The Orphanage (2007)
Directed by J. A. Bayona
A woman brings her family back to her childhood home, which used to be an orphanage, intent on reopening it. Before long, her son starts to communicate with a new invisible friend.
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The Orphanage is a languid supernatural thriller in which spotting the influences—a little Poltergeist here, a little Sixth Sense there—is more involving than the story itself.
As the camera looks down on this short figure (evoking Don’t Look Now as much as The Omen or Poltergeist—it assumes her limited perspective, and you realize (again) that you’re locked into a troubled, probably untruthful view.
There are passages obviously borrowed from "Poltergeist," from David Lynch, and a compressed flashback that's more than a nod to M. Night Shyamalan.
Contrary to its title, The Orphanage is a movie with many forebears, starting with Henry James's The Turn of the Screw, The Innocents, The Others and the whole cycle of possessed child movies from the seventies and eighties, including from The Exorcist, The Omen and Poltergeist.
Guillermo del Toro has taught us this, first by directing the chilling "Devil's Backbone" and now by producing something simply called "The Orphanage," which is as tingly and creepy a ghost story as you could wish for, recalling classics like "Poltergeist," "The Sixth Sense," and "The Others."
There's a piece of The Others here, a touch of The Sixth Sense there, a pinch of Poltergeist, a smidgen of Friday The 13th, and even a streak of Pan's Labyrinth (which shouldn't be too much of a surprise, since Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro produced The Orphanage).
Most of the zealous reviews greeting the debut feature of Guillermo del Toro protégé Juan Antonio Bayona cite the latter’s influences, from The Innocents to The Others, and there’s the rub: there are far too many to allow his supernatural horror/thriller to forge its own identity.
This is a haunted-house ghost story that derives its unsettling effect from a skillfully built atmosphere of mounting dread, reaching back beyond the pop-slaughterhouse sensibilities of most current fright flicks to older films like "The Innocents" and "The Uninvited" — pictures in which a sense of the uncanny was summoned not with hacksaws and cleavers, but with a simple creak in the night.
The movie, recalling "The Innocents" and any number of children-in-ghostly-peril stories, is set almost entirely at a former orphanage on the southern coast of Spain.
Contrary to its title, The Orphanage is a movie with many forebears, starting with Henry James's The Turn of the Screw, The Innocents, The Others and the whole cycle of possessed child movies from the seventies and eighties, including from The Exorcist, The Omen and Poltergeist.
Hints of "Peter Pan," as well as "The Innocents," "The Others," "The Shining" and other big-old-house horror classics, float through it like ghosts on a windy night, and Bayona and screenwriter Sergio G. Sánchez twist them into a genuinely haunting tale.
The disappearance and the arrival of scientific ghost hunters (led by Geraldine Chaplin) are reminiscent of "Poltergeist" (1982), although Bayona more frequently strives for the rarefied psychological suggestiveness of "The Haunting" (1963) and Henry James' novella "The Turn of the Screw" (as well as its 1961 movie adaptation, "The Innocents").
One of those revealed credits is for executive producer Guillermo Del Toro, whose atmospheric Spain-set horror films The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth are another strong influence on The Orphanage, which as it happens is also an atmospheric horror film set in Spain.
A doom-laden Spanish thriller about the ghostly goings-on of castoff children, The Orphanage isn't as scary as Guillermo Del Toro's similarly themed The Devil's Backbone.
Here The Orphanage recalls previous haunted house movies, from Robert Wise’s The Haunting and Kubrick’s The Shining, to Alejandro Amenábar’s The Others and The Devil’s Backbone (whose brilliant, bighearted director, Guillermo del Toro, is the present film’s producer).
Horror films with an elegant touch are fast becoming a Spanish movie tradition, as witness The Devil’s Backbone, directed in Spain by Mexico’s Guillermo del Toro, and the Nicole Kidman starrer The Others, from Spanish filmmaker Alejandro Amenábar.
