The Orphanage

I don’t know if I have shared this with my readers before but I’m a huge coward when it comes to horror movies. To make matters worse, horror is one of my favorite genres because of its visual inventiveness and visceral connection with the viewer. Still despite my masochistic love for scary movies I usually don’t get around to seeing them without the safety of numbers. Fortunately, finding people interested in The Orphanage by Juan Antonio Bayona is not too difficult as the buzz around this film has been extremely positive.

 

Set in the creepy orphanage that Laura (Belen Rueda) has just purchased with her husband (Fernando Cayo), this movie starts off on a foreboding foot. You see their adopted son Simon (Roger Princep) is HIV positive meaning that without a steady supply of medication he could die. As things progress, Simon starts playing with a group of imaginary friends who teach him new games involving stealing things and hiding them, leaving a trail of clues behind. During a party Laura makes the acquaintance of Tomas, by far the most frightening of Simons playmates. After an encounter with the burlap faced ghost Laura realizes that her son is missing, replaced by a cryptic trail of clues. As the couple race to find their child before its too late, strange and frightening occurrences manifest themselves in the darkest corners of the orphanage.

 

This film relies heavily on two types of horror, that of placing a child in danger and the fear that comes from being alone in an old house. The Orphanage does a good job of making both natural and supernatural dangers seem chillingly real, so it’s hard not to empathize with Belen’s performance as the distraught mother. Like many Spanish movies the second act dispenses with the subtler scares and becomes a fast paced supernatural thriller with séances and scavenger hunts as the protagonist decides to take things into her own hands.  

 

Despite the trailer selling the film as an Asian influenced ghost story, it is imbued with a lively energy that betrays the darkness of the cinematography involved. I don’t want to frivolously compare Bayona’s movie to Hitchcock and Polanski but more than a few scenes made me think of those two great directors. With great photography and a riveting story, I highly recommend this film. Just don’t expect it to be too scary, it didn’t frighten me much and as I said earlier I’m a huge coward.