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Directed By
Juan Antonio Bayona
Written By:
Sergio G. Sánchez
Cast:
Belén Rueda, Geraldine Chaplin, Mabel Rivera, Andrés Gertrúdix, Edgar Vivar, Fernando Cayo, Fernando Cayo, Roger Príncep, Carla Gordillo Alicia, Georgina Avellaneda, Oscar Guillermo Garretón, Montserrat Carulla
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The Orphanage (Orfanato, El) (2007)
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Laura, a middle-aged woman married to a successful doctor, is finally realizing her dream of reopening the orphanage where she was adopted from at the age of seven. She still feels a lot of survivor gult: she was adopted because she was a healthy child, whereas her friends were all sickly or crippled.
On the day of the party celebrating the opening, her adopted (and terminally ill, though he doesn't know either fact) son, Simon, goes missing. For the rest of the film, Laura tries every means, both natural and supernatural, to find her son, and in the proces reveals many skeletons from the closet of the orphanage, once again both natural and otherworldly.
Even though this was "presented" and executive produced by Guillermo Del Toro, and as such has his distinctive touch stamped on it, it is very much first-time feature director Juan Antonio Bayona's film. It is lush and sweeping, with gorgeous locations and sets, but is still essentially a human, character-driven drama.
As the ghost story unfolds, and many creepy things that made my girlfriend hide her face and moan next to me happen, there were many referenes to American horror films. Or at least that's how it seemed to me. In addition to the obvious nods to The Others (and by extension The Turn of the Screw) Tomas could have been modeled after no one but Jason from the first Friday the 13th, and the medium recording session in the house was straight out of Poltergeist.
The acting was fabulous, with specia kudos going to Spanish television actress Belen Rueda as Laura, who pretty much shoulders the entire piece. The subject matter becomes all the more poignant when you realze that Rueda had her own real-life child tragedy, in the form of her second child, Maria, who died of heart disease when she was still just an infant.
Overall, this is the movie you should attempt to see if you are going to hit the theaters for anything this winter. It even has one death scene that rivals the Tim Messenger splatter in terms of "oh jesus, please turn the camera away."
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