Masterfully terrifying

Rating: 8/10 (30 April 2008)

This hauntingly brilliant horror film stars Belen Rueda as Laura, a woman who brings her family back to her childhood home in order to re-open it as an orphanage. Once there, her son's imagination is reawakened by the home, but his childhood fantasies and games become sinister when his "imaginary" friends may not be so imaginary after all. Unlike many modern horror films, Juan Antonio Bayona does not wash the cinema screen with explicit torture candy, but rather skilfully weaves cinematic shocks through intrigue and suspense. His movie is all the more terrifying for what it does not show than for what it actually reveals. And there are at least four big moments that will leave you trembling in your seat, if you have not already jumped out of it.