The orphanage

The orphanage is as good as a horror movie as you will see this year. It features many of the hallmarks that have made the genre memorable including squeaking doors, Psychic children, a shrieking heroine and one of the creepiest old ladies seen on screen since Psycho. There are also some solid scares and a continuously creepy atmosphere. But the movie falls short of true greatness because it hampered by a crippling middle act and a lack of assurance in the direction of the picture.

Things start of well enough though with Laura played by Belen Rueda who moves into the orphanage where she stayed as a child with plans of reopening it again to children with disabilities. With her she takes her husband Carlos and her adopted son Simon played by Fernando Cayo and Roger Princep respectively. Things look well for the family until Simon starts to develop a series friendships with seemingly imaginary children and Laura receives a visit from a creepy social worker. It’s a strong opening act and one that relies heavy on atmosphere. As this is a horror movie we know that something is going to go wrong and it’s no big spoiler to tell you that it does.

What is a surprise is what happens next. After the said incident occurs the film seems to retreat from any notion of mysticism that resembled what came before and turns instead into a drama purporting to be a study of loss. It would have been an interesting direction to follow but it just seems that director Juan Antonio bayona is merely on intent leading the audience up the garden path because after about twenty minutes the film reverts back to the original one we were watching. Dead ends are no new to addition to the horror genre and can often be quite useful. Here though it just seems a waste. I suppose the most likely excuse for these scenes is for us to spend time with Laura but it just takes up so long and horror films already have a problem with sustaining themselves over long periods of time. Anyway this part of the film does not gel well with the rest.

After this we are introduced to series of interesting new characters and are given one of the movies standout scenes when a physic medium visit’s the orphanage. We have seen this type of thing so many times before yet the film creates scares simply by not going for the easy option of obvious thrills. It is here that the movie is at it’s best. It is here that The Orphanage becomes what I suspect it’s creators wanted it to be. Which is a horror movie with a genuine story and a horror movie with an old fashioned look but never with an old fashioned feel.

The end of the film is also solid if a little kinder in tone to what came before and thus we are left with two thirds of a perfect horror movie as well as a clunky middle act that comes across as a hybrid between Don’t look now and poltergeist. Not a bad combination I guess but the film is also seriously undermined bayona’s direction which although good never gives anything that we haven’t seen before. The film was produced by Pans Labyrinth helmer Guillermo Del Toro and it’s his shadow that loomed large here. A similar problem that Dear Wendy faced because it was produced by Lars von Trier another European heavyweight.

So much is good here including the cast with special mention going to Fernando Caya for doing so well with the usually tedious role of the constantly sceptical husband. But I was disappointed by The Orphanage. Not because it was a bad movie but simply because so much of it was tremendous and that it’s pitfalls could have seemingly been easily avoided.