technically very right. However, despite all this, it doesn’t quite connect. Full review.
The Orphanage, a diverting, overwrought ghost story from Spain, relies on basic and durable horror movie techniques. Full review.
The Orphanage's joys come from the experiential: Bayona's cultured technical skills, including some phenomenal sound design, and sustained anxiety. It's about as healthy as junk food gets. Full review.
A shiver of fear runs right through Juan Antonio Bayona's pungent and scary film. Full review.
A fastidiously grim ghost story that rattles the bones of the haunted-house genre and finds plenty of fresh (but not too bloody) meat. Full review.
Noone has commented yet. Sad.