Believe, and you'll see

Rating: 7/10 (21 March 2008)

I should be happy about the right decision that I made since I didn't expect to see a nice film at the first place but it turned out to be a great one. After looking thru the screening list I decided to watch this one with my friend, thinking that all the rest films were little more than silly Hollywood clichés. After all, you couldn't expect much from a multiplex cinema which targets at teenagers.
But it proved to be a worthwhile experience. For the past few years we've seen Hispanic imagination in films like Pan's Labyrinth, Cronos, The Day of the Beast and The Other, this time we witnessed Juan Antonio Bayona's talent reflecting in this fantasy thriller. I wanna define this film just in the way the tag line does-a tale of love, a story of horror.
Basically,I consider this film has the following strengths: 1 .the way the plot develops. In fact, during the first 20 minutes or so the film appears to be rather ordinary and dull, as the pace is slow, the acting somehow reminds you of the typical family melodrama. Even if there's a few hints suggesting the mystics waiting to be revealed, they're easily to be taken as some unimaginative old tricks (thinking about Hide and Seek and the likes). However, the plot does develop and gradually shows something engrossing. It's never in a rush, which is a merit for the character-driven films like this, audiences will definitely be caught by the suspense it creates.
2. the balance between horror clichés and originality. It's obvious that quite a few horror iconography can be spotted in this film, most of them, such as the cave, invisible friends, scary noises etc. are already quite familiar to most of us, so it's not really possible to see their presence without secretly laughing at them, but fact is, they're not dominant in this film, rather, they service the theme. At some points, I tend to be preoccupied by the typical Hollywood story lines, thinking that after those ghost children take the revenge, all messes are gonna be wind up, and we will be told that all those horrible things are only insane illusions of Laura- a woman full of maternal love and is a bit obsessed with that. But the director didn't give me the chance to laugh about the silly plot, he handled it smartly and turned it into right direction each time it was about to 'go astray', thus leaving us something to guess and expect.
3. the cinematography. One thing that is noteworthy is the skilled use of camera-work and the great artistic feeling it yields. I can clearly remember the corridor/wash room scene in Laura's house where Thomas is shown as an evil and mysterious figure with his front full figure is pictured at first, and then switched to Laura's front figure, the last scene we could see is part of Thomas's scary mask through the washroom door. Another notable sequence is the one which Aurora acts as the exorcist. That sequence is basically shot from the point of view of the people watching at her via surveillance TV, however, when the camera shifts to Aurora's point of view, nothing is really revealed (partly due to the dark lighting), which pushes the suspense further and raises audiences' curiosity. Apart from these, many subjective shots are used to express Laura's anxiety, fear and determination.
4. the score- another outstanding element in this film. The use of music and sound strongly expresses characters' mentality. They're empathetic, prominent but never too much or too little. We do have some abrupt inharmonious sound giving us a 'heart-attack', we also got mellow and sad music from piano; we have some sequences full of upset noises, we also got scenes with barely any sound except the one of clock-ticking. All these varied types of music/sound adds to the mystic atmosphere of the whole film.
Besides the above points, some other things should be mentioned too. This film is presented by Guillermo Del Toro, a well-known contemporary horror/fantasy master from Mexico, so naturally it has some Toro-feeling in it, most obvious one is probably the theme of the story. Anyone who has watched Cronos would relate this film to that one (not only because we got another Aurora in this film), also, both of them are love stories in nature-they celebrate the power of trust and compassion between the adult and the children. This seems to be a topic constantly picked up by Toro.
All in all, I'll give this film a 7.5/10.It won't ever be an overestimation because it touches me and impresses me with its hybrid of horror style and a universal issue of human condition. And in fact, it even questions our belief about science's rationality-"Hear, but don't listen; people say seeing is believing,it's the other way around: believe, and you'll see."