A brilliant and scary movie

Rating: 10/10 (5 April 2008)

The Orphanage tells the story of Laura, who as a young girl lived there until she was adopted. Years later, she returns with her husband and adopted son to re-open the orphanage, but this time as a place for disabled children. However when her son Simon disappears, Laura begins to uncover the tragic and horrifying events of the past...
Written by Sergio G. Sanchez and directed by Juan Antonio Bayona, The Orphanage is a brilliant and more importantly scary movie. The reason for this is that the script and direction take their time in slowly building the atmosphere and revealing it's story, so when the end comes it's almost a relief. Along the way there are some impressive scenes, my own favorite being the sequence with a medium in the house. As befits a good ghost story, it has the right and proper ending too, instead of some kind of cop-out. Again it deserves credit for that.
The cast led by Belen Rueda as Laura are all very good. The music by Fernando Velazquez adds to the atmosphere of the movie, without resorting to typical loud music to remind you that you should be scared now.
In a time when horror movies have forgotten how to be atmospheric and scary, The Orphanage shows you it can be done right. Hollywood should take notes. But I fear they'll only try and remake it instead.
See it before they do that. It's worth it.