An unexpected gem, but its far from perfect

Rating: 7/10 (22 June 2011)

I was looking for some horror to watch, to turn off my brain for a hour and a half, and I heard nothing about this one so far, I figured, I give a try. Well, I haven't cried because of a movie since Wall-E almost had me in tears, and before that...I don't even remember. Maybe Requiem for a Dream. My point is, this movie is not a horror this is a drama. There was maybe one scary scene, the ghosts are friendly, and all the murders either happen because of an accident, or already happened in the past. But it is as emotional as it gets. I never saw a movie this cruel and yet this tender at once. The sad fate of the little orphan kids, their tragic and meaningless death, the struggle of the couple, who lost their adopted child, and the search for him is really heart-warming/-breaking. I hated that Benigna character with a passion, I understand, she lost her child because of the prank of the other orphans, but they meant no harm (unlike the ones in Friday the 13th but more on that later...), and killing them made her a disgusting character, it was a real pleasure seeing her get run over by a truck and die. And yes it was so predictable that she murdered the kids, I already know it when she got run over, however it was a good 30 minutes before the movie admitted that she killed the kids. In fact I think even the makers of the movie knew the bigger half of the audience will already know she was the killer of the orphans by the point when she will be killed, because there is only one scene, which has gore in it, and it is her death. Why kill her in a gruesome and cruel manner and show her face torn apart, if the audience still believes she is innocent, and if it is otherwise out of the character of the movie? But if we only care about the emotional side, the drama, this movie should be 10/10. But as a movie it is far from perfect because of three little facts: - the first part should have been scarier in my opinion, because it was too easy to find out, that these ghosts mean no harm, and it killed the later scenes, which tried to be suspenseful. Why worry, if I know, that the ghosts of the children mean no harm? - the whole story of Thomas was a huge rip-off of Jason and the Friday 13th movies. A challenged kid, with a disfigured face (even looking VERY similar than the young Jason) dies because of the prank of other children and his mother kills the ones who are responsible. Sounds familiar eh? - the ending was a rip-off of The Others. Strange fact, that the Others were directed by a Spanish director too. And in the end of both, the mother realizes the ghosts were friendly (but in the others there is a way more scary build-up to this revelation), she and her kid/kids are dead, and she decides to stay in the house, with the other ghosts. Heck, it even turns out in both, that the kid/kids died because of the mother... But rest these things aside, this is a very emotional and good movie. I recommend it to everyone who like drama.