From director Juan Antonio Bayona and producer Guillermo Del Toro comes the DVD release of this very well-received spooker from Spain (it is subtitled). 

The Orphanage is about a woman named Laura (Belen Rueda), along with her husband Carlos (Fernando Cayo) and young son Simon (Roger Princep), who purchases the old orphanage where she grew up in order to turn it into a school for special needs children.  The orphanage is located on the coast of Spain in a truly beautiful spot and the family is just thrilled with it during the first few days of getting it ready for the students.  But then some mysterious events start to happen.  Simon begins to play with some imaginary friends who seemingly set up elaborate treasure hunts for Simon and Laura.  Laura starts to become concerned with these hoaxes and things start to get spooky when a strange old lady masquerading as a social worker shows up in the middle of the night and a strange child wearing a burlap mask starts causing all kinds of trouble. 

Simon suddenly goes missing and Laura really starts to lose it.  Carlos tries to convince her that Simon was abducted by that mysterious old lady or someone else but Laura believes Simon is still in the house somewhere and that something else is going on.        

CRITIQUE

Following in the footsteps of recent suspenseful, slow-building ghost thrillers like The Others, The Ring and What Lies Beneath, The Orphanage is a tension-filled, creepy little thriller from Spain that gets under your skin slowly and continuously builds a palpable sense of anxiety and terror.  I was thoroughly engaged and entertained throughout the film and also effectively creeped out.  The only small downer was the ending which played it just too safe and nice for me (but not so much as to ruin anything that came before it).

This is a perfect exercise in effective horror filmmaking.  The chills and thrills come from the tense anxiety that something horrible is about to happen or is around every corner rather than just showing gruesome, nasty death scenes like most of the recent crop of horror films do.  It is a slow building creep-out with a very tight script, terrific direction and effective performances.  And even though it is subtitled, you will be so thoroughly engaged, you’ll completely forget it’s subtitled after just ten or fifteen minutes.  So for those that ignore subtitled films, don’t make that mistake here.

The director Juan Antonio Bayona manages to keep the film completely engaging and entertaining while slowly building up the chills and thrills.  This is something only the very best horror films have managed.  You can sense the hand of Del Toro in this film as it has the look and feel of many of Del Toro’s films like Pan’s Labyrinth (which is a huge plus).  Again, the only downside here is the ending.  It felt like a tonal switch and it was just far too sunny for the darkness that fell before it.  The script from Sergio G. Sanchez is brilliantly taut and tight without any holes and with some nicely constructed arcs. 

The acting is top notch; starting with the wonderfully subtle and effective lead performance from Belen Rueda who infuses her character with maternal warmth and strength (and yet you can sense her losing her grip on her emotions throughout the film).  Rueda one many small critics prizes last year for the role and it was well deserved (this was good enough for Oscar consideration last year).  The supporting cast is also excellent.  Child actor Roger Princep is superb as Simon and Fernando Cayo is terrifically effective as Carlos.  But the best supporting roles is from Montserrat Carulla who perfectly plays the strange old lady wandering about the orphanage (and her exit is very unexpected). 

THE VIDEO

The film looks outstanding and is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen.  The transfer is clean, crisp and stunning.  The most impressive part of this transfer is the incredible clarity and detail in the darker scenes (which being a horror film, there are a bunch).

THE AUDIO

The Orphanage is presented in three tracks: Dolby Digital 5.1 EX, DTS 6.1 and a 2.0 mix.  Personally, I didn’t even notice much of a difference between the tracks as I switched back and forth between them.  The 5.1 mix seemed the most complete to me with emphasis on background effects and small atmospheric noises which I loved.  Overall, each of the three presentations sounded terrific they each just emphasized different areas.

THE EXTRAS

There are four featurettes included on the disc that basically make up one highly detailed and informative making-of documentary, the different sections are called When Laura Grew Up: Constructing The Orphanage, Tomas’s Secret Room: The Filmmakers, Horror in the Unknown: Makeup Effects and Rehearsal Studio.

This is a very comprehensive look at what went into making the film and is interesting especially as a look at how other cultures approach the genre.  The interview footage is mostly with the director and Del Toro who are both very engaging and passionate about the film.  These four parts are definitely worth a look.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Orphanage is a tense, slow building chiller that will have get under your skin and have you nicely creeped out by the time it is over.  The ending is a bit of a downer as it is too much of a tonal shift from what came before it.  The transfer is excellent, the audio is outstanding and the making-of featurette is definitely worth a look.