The Orphanage

The Orphanage (2007) is about a woman buying the orphanage she grew up in. Laura was raised there thirty years ago and adopted. Now she buys the building with her husband and their son Simón, planning to open a home for disabled children. Simón starts acquiring invisible friends in the house. First one, then five. He plays a game with them and the game has rules: follow a clue, pass a stage, find a prize. One day, during an event, he disappears. The next section is the search. The police get nowhere, months pass, and Laura turns to something nobody believes in: she brings a medium into the house and starts investigating its past. The best thing about it is that the solution is built as a story about guilt rather than a ghost story. Something was done in the orphanage's past and the boy's disappearance is connected to it. Laura has her own share in it as well, and the last scene explains that. It was J. A. Bayona's first film. Guillermo del Toro produced and his name was pushed forward in the marketing. There are few jump scares; the fear is built on sound and waiting. One sequence proceeds through a children's game. Belén Rueda stars. It was the most watched domestic film in Spain that year and received international distribution. The last ten minutes change the film's genre and divide the audience. It runs 105 minutes. Good for: gothic horror, Spanish cinema, and atmosphere. Less good for: a child disappears and the ending is emotionally very heavy.