The Orphanage

[Brian in Mesa]

The Orphanage

Release Date: December 28, 2007 (limited; expands: Jan. 4; wide: Jan. 11)
Studio: Picturehouse
Director: Juan Antonio Bayona
Screenwriter: Sergio G. Sánchez
Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
MPAA Rating: R (for some disturbing content)
Website: The Orphanage

Starring: Belén Rueda, Fernando Cayo, Geraldine Chaplin, Montserrat Carulla, Mabel Rivera, Andrés Gertrúdix

Plot Summary: "The Orphanage," presented by Oscar-Nominee Guillermo del Toro, centers on a Laura (Belén Rueda from "The Sea Inside") who purchases her beloved childhood orphanage with dreams of restoring and reopening the long abandoned facility as a place for disabled children. Once there, Laura discovers that the new environment awakens her son's imagination, but the ongoing fantasy games he plays with an invisible friend quickly turn into something more disturbing. Upon seeing her family increasingly threatened by the strange occurrences in the house, Laura looks to a group of parapsychologists for help in unraveling the mystery that has taken over the place.

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[D-Dogg]

This movie was creepy as hell. I really, really liked it a lot.

I get goosebumps thinking of certain parts.

 

[mdamien13]

Went and saw this Friday night and I can't recommend this enough. Very well made, very well-acted, and very, very spooky. Any movie can crank up the audio and make someone jump, but this is the first movie in a long time that actually had the hair on the back of my neck stand up for extended periods of time... not to mention it has one scene that made me jump out of my chair (not an easy task).

 

[DeAnna]

I've been dying to go see this but haven't had a chance. Maybe I'll wait for the DVD to come out.

 

[DeAnna]

I finally got around to seeing "The Devil's Backbone." Aanother Del Toro movie about an oprhanage (with the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War).

It was very good (but not as good as Pan's Labyrinth, IMO). It centers around a group of boys in an orphanage, one of whom has contact with a ghost of a boy who died there. Turns out to be a murder mystery with the usual Del Toro plot twists (and some execution scenes by the military).

Not that spooky, but a lot of suspense.

 

[Chaplin]

Just got back from seeing this--what a great, great movie. I'm telling you, if you want suspenseful thinking-man's horror, you have to watch what the Spanish filmmakers are doing. Just spectacular stuff.

 

[Louis]

Wow. What a great movie. One of the best I've een in awhile.

Great acting, awesome storyline, and very, very creepy. There were quite a few tense moments

Who knew a sack could be scary?

 

[Pariah]

Really liked this movie.

One thing I would have changed, though:

Spoiler

I would have tried to make the resolution less supernatural. How tragic would it have been if all of this was just Simon finding the cellar room were they kept tomas and making up imaginary friends based on Tomas' old drawings. No ghosts. No hauntings...just a lonely little boy that played a trick/game on his parents that ended tragically.

but, while I think that could have been worked into almost a reverse M. Night Shamnan (sp?) ending, I really, really liked the movie as is...I don't mean to imply otherwise with the content of my spoiler.

 

[Beaver]

this is on Netflix watch it now.

 

[Joe L]

Just got back from seeing this--what a great, great movie. I'm telling you, if you want suspenseful thinking-man's horror, you have to watch what the Spanish filmmakers are doing. Just spectacular stuff.

Mexican film makers....

* sorry, not trying to be a smart a$$ but Guillermo Del Toro is a Mexican film maker.

 

[Chaplin]

Mexican film makers....

* sorry, not trying to be a smart a$$ but Guillermo Del Toro is a Mexican film maker.

The director of this film is from Barcelona. Del Toro is merely a producer. And his Pan's Labyrinth was a dual-production by both Spain and Mexico.

 

[Joe L]

The director of this film is from Barcelona. Del Toro is merely a producer. And his Pan's Labyrinth was a dual-production by both Spain and Mexico.

Agree with you 100% but again, you said film makers and he produced the film. I do agree that great stuff is coming out of Spain .

 

[Chaplin]

Agree with you 100% but again, you said film makers and he produced the film. I do agree that great stuff is coming out of Spain .

Maybe I should have said films in Spanish rather than Spanish filmmakers.

 

[Heucrazy]

I watched this last night and it was fantastic. My wife is a horror/thriller buff so I rent a ton of those genre and usually I'm highly disappointed, but not this time.

I highly recommend this one.

 

[DeAnna]

Finally got around to seeing this one - spooky as heck! I couldn't pinpoint when Laura actually dies, so did some online searching and came across this:

http://ruleofrosemysteries.com/2008...and-rule-of-rose-similarities-movie-spoilers/

Apparently a lot of similarities between Rule of Rose (which is a Play Station horror game) and this movie.

 

[D-Dogg]

Images from this movie still creep me out. This was an unsettling film..I want to see it again to see if it is as creepy as I remember. One of the best horror films in a long time, IMO.

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[Bada0Bing]

This movie was creepy as hell. I really, really liked it a lot.

I get goosebumps thinking of certain parts.

Recently watched it, I definitely agree. It creeped the heck out of me.