Superior haunted house chiller

Rating: 9/10 (10 November 2008)

Having enjoyed Guillermo Del Toro's Spanish language films Pan's Labyrinth and The Devil's Backbone I looked forward to this even though he only produced it. I was not disappointed although it is fairly different in tone to those two films.
Set in present day Spain; Laura, her husband and their young son Simon move into the abandoned orphanage that Laura lived in as a child. They are a little concerned that Simon's only friends are imaginary but hope that will change when they reopen the orphanage as home for disabled children. Things don't go according to plan though when Laura is attacked by a strange masked child on the day the children arrive, at the same time her son disappears and the remainder of the film covers her desperate search for him.
If you are looking for gore and violence in a horror film this might not be for you, however if you want something that is genuinely creepy and has a few good scares then I'd strongly recommend this. The acting seemed good although I had to rely on the subtitles as I don't speak Spanish. Throughout the film there is a very creepy atmosphere that kept me on edge the whole time. There is also an interesting subplot concerning an ex-employee of the orphanage and sinister things that happened there in the past.