It's a Spanish production, directed by Juan Antonio Bayona, whose work has mainly been in Spanish television and music videos, but it was produced by Guillermo del Toro of "Pan's Labyrinth," "Hellboy," and "The Devil's Backbone" fame.
Art-house hits from the 1970s like "Cría Cuervos" and "Spirit of the Beehive" told of phantasms and repression and, more recently, Mexican director Guillermo del Toro has crossed the Atlantic to make acclaimed horror-fantasies there: "The Devil's Backbone" (2001) and "Pan's Labyrinth" (2006).
Here The Orphanage recalls previous haunted house movies, from Robert Wise’s The Haunting and Kubrick’s The Shining, to Alejandro Amenábar’s The Others and The Devil’s Backbone (whose brilliant, bighearted director, Guillermo del Toro, is the present film’s producer).
A Goth-Iberian “Peter Pan” with roots in such vintage spookfests as Robert Wise’s “The Haunting” (1963) and Alejandro Amenabar’s “The Others” (2001),“The Orphanage” is the best haunted-house-cum-ghost-movie I have seen in years.
The disappearance and the arrival of scientific ghost hunters (led by Geraldine Chaplin) are reminiscent of "Poltergeist" (1982), although Bayona more frequently strives for the rarefied psychological suggestiveness of "The Haunting" (1963) and Henry James' novella "The Turn of the Screw" (as well as its 1961 movie adaptation, "The Innocents").
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Debuting feature director Juan Antonio Bayona and first-time feature writer Sergio G. Sánchez have fashioned a chiller with direct echoes of The Others, along with debts to Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw and J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan.
Contrary to its title, The Orphanage is a movie with many forebears, starting with Henry James's The Turn of the Screw, The Innocents, The Others and the whole cycle of possessed child movies from the seventies and eighties, including from The Exorcist, The Omen and Poltergeist.
The disappearance and the arrival of scientific ghost hunters (led by Geraldine Chaplin) are reminiscent of "Poltergeist" (1982), although Bayona more frequently strives for the rarefied psychological suggestiveness of "The Haunting" (1963) and Henry James' novella "The Turn of the Screw" (as well as its 1961 movie adaptation, "The Innocents").
But like unsuccessful 1972 and 92 visualizations of Henry Jamess suggestive The Turn of the Screw, and in contrast to the excellent 1961 Deborah Kerr-Michael Redgrave interpretation, The Orphanage tritely twists too many specious screws too often, and it depends heavily on creaking woodwork and hinges, slammed doors and secret panels giving onto basement stairs, on thunderclaps, crypts, apparitions, sinister children and mental instability.
Fans of the Gothic have had to make do with a handful of Japanese ghost stories (including Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s chilling Pulse ), a couple of visionary films by horror standard-bearer Guillermo del Toro, The Orphanage (a decent del Toro imitation), and – bringing up the rear in more than one way – the Paranormal Activity series.
Most of the zealous reviews greeting the debut feature of Guillermo del Toro protégé Juan Antonio Bayona cite the latter’s influences, from The Innocents to The Others, and there’s the rub: there are far too many to allow his supernatural horror/thriller to forge its own identity.
Elements of any number of other moody ghost stories—from fellow Spaniard Alejandro Amenabar’s The Others all the way back to The Turn of the Screw—show up in the film, and Bayona and screenwriter Sergio G. Sanchez do a perfectly competent job of re-creating the solemn, ominous tone of those past works while conveying little of their urgency or genuine emotion.
Here The Orphanage recalls previous haunted house movies, from Robert Wise’s The Haunting and Kubrick’s The Shining, to Alejandro Amenábar’s The Others and The Devil’s Backbone (whose brilliant, bighearted director, Guillermo del Toro, is the present film’s producer).
A Goth-Iberian “Peter Pan” with roots in such vintage spookfests as Robert Wise’s “The Haunting” (1963) and Alejandro Amenabar’s “The Others” (2001),“The Orphanage” is the best haunted-house-cum-ghost-movie I have seen in years.
