The Orphanage (El Orfanato) is a 2007 Spanish horror film, directed by Juan Antonio Bayona and written by Sergio G. Sanchez, it also stars Belén Rueda, Fernando Cayo and Roger Princep.
.
.
Since The Orphanage is of the Horror genre, I went into it
being very skeptical due to the fact that I usually find modern horror films to
be too predictable, or they just try to get as much gore in it as possible with
cheap jump scares and label the film ‘Horror” because apparently that’s the modern
interpretation of the genre.
I was pleasantly surprised when I watched this film; it had
a good storyline, which is pretty rare for horror, it was very good at setting
the atmosphere, there was a nice build-up of suspense in each scene and even
when it was just a calm day scene I was still on edge because this film was
unpredictable with what would happen next. It’s a film you definitely have to
pay attention to when watching because all the small details matter.
The beginning scene where the children are playing a game in the orphanage is nicely done, I mean, it's a typical convention of the horror genre where everything starts out all happy and sweet before it suddenly takes a dark turn but it was done well and it’s
one of the few genuinely happy moments and it was very enjoyable to see a similar scene take place later in the film where the same game is played but with a much more sinister and tense atmosphere. After the opening credits, we are introduced to the mother Laura (played by ) and son Simón (Roger Princep), who will be the focus of this film's story. Right off the bat, we are informed about the fact that Simón has imaginary friends, which is odd for a child of his age, this tells us that it will most likely be a key plot point comes into play later on in the film. Further into the scene, Laura tells Simón about the lighthouse nearby and about how even though it may not seem like it's working, it's actually shining an invisible light over them and protecting them, this reminded me of a line from T.S. Elliot's poem 'Choruses from the Rock', the line was "Light, light, the visible reminder of invisible light", in the context of the poem, the light is meant to represent God and how He is an unseen presence guiding us, so when Laura mentions invisible light, I immediately think that light is supposed to represent God.
A few scenes later, Laure and Simón go to the beach to pick up shells, there is a shot in this scene that shows the ocean calmly hitting the rocks, I like this shot because, although it seems like it's just a simple shot of some scenery, it's actually somewhat foreshadowing what is going to happen later on in the film when a similar shot is used later on when Laura is running to find a lost Simón at the beach after the tide has come in, but in the second shot later on, the water is hitting the rocks harshly to fit with the sense of urgency the scene is trying give off. It seems that the film does that often, redoing a shot or scene from earlier in the film but with a completely different atmosphere and context, it's one of the many small details which I enjoyed about the film. Anyway, after the first scene with the beach, they start walking home and we see that Simón starts dropping seashells behind him so that his "friend" Tomas will be able to find him, in that moment we assume Tomas to be another on of his imaginary friends but later on, Laura opens the front door to reveal a pile of seashells on the doorstep, this is obviously to suggest that Tomas is a real person and that he is at the house, but who he is, is yet to be revealed.
Next comes the worst bit in the film, not because it is poorly written or anything, simply because I detest any kind of pain to do with fingernails! In this scene, they having a party with a bunch kids wearing masks around, this obviously spells trouble. Laura goes and looks for Simón upstairs to see if he's okay, when she see's a child wearing a sack mask, similar to the one Simón drew a picture of so she immediately assumes it's Simón, when she tries to take of the mask, the child pushes her into the bathroom and slams the door shut on her fingers (Ouch!), she then falls into the empty bathtub, after recovering, she pulls her broken fingernail off, which is one of the few things I can't handle seeing simply because it's like the feeling people get when they thing about nails on a chalkboard, but thankfully, that is probably the only scene I didn't like in the film.
The film tends to use a lot of the typical horror conventions like, creaking sounds, creepy children, flickering lights, doors that close by themselves etc., but instead of them being incredibly dull and generic like in many other horror films, they worked very well and actually managed to make me feel tense in some moments, which was a surprise.
Overall this film is definitely on of the better ones in the horror genre, it's well written, has good actors and clearly a lot of effort has been put into this to make it the film it is, it deserved all of the rewards it received, if not more.
A few scenes later, Laure and Simón go to the beach to pick up shells, there is a shot in this scene that shows the ocean calmly hitting the rocks, I like this shot because, although it seems like it's just a simple shot of some scenery, it's actually somewhat foreshadowing what is going to happen later on in the film when a similar shot is used later on when Laura is running to find a lost Simón at the beach after the tide has come in, but in the second shot later on, the water is hitting the rocks harshly to fit with the sense of urgency the scene is trying give off. It seems that the film does that often, redoing a shot or scene from earlier in the film but with a completely different atmosphere and context, it's one of the many small details which I enjoyed about the film. Anyway, after the first scene with the beach, they start walking home and we see that Simón starts dropping seashells behind him so that his "friend" Tomas will be able to find him, in that moment we assume Tomas to be another on of his imaginary friends but later on, Laura opens the front door to reveal a pile of seashells on the doorstep, this is obviously to suggest that Tomas is a real person and that he is at the house, but who he is, is yet to be revealed.
Next comes the worst bit in the film, not because it is poorly written or anything, simply because I detest any kind of pain to do with fingernails! In this scene, they having a party with a bunch kids wearing masks around, this obviously spells trouble. Laura goes and looks for Simón upstairs to see if he's okay, when she see's a child wearing a sack mask, similar to the one Simón drew a picture of so she immediately assumes it's Simón, when she tries to take of the mask, the child pushes her into the bathroom and slams the door shut on her fingers (Ouch!), she then falls into the empty bathtub, after recovering, she pulls her broken fingernail off, which is one of the few things I can't handle seeing simply because it's like the feeling people get when they thing about nails on a chalkboard, but thankfully, that is probably the only scene I didn't like in the film.
The film tends to use a lot of the typical horror conventions like, creaking sounds, creepy children, flickering lights, doors that close by themselves etc., but instead of them being incredibly dull and generic like in many other horror films, they worked very well and actually managed to make me feel tense in some moments, which was a surprise.
Overall this film is definitely on of the better ones in the horror genre, it's well written, has good actors and clearly a lot of effort has been put into this to make it the film it is, it deserved all of the rewards it received, if not more.
