Day 26: El Orfanato / The Orphanage (2007)

El Orfanato / The Orphanage (2007)

Starring: Belen Rueda, Fernando Cayo, ROger Princep, Geraldine Chaplin

Category: Foreign, favorite

Plot Tags: ghost story, child(ren) in peril

Original release: Oct 4th, 2007 (Spain), December 2007 (United States)

Format viewed: DVD - own collection

Directed by: J.A. Bayona

Written by: Sergio G Sanchez

Produced by : Guillermo del Toro

Distributed by: Picture House / Warner Brothers

This film was one of my favorites the year it came out and has stayed on my list of all time favorite scary movies. There is an elegance to the way it is constructed - everything from the filming style/cinematography to the acting to the story itself, it is a beautiful work all around. Now, it is important to note that there is an inherent sadness to it too that hangs very heavy over much of the story. I mention this because some people have a hard time with sad stories on the whole. I understand that thematically speaking, people want to turn off their emotions to a point and just be entertained by movies. That is okay. However, even though I cite this film as being sad, it doesn't mean there isn't an undercurrent of hope and beauty and love that carries through to the finale. I just think it is important to mention. 

The story centers around Laura (the wonderful Belen Rueda) who is/was an orphan returning back to the home she grew up in to renovate it and turn it into a home for disabled children. She is accompanied by her husband Carlos and their 7 year old adopted son Simon. Soon after their arrival, Simon speaks of making a new friend, Tomas, and draws a small boy with a burlap bag over his head. Laura and Carlos are also set upon by Benigna, a social worker who has ties to the home and its past. She delivers a file for Simon that reveals he is HIV positive. Soon after this, Simon teaches Laura a hide and seek game (taught to him by Tomas) that leads to the discovery of the file that leads to an argument between Laura and Simon. 

This leads to a children's party at the facility and after an argument between Laura and Simon, Simon goes and hides from her. When she is searching for him, she is confronted by a boy in a sack mask with Tomas written on his shirt. Instead of a peaceful interaction, the boy attacks her and traps her in a bathroom. Upon getting out, she cannot find Simon and becomes frantic. She tries to make her way into a cave by the ocean/waters edge and she falls and hurts herself. When being treated, the police contact suggests that Benigna might've taken Simon. The film fast forwards six months and confronts Benigna's background with the orphanage and her son, Tomas, who died after children took his mask and hid it in the cave during low tide. The mask was used to cover up his physical deformities and with desperation to find it, trapped himself in the cave and died. Additional revelations are uncovered to the true extent of these things and the sad turns that come from the aftermath. 

Laura brings in a medium to perform a seance to try to get clues as to her son's disappearance. It is from this point that the film takes advantage of the slow, steady increase in tension it has built and ratchets things up during the seance to the point where you can hardly stand it. It is constructed and crafted so so well and is beyond tense. This reminds me that I should mention this film does not rely at all on stupid jump scares or any gory popping-out type things that give you a jolt but annoy you moments after. The real art of this film is that, even without those vehicles for scares, the film is just so tense and spooky, built solely on the rising tension and desperation of Laura and the increasingly startling revelations of the past of the orphanage itself and the sad series of events that happened only a little while after she was adopted. I cannot say enough how important that lack of cheap scares are here - it would be so easy to throw a bunch of random crap at the viewer, twitchy spectres and the like and have that be where the fear comes from. But thankfully, this film takes its time, lays out the story and allows the viewer to become so emotionally involved that the scary and tenseness are all created in their (the viewers) minds and, more importantly, hearts. 

I feel it is very important to not summarize the rest of the plot beyond the seance sequence. There is a lot that comes out after it, and great lengths Laura must go to to seek out and find her adopted son and unravel the rest of the mystery of the past of the Orphanage itself. Her level of commitment is amazing, her fearlessness and utter bravery in the face of things that happen is just amazing. Her character is a real one and because of this, we feel along with her as the story culminates and resolves. It is because of this that we feel the revelations and losses deeply and Laura becomes a channel for what the viewer might feel or empathize in this situation. I'll say it again, this is such a wise choice because it makes everything that happens more personal and authentic. 

Bottom line, this film is a beautiful piece of work. It is tense and scary/spooky but does not rely on cheap scares or dumb sight scares to get you on the edge of your seat. It is a patient, well crafted ghost story with a wonderful heart and a somber tone that has stuck with me since I first saw it and every time since. Much like The Devil's Backbone (another Guillermo del Toro one), the real horror or fear is more to do with what we feel and what we don't want to happen to characters in a story and not merely what happens. That authentic connection is the real magic of a film like this.