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The Orphanage (2007)

Director: J.A. Bayona

2

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4 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out New York

“Presented” by producer Guillermo del Toro, The Orphanage is being positioned as this year’s Pan’s Labyrinth, but it’s more a descendant of The Turn of the Screw, The Others and any number of movies in which children see dead people. Here the little dickens (Príncep) is an adoptee who’s just moved into a musty estate with his father and mother, the latter of whom grew up on the grounds back when they were used as an orphanage. Soon the kid starts talking about his new “friends,” whom Mom (Rueda) writes off as the products of an overactive imagination. After he disappears, however—possibly kidnapped by a moppet in a potato-sack mask—she begins to change her tune.
First-time feature director J.A. Bayona has learned that loud noises and (pace the Coens) unexpected car accidents will make an audience jump. But testing viewers’ reflexes is not the same as creeping them out, and once the well-deployed shocks wear off, it’s hard to ignore that The Orphanage never coheres even on its own fantastical terms. A sequence involving Geraldine Chaplin as a medium is gorgeously suggestive, but mostly, this is an overproduced Twilight Zone episode—and it might have been more satisfying had Del Toro conjured the ghost of Rod Serling and closed the movie with a monologue.

Author: Ben Kenigsberg 2007-12-18 20:18:11

Time Out New York Issue 639: December 27–January 2, 2008

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User reviews of this film

  • FRAN said...
    Posted on May 17 2008 17:47 No where on these reviews does it mention that this is a Spanish Film with English subtitles!
    Report as inappropriate
  • jay jay said...
    Posted on Apr 22 2008 08:00 what!?
    this is a genuinely frightening and imaginative ghost story- far better than anything in this genre that has come out of hollywood for years
    Report as inappropriate
  • dan said...
    Posted on Apr 21 2008 08:57 I thought this was f*cking scary! not one for the faint hearted.
    Report as inappropriate
  • Becky said...
    Posted on Apr 21 2008 08:56 I thought this film was amazing. It taps into your inner fear and you really are on the edge of your seat. Its a definate must see.
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The Orphanage

Cast & crew

Director: J.A. Bayona

Producer: Guillermo del Toro, Mar Targarona, Joaquín Padro, Álvaro Augustín

Cast: Geraldine Chaplin, Belén Rueda, Roger Príncep, Fernando Cayo full cast

Rated: R

Duration: 100 mins

US Release: Dec 28 2007

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