The Orphanage

[Mr_Vindictive]

The wife and I decided to take in a matinée of The Orphanage on Friday. I had read a few reviews of it a few months ago and thought it sounded good. My wife had caught one of the TV spots and agreed to go despite the subtitles.

The Orphanage is about a woman named Laura who was an orphan herself. As a child, she grew up in a gorgeous old orphanage on the coast in Spain. As an adult, she moves back to the orphanage with her husband and son Simon. Their plan is to turn the orphanage into a home for children with special needs.

Their son Simon has numerous imaginary friends before moving into the home. After doing so, he starts to make new ones, and that is where the strangeness starts. Soon, Simon has disappeared and it seems the home and it's spirits are speaking to Laura.

I'm one who believes that the best ghost stories are those that take their power from emotional turmoil and pain rather than using CGI crap to get false scares. I'm very wary of any film with ghosts AND children as it usually leads to a j-horrorish-crapfest. This film is not like that at all. It's more in the vein of Session 9 and The Changeling than anything else that Hollywood has put out in the past ten years.

I'm one who gets seriously emotionally involved with characters in films, if the film allows me to. This is such a film. I felt every bit of pain that Laura and her husband felt at losing their child, and their frustration at trying over months and months to find him. By the end, people in the theater were crying their asses off, and I myself was tearing up quite a bit.

The film is produced by Guillermo Del Toro which was a huge selling point for me. I'm a fan of the man's previous works, and he certainly has a style. This film was not directed by him, but I equate it to Poltergeist in that respect. Sure he didn't direct it, but you can see that he obviously had a heavy hand in the direction the film took. I have no doubt that he was holding the director's hand throughout, showing him exactly what he wanted out of the film.

The film is just overall fantastic. It is haunting, frightening, and powerful. If you're looking for a quiet horror film, one that doesn't dwell on CGI or gore to get the story across, then you are in for a treat. I have no doubt that at the end of the year, this one will still be on my "Year's Best" list.

10/10

[damnote]

Thanks for the preview. I didn't know much about the film but your points make me wanna see it now. I enjoyed Session 9 a lot and The Innocents so I'll probably enjoy this one.

[Mr_Vindictive]

I have a feeling that most people on the board will enjoy it.  It's a very quiet little haunting film.  Well worth seeing!

[Torgo]

**** out of ****.

The best ghost story type movie that I've ever seen and a deeply emotional and haunting movie that will stick with you long after you see it.  Everyone needs to see this movie. 

[Snivelly]

After Pan's Labyrinth del Toro had stated in an interview that he was involved with a third movie along the same lines, the aftermath of the Spanish civil war and ghosts.  Is this the movie he was talking about?  Even if not, I plan to see this as soon as I can, thanks for the review.

[Mr_Vindictive]

Nope Snivelly.  That might be his next project now that he finished Hellboy 2.

I've got to say that this is the best project that Del Toro has had anything to do with.  It's better than Pan's or Devil's Backbone in my opinion, and that is saying a lot.  The film is quite possibly the best and most affecting ghost film I've ever seen.  It's been nearly three weeks since I saw it and it's still with me.

Fantastic film.

[Killer Bees]

From what little I've seen, I love del Toro's work.  I will definitely be giving this one a good look.

Thanks for the heads up 

[indianasmith]

I caught this one tonight, and it was AMAZING!! 

I don't want to give away the ending for those who haven't seen it yet, but it was simultaneously one of the most horrifying and poignant twists imaginable.  I think I will be dreaming about it tonight.

If you haven't seen it, you are in for a treat!

[dean]

So far Skaboi is two for two in my book!  My girlfriend hated me after watching this film, since I kept putting on voices late at night to stir her up.

While I was on 'hiatus' I saw this one at one of the more 'boutique' cinemas as part of the Spanish Film Festival here.

It started with a guy from the Spanish Consulate reading out a speech from the director [not Del Toro mind you, he just had a producer role as Skaboi said.]

I'll paraphrase severely here, but he basically thanked everyone for their support and pretty much said 'I hope you hate watching this film'.

That was probably a perfect introduction for the film.

Cinematography is great, and atmosphere was fantastic.  I really liked the use of the kids game, the 'night vision' scene and the air of mystery about it all.  Plus the ending was great, very much caught me off guard and was very appropriate for the film.

I like films that challenge perceptions on what a film should entail, and this one certainly challenged a few stereotypes of typical ghost film moments.  Like Skaboi said, it could easily have gone into 'boo!' J-Horror territory and I'm thankful it didn't [though the American version of the Ring had almost a similar level of atmosphere IMO]

Very similar look to Pan's Labyrinth, but very much a different story here, different not meaning better or worse mind you.

Terrific film.
 

[Neville]

I found it very enjoyable, but I never got Guillermo Del Toro vibes while watching it. He may be the producer, but the writer and director is another guy, and it shows.

I'd say it's good but not grrat. It has too many good things to be listed here, suach as the leading actress, the pace or the atmosphere, but it's not as good as say Amenabar's "The others", a film very similar to this one. If I had to pick a "weakest link" part, that woud be the scenes dealing with Geraldine Chaplin as a medium. That felt like some like some SNL "Poltergeist" parody.

But yeah, it's a good film, and you won't be disappointed if you watch it.

[Torgo]

***1/2 out of ****.

Saw this one in theaters and loved it, though I felt that the ending was just a bit too rushed for my liking even though it fit the story perfectly.