Starring Geraldine Chaplin, Carmen Lopez, Andres Gertrudix, Fernando Cayo, Belén Rueda
Directed by J.A. Bayona
Distributed by New Line Home Video
Ghost stories. I am a total sucker for them. There’s just something about the disembodied spirit of a person or persons walking through our hallways, watching our every move, and invading our space that sends a cold shiver down my spine. Maybe, though, they feel the same way about us. Maybe it’s we who are invading their space. Some may not take kindly to the intrusion, unless of course it’s to finally put an end to some unfinished business. If there is one filmmaker out there who knows how to envelope us in an otherworldly type situation, it is Guillermo del Toro, and while he may not be at the directorial helm in The Orphanage AKA El Orfanato, the man’s filmmaking sensibilities can be easily seen throughout every frame of this modern horror fright-fest.
For Laura (Rueda) life as a little girl in an orphanage really wasn’t that bad. Her time spent there yielded lots of friendships that got her through the rougher times while she was living without her parents. Luckily she was adopted, but the importance of her time spent before her new folks came into her life was one that she would always cherish. So much so that as an adult Laura, along with her husband and child, purchases her former childhood home with aspirations of refurbishing and reopening the now dilapidated facility as a place for handicapped children. Upon moving in, everything seems to be OK. That is, until her son begins playing with some invisible friends. For years Laura wondered what had happened to her former playmates. Were they ever adopted? Unfortunately they are still very much there, but not living and breathing like the rest of us. The worst part? They have an agenda, and it’s not long into the film when the creeps start coming hard and heavy.
New Line has once again delivered a DVD worthy of the film itself as the supplemental material to be found here is both interesting and bountiful. Things kick off with a seventeen-minute making-of called When Laura Grew Up: Constructing The Orphanage. During this featurette we follow the film’s journey with del Toro and director Bayona along with the rest of the cast and crew from script to screen. It’s here that we find out the movie was originally conceived as more of a pure horror film without the dramatic elements that layer things so nicely now. It was decided that more human character should be squeezed from the roles, and the results just feel right. Still, though, the blood-hungry horror fan in me cannot help but wonder how good this could have been if it were played for straight scares! We’ll never know.
May I offer a little advice? When watching the movie, crank up your home theatre system. Your 5.1 setup will get one hell of a work-out. Also, for you folks out there who hate watching films with subtitles, you’re out of luck. There is no dubbed English track to be found here, and I couldn’t be more relieved. The top-notch performances are really what drives The Orphanage, and hearing American actors mimicking the on-screen emotion would have been absolutely pointless.
There are many things out there that go bump in the night, and as long as there are visionary filmmakers like del Toro and Bayona, we’re destined to see them in the most frightening and thought-provoking fashion. Now if only someone would put out the Mexican horror classic Hasta el viento tiene miedo (which del Toro remade as The Devil’s Backbone), then I’d be reeeeeaaaaallllyyyyyy happy!
Special Features
4 out of 5
Special Features:
4 out of 5
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