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The Orphanage (2007)
(aka El Orfanato)
Directed
by Juan Antonio Bayona
 The
Orphanage is a Spanish Horror film that compares very well
with any number of Hollywood produced horror films. The
only thing that might put some viewers off the film is the use of
subtitles.
The central character is a thirty-seven-year-old woman called Laura.
She and her husband, Carlos, buy an
old house on the Spanish coast and move into it with their adopted son,
Simon. The house has been derelict for quite some time, but thirty
years ago it was an orphanage, and the place where Laura spent much of
her childhood.
 Laura and Carlos seem to be a well matched, and
loving couple. They are
also good parents and dote on Simon, who is, it has to be said, quite a
cute kid. Sadly, however, the viewer learns all too soon that Simon's
future is limited because he suffers from congenital HIV. Up until
they moved into the orphanage Laura and Carlos have successfully
shielded their son from any knowledge of his illness, along with the
fact that he is adopted.
 The viewer first learns of
Simon's illness when an old woman appears at Laura's door. Her name is
Benigna; she claims to be a social worker and even has Simon's case
notes with her. Something does not seem right about the old girl
though, and it is not long before Laura smells a rat and insists that
Benigna leaves.
Later that night Laura is woken by banging coming from one of the
outbuildings that appears to have once been a bakery. When Laura
goes to investigate the cause of the commotion she discovers Benigna
has returned and it is she who is causing all of the noise. The sight
of Benigna with a shovel in her hand gives Laura gets quite a fright,
but before she can challenge the intruder Beniga runs off into the
night.
 Not long after this Simon has a confrontation with
his mother and
tells her that he
knows he is going to die. He also informs her that he
knows she is not his real
mother and accuses her of lying to him. Laura and Carlos presume that
Simon must have stumbled across his case notes—which Laura locked in a
drawer after Benigna left—but Simon insists his invisible friends
provided him with the information.
Laura and Carlos sit down and talk things through with Simon and their
words seem to pacify the situation the young man. More trouble
lies ahead
though, and Simon disappears during a party held at the house. At first
it
appears that Benigna may have taken him, but Laura
soon begins to realize that her son's invisible playmates may not
have been as imaginary as she thought, and she begins to suspect they
might be playing
some sort of game with her, with Simon as the prize.
Over nine months later, Simon is still missing and Laura has
given up on the police. She turns instead to a team of psychic
investigators. The scene where the team begin their
investigation at the old orphanage is rather chilling and is somewhat
reminiscent of Poltergeist.
As in Poltergeist,
the
investigative team comprises of a psychic medium and some scientists
who monitor the situation via all their technical paraphernalia.
 The
medium's name is Aurora and after she enters a trance-like state she
succeeds in contacting the spirits of several dead children and her
colleague's equipment succeeds in picking up and recording their voices.
Laura accepts the situation at face value, and who can blame her? These
guys are obviously the real deal and they know what they are doing.
Carlos, on the other hand, remains sceptical and, suspecting trickery,
he tells Aurora and her team to leave.
While continuing her search for her son Laura discovers the remains of
several dead children hidden in the outbuilding that Benigna had been
banging about in. Simon is not among them, but Carlos has had enough
and decides that he and Laura should leave, and when Laura refuses to
go
with him Carlos leaves without her.
Left to her own devices, Laura does her best to
play the children's game, hoping that the trail of
clues
they have left behind will lead her to Simon.
The Orphanage
is a great film. The cast are impeccable and the
atmosphere throughout the film is very spooky. Talking about spooky, if
you decide to watch the film keep an eye out for the kid whose face is
masked by a sack. It looks like something that might have been a
hand-me-down from Jason Voorhees, and just the sight of the kid
standing there wearing the thing is enough to send a few shivers down
anyone's spine.
 The
Orphanage relies
more on a dark atmosphere for its frights and there is not an awful lot
of gore on offer, so if blood and guts are not your thing there is
little here that will put you off your lunch. The only possible
exception being the scene where Benigna comes off second best in an
argument with a moving bus. She would never have won any beauty
contests to begin with, but with her jaw hanging off she looks like
someone broke an ugly-stick over her head and then just kept on beating.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this review,
subtitles are not
everyone's cup of tea, but The
Orphanage is such
a well-presented and creepy film that even if Hollywood does decide to
do a remake of it at some point, I doubt very much that it would ever
be able to compare with the original. Director Juan Antonia Bayona has
got it right first time around and it never pays to mess with
perfection.
Rating:
4 out of 5.
Available on DVD and Blu-ray
Runtime 105 mins
Certificate: 15 (UK), R (USA)
CAST
Belen Rueda ... Laura
Fernando Cayo ... Carlos
Roger Princep ... Simon
Mabel Rivera ... Pilar
Montserrat Carulla ... Benigna
Andres Gertrudix ... Enrique
Edgar Vivar ... Prof. Leo Balaban
Oscar Casas ... Tomas
Mireia Renau ... Laura nina
Georgina Avellaneda ... Rita
Carla Gordillo ... Martin
Alejandro Camps ... Victor
Carmen Lopez ... Alicia
Oscar Lara ... Guillermo
Geraldine Chaplin ... Aurora
Enric Arquimbau ... Jefe Grupo Terapia
Blanca Martinez ... Mujer Grupo Terapia
Carol Suarez ... Benigna joven
Isabel Friera ... Antonia cuidadora
Fernando Marrot ... Doctor
Jordi Cardus ... Nino ciego
Pedro Morales ... Padre 2
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