Review of The Orphanage (2007) by Anthony L — 24 Jan 2016

This was a great movie. I hadn't really heard much about it until I watched, and I'm glad I did. It mostly takes place in an orphanage where a mother is searching for her lost child, Simon, with the help of passive aggressive ghosts.

Since most of the movie takes place in the orphanage, there is a very claustrophobic feeling the whole time you are watching, which just adds to the terror. It doesn't rely on blood and gore for scares, but leaves a lot of it up to your imagination, seeing how the ghosts are invisible to the audience. One particular part involves a medium named Aurora waking into the room where the dead children, now ghosts, used to sleep. She screams about how they look so sick, but the children are never shown. The watcher is only left to imagine what they must look like.

Similar to many horror movies, very few people believe Laura, the mother, when she claims to have seen and heard ghosts. You can feel her frustration when her husband leaves her, and her terror as she wonders the orphanage alone in search of Simon.

Though the setup of a haunted house has been used in many movies, The Orphanage will keep you on the edge of your seat with its twists and turns. The ending is also very well done, and also may bring a tear to your eye. All in all, The Orphanage is a great movie, well worth your time.