The Orphanage (El Orfanato)

Available at Amazon HERE
This is a Spanish Language film produced and presented by Guillermo Del Toro (Hell Boy, Pan's Labyrinth) and directed by new Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona. As with Pan's, there isn't an English dub, merely English subtitles, but as with Pan's, this is no detriment to the film and after the first ten minutes you'll forget that you're reading subtitles.

The film is a mystery / thriller / horror film. Not so much a who dunnit, but a what happened? It also is a bit of ghost movie and in that regard, it does some good spooking. It's not about shocking violence in the way Pan's tended to be, but it's more of a what's around the corner kind of scary. It's very character driven with the central heroine played by Belén Rueda. It focuses on her and her family and the life they hope to kick start by taking over a long dormant orphanage that she was raised in.

The plot of the movie is Rueda trying to establish a school for mentally challenged children at this orphanage while trying to deal with the HIV+ young adopted son of her own. The boy begins to have some very strong relationships with invisible friends and Rueda begins to wonder just how much of this is true and how much is it her son's imagination. When her son goes missing, she uses police detectives as well as psychics to help her find him. From there it's one creepy piece of the puzzle after another.

There is a nice twist in the film, more subtle than say The Sixth Sense, but when you get to it, it's pretty jaw dropping as you immediately start piecing together the ramifications of the reveal... then there's the ending... where you go... oh sh!t... one more time.

The acting is uniformly strong, the children are creepy and the medium in a trance going through the house is very creepy and unnerving. The only role that really didn't need to be there was her husband. Compliant, ambivalent and ready to bale out is all he's about and with a tweak here and there, they could have written that part out all together. The mother is very strong and from the DVD extras, such a strong performance and such a strong script are not common in Spain... and I'm not sure why that would be or why they would so strongly underscore that in the extra making of featurettes. The only way it could have been a stronger film would have been to have a stronger director rather than a first timer, but with del Toro behind the scenes, there was a strong guiding hand.

And! I can finally say... this is a REAL horror film. It doesn't rely on gore or torture and it's actually scary and spooky and just that kind of thrill ride when you really want something solid and well done. There is some CGI, but it's not the main thrust of any of the effects. On their budget, the CGI went, apparently, to stuff like making the house big enough and that type of stuff. So kudos there as well.

I was not sure what to expect from this film, but Mr. del Toro is batting a thousand with this release following up Pan's. The pair together would make a nice weekend's entertainment.

I give The Orphanage a 4.5 out of 5. Great solid horror film here without relying on the torture of women and gore. I would give it a five, but I know that some out there really hate reading their films, but this one is worth it.