I realize now that I may have been a bit hasty in decreeing The Mist my
top horror flick of 2007 – when I wrote the list I hadn’t yet
experienced the sheer terror that is The Orphanage.
Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona and produced by Guillermo Del Toro, he of last year’s creepifying Pan’s Labyrinth, The Orphanage is the best kind of horror film imaginable – the kind that relies on suspense and atmosphere rather than gore. It’s a good old fashioned haunted house – or in this case haunted orphanage – tale filled with bumps in the night, creaking doors, and ominous beings lurking in the shadows.
The story begins with a group of children playing a game of Statues outside the titular orphanage. One of those children is Laura, who’s about to be adopted out to a family. Fast forward twenty or so years and Laura (Belen Rueda) is now married with an adopted son Simon (Roger Princep). She and her doctor husband Carlos (Fernando Cayo) buy the now abandoned facility with designs on living there and providing a home for children with special needs.
Young Simon, who doesn’t know he’d adopted nor that he has a terminal disease, isn’t sure about the place but amuses himself with his imaginary friends, one of whom is named Tomas and may be connected to Laura’s childhood at the orphanage. When Simon disappears, Laura suspects these imaginary friends – ghosts of the orphanage’s former inhabitants? – may be responsible. Trouble is, no one else but Laura suspects there may be supernatural elements at play, and soon even her husband is questioning her sanity.
There are shades of other horror films in The Orphanage – most notably Alejandro Amenabar’s The Others, but also The Sixth Sense, Poltergeist, and the aforementioned Pan’s Labyrinth, which effectively juxtaposed the innocence of childhood with horrific acts. Like Del Toro, Bayona can take something seemingly innocuous - an old-fashioned doll, a doorknob, or a basket of blackberries - and put a sinister spin on it.
A scene from The Orphanage
First-time director Bayona also delivers the suspense, in spades. His film is largely a quiet one, filled with sequences of building dread capped off with the inevitable jolt (only you never can pinpoint when it’s going to come). And though the film mainly functions on the premise that what we can’t see is more terrifying than what we can, there’s some genuinely disturbing imagery on display as well – a child with a burlap mask over its head, one gruesome death, and a scarecrow that served as the orphanage’s unofficial mascot for years.
As with The Others, there’s an elegant look to The Orphanage, owing to Oscar Faura’s cinematography, and some of the shots – including an overhead one focused on an injured Laura as she wheels down the hall in a wheelchair – are very effective at conveying a sense that the family isn’t alone in the house. And as much as that film was anchored by a singularly strong performance by Nicole Kidman, this one benefits greatly from Rueda’s presence. She must convey a wide range of emotions as she transforms from a contented, loving mother to a frightened, determined woman on the edge of sanity.
The Orphanage is a rarity in horror these days, a thoughtful, emotive film that also manages to scare the bejesus out of you. Though it borrows from past films, it does so in a way that’s fresh – you may sense what’s coming, but it’ll frighten you all the same.
Posted by Cate Jones
Agree? Disagree? Email Cate at criticizecate@gmail.com
The Orphanage (**** out of 5)
Rated: R
Starring: Belen Rueda, Roger Princep, Fernando Cayo, Geraldine Chaplin
Directed by: Juan Antonio Bayona
Written by: Sergio G. Sanchez
Related links: Official site, IMDB page, Apple trailer
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