Among the finest horror films of the decade

Rating: 9/10 (15 July 2008)

The Orphanage is a film that should've been released years ago, because its plot and ghostly themes are so heavy-handed and overdone now, that not many of its genuine scares or innovative structure techniques come off as achieving. It certainly is the best film about creepy kids and haunted houses that I've seen, but after so many failures and low-brow ghost stories, the film comes across as a more polished version of those stories, than its own unique, intelligent movie, which is certainly would've felt like otherwise.
The film centers around Laura (played wonderfully by Belen Rueda), who has just moved into an old orphanage she grew up in with her adopted, ill son Simon, and faithful husband Carlos. Yes, Simon sees dead people. And plays with them. His concerned parents put up with his consistent ramblings about imaginary friends and treasure hunts. Laura and her husband privately discuss his physical and possibly mental illness, and their hopes for the future. After the ghosts reveal to Simon his illness (or did he overhear one of his parents conversations?), he disappears, and the couple descends into grief, but not without hope of finding him one day.
Laura then begins to see ghosts, but is she really seeing ghosts, or has she gone batsh-t insane? Are they trying to tell her something? Are they trying to frighten, confuse, relieve, or dispose of her? Did her son ever really exist? Does she exist? Does her husband exist? Really, the film doesn't resolve every one of its parallax or contradictory themes, it allows its viewer to interpret Laura's state of mind, to distinguish reality from insanity, and even to decide if some essential characters exist or not. I'd call it a fault if a film left absolutely everything up to the audience, but this film shows us both the paranoic/realistic and fantasy elements, and doesn't adopt either as its main viewpoint, but allows us to decide it all.
Technically, the film is masterwork. It's cinematography, pacing, structure, atmosphere, performances, all belong in tier 1 of film-making. There's one specific scene (One, Two, Three, Knock on the Wall) that is so perfectly shot and executed, it actually boosts up my entire rating by a point. Despite a mostly straightforward plot outline, it dives into more intricate plot elements, with simultaneously Peter-Pan-and-Thirteen-Ghosts-esquire themes, without diffusing or muddling either of them.
Overall, Del Toro has expertly made a very satisfying, chilling, and progressive horror story. Maybe not an inventive masterpiece, but a perfectly-executed version of what's recently become the same old cheap scares: creepy kids. And ghosts.