Horror films with an elegant touch are fast becoming a Spanish movie tradition, as witness The Devil’s Backbone, directed in Spain by Mexico’s Guillermo del Toro, and the Nicole Kidman starrer The Others, from Spanish filmmaker Alejandro Amenábar.
Here The Orphanage recalls previous haunted house movies, from Robert Wise’s The Haunting and Kubrick’s The Shining, to Alejandro Amenábar’s The Others and The Devil’s Backbone (whose brilliant, bighearted director, Guillermo del Toro, is the present film’s producer).
(The movie also echoes "The Shining" in some ways.)
Simón has two imaginary friends, and anyone who saw "The Shining" will already feel their neck hairs stirring.
Hints of "Peter Pan," as well as "The Innocents," "The Others," "The Shining" and other big-old-house horror classics, float through it like ghosts on a windy night, and Bayona and screenwriter Sergio G. Sánchez twist them into a genuinely haunting tale.
And so it goes: a little snip from The Shining here, a shot that reeks of Dario Argento there.
Bayona and screenwriter Sergio G Sánchez negotiate the inevitable clichés of the genre expertly, deftly making the expected nods to haunted-house classics both well known and less so (look out for The Shining and The Legend of Hell House), while both Rueda and Caya give perfectly judged performances as the young couple.
One of those revealed credits is for executive producer Guillermo Del Toro, whose atmospheric Spain-set horror films The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth are another strong influence on The Orphanage, which as it happens is also an atmospheric horror film set in Spain.
But Del Toro has lent his name to The Orphanage anyway, "presenting" it in the manner of Martin Scorsese or Steven Spielberg, in hopes that the Pan's Labyrinth maestro's name will lure the crowds.
Executive produced by Guillermo del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth”), directed by 32-year-old Juan Antonio Bayona with a script by Sergio G. Sanchez, the film is a spine-tingling, nerve-jangling knockout and a return to classics of yore.
By a wide margin, J.A. Bayona's "The Orphanage" delivers more goose bumps than anything Hollywood has served up in years – which I hope does not mean that Bayona, a first-time feature director and music video whiz, will be enlisted to direct "Saw V." Produced by Guillermo del Toro ("Pan's Labyrinth"), it's about Laura (Belén Rueda), a mother who purchases an orphanage that she hopes to restore as a haven for disabled children.
The Orphanage, the Spanish entry for this year’s Oscar foreign-language race, is a proud addition to this mini-trend, with an executive-producer boost from del Toro himself, creator of last year’s triple Oscar winner, Pan’s Labyrinth.
It's a Spanish production, directed by Juan Antonio Bayona, whose work has mainly been in Spanish television and music videos, but it was produced by Guillermo del Toro of "Pan's Labyrinth," "Hellboy," and "The Devil's Backbone" fame.
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Debuting feature director Juan Antonio Bayona and first-time feature writer Sergio G. Sánchez have fashioned a chiller with direct echoes of The Others, along with debts to Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw and J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan.
Bayona's moves are deft, the atmosphere oozes with anxiety and grief, but the big payoff - like the big payoff in The Sixth Sense, another film The Orphanage has more than a bit in common with - never comes.
It may take more than one viewing to decide whether you prefer the fantastic or realistic interpretation; like "The Sixth Sense," this film demands to be seen more than once.
All due respect to "The Sixth Sense" (which I think is a nifty movie), but this isn't exactly, "I See Dead Children."
It never achieves the type of thrills to satisfy hardcore horror fans but it will appeal to audiences who enjoyed films such as The Sixth Sense, The Others and del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone.
The incredibly unsatisfying conclusion only exacerbates the film's various problems, and it's clear that comparisons to superior (yet similarly-themed) efforts such as The Others and The Sixth Sense are entirely unwarranted.
Guillermo del Toro has taught us this, first by directing the chilling "Devil's Backbone" and now by producing something simply called "The Orphanage," which is as tingly and creepy a ghost story as you could wish for, recalling classics like "Poltergeist," "The Sixth Sense," and "The Others."