El Orfanato - 2008

"Presented by Guillermo Del Toro" tells you something about what to expect when watching The Orphanage, a tense, old fashioned horror film similar in tone to The Devil's Backbone. When I watched the film originally at the cinema, I was frozen in my seat for almost the entire film, the final twist ending showing how great twists can be, when subtly dropped into the story, and ensuring that the ending is about only the twist. On DVD though the experience is less impressive and the film doesn't demand the multiple viewings say The Sixth Sense merits. That's not to say the film isn't still a excellent entry into the horror genre, and it is certainly better than most of the gory, plotless tripe which passes for horror these days.

The film tells the story of Laura (played with assured confidence by Belen Rueda) who returns to the abandoned orphanage in which she grew up. Now, with her family, husband and son, she plans to open the house up for disabled children. After a bizarre old woman arrives, impersonating a social worker, things take a turn for the eerie and supernatural as their lonely son claims to have made a new friend called Tomaz.

Before the slightly off tone and Bayona's sinister direction becomes more aparent as a series of events, including some fantastic scares, build toward a reveal which will knock your socks off, and maybe even bring a tear to the eye, before the film finally commits to its supernatural undertones in an imaginative and suspense field ending.

There are problems, Laura's husband, Carlos, has barely a cameo, and we never really get to know. It may be Laura's story but he is as much a ghost to her as the actual ghosts which may be haunting the orphanage.

Yet at it's heart, The Orphanage is a superbly crafted, brilliantly written horror film which sits comfortably alongside such recent classics as The Devil's Backbone and The Others. My advice is to seek out the original and not wait for the US remake, which will no doubt lack the subtle, sinister quality.