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The Orphanage, 2007

The Orphanage

Spanish

Mexico, Spain

Rating:7.6
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Profile of The Orphanage

The Orphanage can be described as tense, atmospheric, and scary. The plot revolves around ghosts, being haunted by the past, and family problems. The main genres are foreign, thriller, and horror. In terms of style, The Orphanage involves twists and turns. In approach, it is serious and realistic. The storytelling is slow paced. The Orphanage is set, at least in part, in a haunted house. It is located in Spain. It takes place in contemporary times.

Summary of The Orphanage

It might come as no surprise that the producer of the Spanish supernatural thriller THE ORPHANAGE is none other than Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro (PAN'S LABYRINTH, THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE), for his influence is felt greatly throughout the picture. Made by an entire crew of newcomers--director Juan Antonio Bayona, screenwriter Sergio G. Sanchez, director of photography Oscar Faura, composer Fernando Velazquez--THE ORPHANAGE is an extremely accomplished work. The story concerns Laura (Belen Rueda), who has returned with her husband Carlos (Fernando Cayo) and adopted child Simon (Roger Princep) to the large manor where she was raised in an orphanage as a child. Laura is determined to fix up the abandoned house and open it as a refuge for ill children. But from the moment she returns, the past begins to haunt her. It isn't long before she begins to see the children who she used to play with as a seven-year-old. And when Simon goes missing one afternoon, she's convinced that they have taken him hostage. What follows is a murky descent into Laura's mind, where she doesn't know what is real and what is a figment of her tortured imagination.

Bayona brings Sanchez's complex script to life with the help of Faura's haunting imagery and Valazquez's atmospheric score. But what makes THE ORPHANAGE an even greater achievement is its insistence on being more than just a superficial scare-fest. Bayona and Sanchez are more interested in deeper themes of memory, loss, and grief, establishing Laura as a mother who feels guilt over not being able to protect her child from outside forces. The result is a film that is both unsettling and moving.

Details

Language: Spanish
Country: Mexico, Spain
Release date: 26 September 2007
Runtime: 105 min

Cast and Crew

Belen Rueda as Laura in The Orphanage
Belen Rueda

as Laura

Fernando Cayo

as Carlos

Geraldine Chaplin as Aurora in The Orphanage
Geraldine Chaplin

as Aurora

Photos

The Orphanage (2007)
The Orphanage (2007)

Clips

The Orphanage
The Orphanage: Official Trailer
The Orphanage
The Orphanage: Official Trailer

Critics Reviews

Washington Post
Lures us in with extraordinary subtlety. Keeping sound effects and incidental music to a relative minimum, it builds its suspense almost subliminally. So when something scary or shocking does occur -- deprived of those Hollywood-style cues -- we are...
Variety
A fastidiously grim ghost story that rattles the bones of the haunted-house genre and finds plenty of fresh (but not too bloody) meat.

Users Reviews

"Nearly Flawless"
This is a nearly flawless ghost story, focusing almost entirely on the psychological impact of lost and manages to tie together seemingly unrelated events and elements from as early as the second scene into a resolution that is both tragic and...
El Orfanato
El Orfanato es una película de misterio y de suspense, producida en 2007, en Galicia, España, con Bélen Rueda, Fernando Cayo y Roger Príncep. La película fue escrita y dirigida por el notorio Guillermo Del Toro. Como el eslogan de la película dice,...
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