The Orphanage

Introduction

Laura (Belén Rueda) returns with her husband and adopted son to re-open the orphanage where she grew up and turn it into a home for children with special needs. Her son, Simón (Roger Príncep), begins to see and talk to an increasing number of invisible friends, then during the open day he disappears.

Haunted by a vision of Simón and strange occurrences in the house, Laura refuses to believe that he is dead, even as the months pass. Her husband, Carlos (Fernando Cayo), is the rational half of the couple but grudgingly accepts when Laura calls in a team of parapsychologists.

Video

Modern films look great when quickly transferred onto DVD and this was no exception but the Blu-ray has a sharper and much better picture, with brighter colours, deeper contrast and better flesh tones. It's a beautifully filmed movie and the transfer does it justice.

*The pictures contained in this review were taken from the DVD and, as such, do not reflect the image quality of this disc.*

Audio

Although, due to technical limitations, I wasn't listening to it at its full capacity, the DTS-HD Master track is terrific with a superb score and enough atmospherics to maintain the tension and then delivers the shocks to great effect. There is also a Dolby Digital 5.1 option available. The optional subtitling is fine and does a good job making the film available to non-Spanish speakers.

Extra Features

A nice array of features are to be found on the disc, covering just about every aspect of The Orphanage from pre- to post-production.

Q & A With J.A. Bayona - Moderated by Mark Kermode after a screening in London, this is an interesting 40 minute feature. Furthermore, there is also a separate interview with Guillermo del Toro and J.A. Bayona in which the two talk about The Orphanage and film in general in an interesting chat.

There are three featurettes which concentrate on different aspects of the film, the set shows what a huge set they made which was a surprise as I thought they shot on location; the sound concentrates on the sound design and the score, showing how to create suspense with very little and there is a more general making of which shows the filming.

There are two further featurettes, Lighting the Darkness which explores the lighting used in the film and Roger Princep - The Casting which shows the difficulties of working with such a young and inexperienced actor and is a fascinating look at dealing with a child actor.

There are nine deleted or extended scenes which were rightly omitted or pruned, three sequences with storyboard on top and film on the bottom for comparison, Shooting the Credits, a sequence which shows how children were used to either grab at nothing or at paper, tearing it to create the basis for the CGI credit sequence and animated storyboards with commentary. In addition there is all of the 8mm footage which Laura watches in the film and the theatrical trailer.

Conclusion

The Orphanage is thematically similar to The Innocents, The Others and the original Dark Water; it is also one of those films that comes along when genre fans like me despair for the future of horror films and reminds us there is beauty and tragedy to be found in a film designed to unsettle and scare you. It is brilliantly directed by J. A. Bayona and there's a reason why Guillermo del Toro presented and produced it: it's terrific.

The cast are superb, especially Belén Rueda, who was excellent in The Sea Inside and young newcomer Roger Príncep impresses under the instruction of a man making his first feature.

The Orphanage is an intelligent take on the haunted house genre and a heart-wrenching tale of a mother searching for a missing child. Having now watched this four times, it's hard to stress how good The Orphanage is as it doesn't lose anything on repeat viewings, despite knowing how it ends. It's difficult to write too much without spoiling it for you, so suffice to say: rent or buy this great film, you won't be disappointed.