The Orphanage

Rating: 5/10 (17 April 2009)

Produced by Guillermo Del Toro, director of Blade II and Pan's Labyrinth, I was keen to at least try it. Basically former orphan Laura (Belén Rueda) with husband Carlos (Fernando Cayo) and their adopted son Simón (Roger Príncep) move into an old house, an abandoned orphanage where Laura herself was raised. Simón is HIV positive, and only has five invisible friends to comfort him, obviously Laura just sees them as a figment of her son's imagination. Laura decides to reopen the house as an orphanage for handicapped children, not paying much attention to Simón, until she sees a mysterious masked boy, and her son vanishes. Laura has been feeling an invisible presence in the house, and after months invites ghost experts to investigate, in hope to get her son back. When they and husband Carlos are out the way though, she realises the ghosts of the children are playing some sort of game, so she plays along, and it seems to work, she gets Simón back, only to die and have their names put on a memorial. Also starring Montserrat Carulla as Benigna, Geraldine Chaplin as Aurora, Mabel Rivera as Pilar, Andrés Gertrúdix as Enrique, Edgar Vivar as Prof. Leo Bálaban and Óscar Casas as Tomás. Even if this film was in English not Spanish, I don't think it would really jump out at me, it wasn't all that scary or thrilling, but I guess it an alright supernatural mystery. Worth watching!