A creepy, unsettling film that surprised me

Rating: 8/10 (21 February 2008)

I don't care for supernatural mumbo-jumbo, so my interest in "The Orphanage" wasn't very high. I went to see it, anyway, hoping I'd be surprised. Luckily, I was. It has an unsettling quality that grabbed my attention. The setting is an old orphanage on the Spanish coast. There is a lighthouse and a dark secret. A couple with a son have plans for the orphanage -- plans that don't quite materialize. That's where the horror comes in, of course. I was happy to discover that "The Orphanage" is filled with bizarre and grotesque imagery. One of the film's focal points is a little boy with a face that is a cross between John Merrick, The Elephant Man, and Johnny Handsome (from Walter Hill's film of the same name). Director Juan Antonio Bayona does a good job creating some intense sequences and steering the horror away from the clichéd. The orphanage interior reminded me of the house in Augustin Villaronga's "In A Glass Cage" -- especially the way in which Bayona tracks and dollies down corridors and through ancient archways; the score has echoes of Villaronga's film also. When the film's mystery is revealed, it is a solid revelation that was worth waiting for. Not a gory film or a particularly violent film, it is a creepy film with solid production values and extremely effective performances. Its affection for the freakish is much appreciated.