Review of The Orphanage (2007) by Heli K — 09 Aug 2011

Finally a decent horror flick!

PLOT:Laura (Belen Rueda) has moved into the orphanage she grew up in with her husband Carlos (Fernando Cayo) and adopted, HIV positive son, Simon (Roger Princep) and now manages it. One day, when Laura takes Simon down to the beach, he discovers a cave, in which he claims to have met a new friend named Tomas. It's getting closer to opening house at the orphanage and strange things are happening such as an old lady breaking in, Simon learning new things about his new "friend", and Simon flaring up at laura. When open house comes, Simon flares up and Laura slaps him. He doesn't come down, but when she comes back up she's attacked by Tomas and Simon is nowhere to be found. Will she find him? Is Tomas linked? WHo is the old lady? I'll leave you here. It is a plot that uses old, ghost story elements combined with newer, creative elements. It works out brilliantly.

ACTING:Very powerful. All the child actors (except the stand-ins at open house) were even excellent! They caught emotion and embraced it as a new toy. The adult acting was great too. I find the shiners to be Belen Rueda, Roger Princep, and Geraldine Chaplin as Aurora the medium.

SCORE:Epic. The John Williams of horror, it sounds like. It's intense and draws emotion in that kind of way.

EFFECTS:They were pretty good actually. The sound effects were creepy and realistic, and the makeup effects made things very disturbing-such as the bus crash scene. That image will be in my head forever!

CAMERAWORK:The camerawork was very excellent. It captured some great shots, and plenty of emotion.

OTHER CONTENT:What kept this movie from getting a full grade was only small things. Firstly, it was a little cliched with the jumpscore-and-there's-nothing-behind-the-door kind of cliche. And second, some people might find a few parts in here silly, such as the end when Laura (SPOILER) finds Simon and then loses him again. But there were a few other things that I liked about the movie, such as the well-written script and classic ghost story feel. Of course, the end after Laura loses him too. WIth this work, I can't wait to see Pan's Labyrinth!

OVERALL,a great horror with a brilliantly combined plot, powerful acting, epic score, realistic sound effects, disturbing make-up effects, excellent camerawork, a well-written script, and a classic ghost story feel. But it is somewhat cliched and disagreeably may have a silly screenplay.