The Orphanage / El Orfanato (2007) – Film Review

The Orphanage is a Spanish horror film that compares very well with any number of Hollywood-produced horror films. The only thing that might put some viewers off the film is the use of subtitles.

The central character is a 37-year-old woman called Laura (Belen Rueda). She and her husband, Carlos (Fernando Cayo) buy an old house on the Spanish coast and move into it with their adopted son, Simon (Roger Princep). The house has been derelict for quite some time, but 30 years ago it was an orphanage and the place where Laura spent much of her childhood.

Laura and Carlos seem to be a well-matched and loving couple. They are also good parents who dote on Simon, who is, it has to be said, quite a cute kid. Sadly, Simon’s future is limited because he suffers from congenital HIV. Up until they moved into the orphanage Laura and Carlos have successfully shielded their son from any knowledge of his illness, along with the fact that he is adopted.

Viewers first learn of Simon’s illness when an old woman appears at Laura’s door. Her name is Benigna. She claims to be a social worker and even has Simon’s case notes with her. It’s all very convincing but something does not seem right about the old girl and it is not long before Laura smells a rat and insists that Benigna leaves.

Later that night, Laura awakes to the sound of banging coming from one of the outbuildings that appears to have once been a bakery. When Laura goes to investigate the cause of the commotion she discovers Benigna has returned and it is she who is causing all of the noise. The sight of Benigna with a shovel in her hand gives Laura gets quite a fright, but before she can challenge the intruder Beniga runs off into the night.

Not long after this Simon has a confrontation with his mother and tells her that he knows he is going to die. He also informs her that he knows she is not his real mother and accuses her of lying to him. Laura and Carlos presume that Simon must have stumbled across his case notes—which Laura locked in a drawer after Benigna left—but Simon insists his invisible friends provided him with the information.

Laura and Carlos sit down and talk things through with Simon and their words seem to pacify the situation. Unfortunately, the couple soon have a worse problem to face when Simon disappears during a party held at the house.

At first it appears that Benigna may have taken him, but Laura soon begins to realize that her son’s invisible playmates may not have been as imaginary as she thought and begins to suspect they may be playing a game with her, with Simon as the prize.

Nine months later, Simon is still missing and Laura has given up on the police. She turns to a team of psychic investigators for help instead. The scene where the team begins their investigation at the old orphanage is rather chilling and is somewhat reminiscent of the original Poltergeist film (1982).

As in Poltergeist, the investigative team comprises a psychic medium and some scientists who monitor the situation in the house via all their technical paraphernalia.

The medium’s name is Aurora and, after she enters a trance-like state, she succeeds in contacting the spirits of several dead children, while her colleague’s equipment succeeds in picking up and recording their voices.

Laura accepts the situation at face value, and who can blame her? These guys are obviously the real deal and they know what they are doing. Not so easily convinced, Carlos remains skeptical and, suspecting trickery, he tells Aurora and her team to leave.

While continuing her search for her son, Laura discovers the remains of several dead children hidden in the outbuilding that Benigna had been banging about in. Simon is not among them, but Carlos has had enough and decides that he and Laura need to leave. When Laura refuses to go with him, Carlos departs without her.

Left to her own devices, Laura does her best to play the ghost children’s game, hoping that the trail of clues they have left behind will lead her to Simon.

The Orphanage is a great film. The cast are impeccable and the atmosphere throughout the film is very spooky. Talking about spooky, if you decide to watch the film keep an eye out for the kid whose face is masked by a sack. It looks like something that might have been a hand-me-down from Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th films. Just the sight of the kid standing there wearing the thing should be enough to send a few shivers down anyone’s spine.

The Orphanage relies more on a dark atmosphere for its frights. There is not an awful lot of gore on offer, so if blood and guts are not your thing there is little here that will put you off your lunch. The only possible exception is the scene where Benigna comes off second best in an argument with a moving bus. She would never have won any beauty contests to begin with, but with her jaw hanging off, she looks like someone broke an ugly stick over her head and then just kept on beating.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, subtitles are not everyone’s cup of tea. However, The Orphanage is such a good film, that it’s worth laying the dislike aside and giving it a chance. The Orphanage is such a well-presented and creepy film that even if Hollywood decides to do a remake of it at some point, I doubt very much that it would ever be able to compare with the original. Director Juan Antonia Bayona got it right the first time around and it never pays to mess with perfection.