Believing is Seeing (The Orphanage (Blu-ray))

Member Name: kellylouj

Product:	The Orphanage (Blu-ray)
Date:	15/11/08 (81 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Traditonal Ghost storyline, some great characters

Disadvantages: Not too many scares

Another rental from lovefilm and this week it was The Orphange on Blu-ray. Chosen by my husband so I had no idea that this would be a spanish film with English subtitles so as we began to watch I was a little apprehensive that I would not enjoy the film and would struggle to follow whilst watching the subtitles, but needless to say the Orphanage was one of the best films I have seen this year.

~*~The Storyline~*~

The Good Shepherd Orphanage holds many memories for Laura, played by Belen Ruedi. As an orphan Laura spent most oher the early part of her life being nurtured by the affectionate staff and the other orphans who had grown to be her brother and sisters.

At the age of 7 Laura was adopted and as the staff knew that it would be difficult for the orphans they waited until Laura had left with her new family before telling the remaining orphans.

30 years on and Laura returns to the desserted orphanage with plans to re-open as a centre for the sick and disabled children with her husband Carlos, played by Fernando Cayo and her adopted son Simon played by Roger Princep who was born with HIV, Laura is very overprotective of her adopted son ensuring that he has his vital medication to keep him alive.

Simon is a very inquisitive 7 year old and he has a vivid imagination which has led him to have 2 imaginary friends Watson and Pepe who he is very concerned about since their move to the orphanage as Simon himself is frightened with the gaunt and gothic appearance of the building in which he now has to live in with his parents.

Laua is very patient about Simon's overactive imagination and his fears of their new home and tries to reassure him by telling him stories of her memories from when she lived there as a young child and how special this place is to her.
Simon is immediately reassured and sets about exploring his new home and its surroundings and during a visit to the nearby beach with Laura, Simon enters a cove and it is here he becomes friends with Tomos another imaginary friend who claims to be from the old orphanage, but when Simon informs his mother of this she does not recall there ever being a Tomas at the orphanage and dismisses Simon's stories as imaginative and lets him believe in his new imaginary friend, until one day Simon takes it too far which leads Laura and Carlos to believe that he is seeking attention from them both as the opening of the orphanage draws closer and it is this day where the sinister happenings occur at the Orphanage.

~*~My Opinion~*~

I really enjoyed this film as for once it concentrated on the actual storyline rather than the special effects or gory blood scenes and has created a good old fashioned ghost story that is incredibly believable.
If you like Sixth Sense or The Others then this film is for you, don't let the fact that the film is in Spanish put you off.
There are moments in this film where it is so tense that you actually find yourself on the edge of your seat wondering just what is around the corner, for me the scariest part of the film was when the medium visited the house, it made me feel eerie and this film seemed to offer a realistic storyline that was believable right through to the end and what's more the final plot was not a let down as you realise what has actually happened in the film.

I tend to have a knack of assuming what is going to happen next but throughout this film I was kepy guessing and had no idea what to expect, don't get me wrong there is one major gory scene but nothing that is too over dramatised and genuinely leaves you feeling shocked.

Laura and Simon are definately the characters that make this film and have been cast so well, even though I do not have any children it was easy to relate to her character as a loving mother, as we witness her experience what it is to experience, love, loss and guilt. Simon is a loveable character and the actor is absolutely adorable with his gorgeous big brown eyes it is easy to feel a sense of love for the child and to want to understand what it is he wants his mother to see.

The film is set in Spain and the location is absolutely superb, my only disappointment was with the character Carlos who seemed to just be sidelined in the film and when he leaves halfway through the film he is not really missed.

The film is not full of scares but it has a good storyline and is definately different to traditional horrors that are doing the rounds in the cinemas and rentals at the moment it is rated a 15 so as you can tell from the rating its not going to be too scary and too gory.

Watching it on HD makes the images much clearer and sharper giving a more 3 dimensional picture.

Summary: A film that everyone should see,