Understated and stylish Spanish ghost story

Rating: 9/10 (22 September 2016)

THE ORPHANAGE is an excellent little modern-day ghost story and another example of Spanish genre cinema outclassing foreign competition. This flick has more imagination than a dozen US torture porn offerings or half a dozen Japanese female ghost jaunts. Although it clearly owes much to THE INNOCENTS and THE OTHERS, it stands in its own right as an effective ghost-story-cum-mystery as a couple move into an abandoned orphanage with their adopted son and soon find themselves menaced by sinister forces. The plot sounds familiar, but THE ORPHANAGE succeeds thanks to subtlety, originality, and the refusal to pander to the audience.
Those looking for CGI effects, action, or gore effects should go elsewhere because this film has none of them. There are a few jump shocks but even these are limited in favour of creepy atmosphere – this is without doubt a mood piece. It's not the most horrifying film I've seen and I wouldn't even class it as a 'horror' film per se – okay, yes, it is a ghost story but not a frightening one. Instead it's moving, poignant, nostalgic, and come the twist ending I don't mind admitting that I was crying my eyes out at the mixture of happiness and sadness it brought.
The film has an excellent location – a creepy old coastal orphanage, complete with secret rooms and passages – that would have been effective in the hands of an amateur, let alone the intelligent, mature director Juan Antonio Bayona. Guillermo del Toro was kind enough to put his name to it as producer to secure a wider audience and it was a good choice, as many people have discovered just how great a movie this is. Special mention goes to the entire cast for their performances, with obvious mention to Belen Rueda who has to act in a very difficult central role and comes away completely wonderful because of it.