The Orphanage (DVD)

'The Orphanage' is the first full length feature film from the director Juan Antonio Bayona. It is filmed in the Spanish language and is also set in Spain. Strictly speaking the title for this film is actually 'El Orfanato', but the title has been kindly translated and is therefore given the name of 'The Orphanage' for those of us that speak the English language. The film works largely on a cerebral level, it does however contain a certain degree of visceral involvement but when viewing bear in mind that most of the scares here are on a psychological level. Some of my favourite horror films of all time work on a psychological basis though, so I was greatly enthused about ...  Read the complete review

In 2006, director Guillermo del Toro blew audiences and critics away with Pan's Labyrinth, his gritty 'fairy tale for adults'. A year later, and he produced this intriguing, extremely tense horror, in which a couples' adopted son mysteriously disappears. The protagonist is Laura, a 37 year old woman who lived in the orphanage as a child before she was adopted. However, as the years passed the orphanage was closed down, and the story opens as she returns with her husband and adopted son, Simón, in order to reopen the building. Del Toro is a master of combining fairy tale elements and heart wrenching realism, and The Orphanage is no disappointment. Despite the ...  Read the complete review

As a child, Laura spent some time in an orphanage, and has some happy memories of that time. When she adopts a little boy, Simon, with her husband Carlos, they decide to buy the now disused orphanage and start up a school for disadvantaged children. All seems to be going well, until an old lady, claiming to be a social worker, turns up, asking questions about Simon. And Simon's behaviour becomes strange; he has a group of imaginary friends who seem to have a great deal of power over him. At an opening party, Simon suddenly goes missing, and is never found. Laura finds it hard to accept this and turns to psychics to help find out what happened, believing that Simon's ...  Read the complete review

---Just Flick It--- My neighbour is a flicker. I hate flickers. A flicker, for those of you not up on your Ryan speak, is someone who cannot or will not listen to a song the whole way through. If you were to ask my neighbour what the last line of any song on the planet was, she would NOT be able to tell you as she gets bored after about a minute and flicks to another song. Why is this of any consequence? Well, it is because of her flicking habits (ahem) coupled with her very bad taste in music (it would not be out of place in an elevator in a museum) that I was forced out of my bed on this particular...morning. That word makes me shudder. I believe she melted ...  Read the complete review

With only happy memories of her time at an enormous, sprawling orphanage on the Spanish coast, Laura returns to her childhood home with her husband Carlos and their son Simon. The couple intends to re-open the orphanage to care for children with special needs alongside their son Simon, who, himself, requires very special care for reasons he doesn't yet understand. The family is initially very happy, but Simon's behaviour soon starts to give cause for concern. His insistence that he has made new, invisible friends draws Laura into a disturbing and distressing confrontation and soon after, Simon completely disappears. Who is the curious old woman who purports to be a ...  Read the complete review