The Orphanage

Now that the horror genre has degenerated into torture porn and disposable crap that's tossed to teenagers like so much chum to sharks, it's nice to be reminded that it can still be capable of providing a good old-fashioned time at the movies. More specifically, it's a pleasure to see a well-done ghost story. I could probably count on only one hand the number of really good ghost films, and The Orphanage will now be represented by one of my digits.

It's interesting that perhaps the last good ghost film, The Others, was directed by a Spaniard, as is The Orphanage, which was helmed by Juan Antonio Bayona (but was executive produced by Guillermo Del Toro, who is getting all the attention in the U.S. marketing). It seems that the Spanish still have an appreciation for a film that doesn't need to bludgeon you with hacked-off limbs to supply a fright. This film will probably get an English-language remake, and it will be interesting to see how a Hollywood studio will mess up the magic.

The titular orphanage has been purchased by a young couple when the film begins. They want to bring in some foster children to care for, and have a son, Simon, who is also adopted and is HIV-positive. Simon is a lonely and imaginative kid, who has a tendency to invent imaginary friends. However, when his imaginary friends start to multiply and weird things start happening around the house (including the arrival of a strange old women lurking around the gardening shed) it's clear something supernatural may be afoot.

At the core of this film is a performance by Belén Rueda as Laura, Simon's mother. When Simon goes missing, and she has a disturbing encounter with a child wearing a sack over its head, she begins to believe that spirits of orphans are still wandering the house. There's a terrific scene involving professional ghost hunters set up shop in the house, using video and sound equipment while a medium (Geraldine Chaplin) attempts to contact the children. The climax, in which Laura uses an old children's game, is genuinely spooky, and just goes to show you can't beat the old recipe of a woman alone in a large creepy old house.

The Orphanage is Spain's entry in the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film. I don't think it's quite that good (although I certainly am in no position to judge what Spain's best film of the year is) but it's not quite so good that it transcends genre. It's just a fun, scary film, with the requisite melancholy that would accompany a work involving dead children.