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Orphanage, The
Picturehouse


8.5

based on 33 reviews
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based on 66 votes
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MPAA RATING: R for some disturbing content

Starring Belén Rueda, Fernando Cayo, Geraldine Chaplin, Montserrat Carulla, Mabel Rivera, and Andrés Gertrúdix

Laura returns to the stately manor house that holds such a special place in her heart. The orphanage was abandoned years ago; Laura and her husband, Carlos, plan to reopen it as a center for sick and disabled children. It will be a place where boys and girls--including the couple's beloved 7-year-old Simón--can play freely in the open air, enjoying the sunshine and the nearby beach. In its years of solitude, however, the orphanage has acquired a haunted, unhappy air. To get used to his creepy surroundings, Simón starts to have relationships with imaginary friends. Simón's circle of unseen friends quickly expands to include five more boys and girls, who tell cryptic stories and engage him in elaborate games that carry a suggestion of the sinister. Troubled, Laura allows herself to get sucked into her son's eerie world, which seems to resonate with a far-away and disturbing echo of her own childhood experiences. (Picturehouse)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Horror \| Mystery \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Sergio G. Sánchez
DIRECTED BY:	Juan Antonio Bayona
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 22, 2008 Theatrical: December 28, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	110 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Mexico / Spain
LANGUAGE(S):	Spanish

Alternative Title: El Orfanato

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Delivers more goose bumps than anything Hollywood has served up in years – which I hope does not mean that Bayona, a first-time feature director and music video whiz, will be enlisted to direct "Saw V."

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

Reaches truly terrifying heights as it becomes clear how possible the worst outcome can be. Like "Pan's Labyrinth," this is a movie about children made very much for adults.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Lures us in with extraordinary subtlety. Keeping sound effects and incidental music to a relative minimum, it builds its suspense almost subliminally. So when something scary or shocking does occur -- deprived of those Hollywood-style cues -- we are truly startled.

Newsweek David Ansen

A great horror movie is like a good shrink--and a lot cheaper, too. It purges us through petrification. That horror movie, thankfully, has arrived. It's called The Orphanage," and it is seriously scary.

Variety Justin Chang

A fastidiously grim ghost story that rattles the bones of the haunted-house genre and finds plenty of fresh (but not too bloody) meat.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Deliberately aimed at viewers with developed attention spans. It lingers to create atmosphere, a sense of place, a sympathy with the characters, instead of rushing into cheap thrills.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

The acting is uniformly superb, the camera work and set design are haunting, and The Orphanage delivers well-earned tears at its beautiful conclusion. Go see it already.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

By the end, you'll be chilled and disturbed by what you've seen -- and, rare as this is in a horror movie, touched to the heart.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

While some of the trappings and even some of the plot elements could easily be called unoriginal, Bayona and screenwriter Sergio G. Sánchez arrange them in a fresh way, crafting an emotionally resonant, nerve-jangling experience.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Despite a few bloodcurdling shocks, this handsome Spanish ghost story from producer Guillermo del Toro follows in the suggestive, richly romantic tradition of the old Val Lewton chillers.

Empire Olly Richards

A good old-fashioned horror in the best possible way, this is a beautifully told, terrifying ghost story that lingers with you long after the shivers have stopped.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

You exit the cinema in a fever of melancholia, wondering how long it will take you to shed the sensation of alarm. The film is less of a shocker than an adventure in anxiety, testing and twisting some of the classic studies in infantile curiosity.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

As Laura, Rueda hits sublime notes of confusion, grief and wrath. She's sympathetic enough to make you root for her and complex enough to get you arguing afterward about whether Laura did anything to deserve all this.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

For those who enjoy ghost stories and are willing to be patient with a movie that gradually unveils its secrets rather than uncovering them all in an orgy of violence and terror, The Orphanage fills a need. The spell it casts early does not evaporate until the epilogue is finished.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

In a genre that has been battered by the cheap grotesqueries of special effects, it is a pleasure to be unsettled by something as simple as an invasive beam of light in the shadows of a haunted house.

USA Today Claudia Puig

In a season filled with dark-themed films, it stands out as an elegantly mounted, surprisingly humane but terrifying horror thriller well worth seeing.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The Orphanage gets by on mood and a mournfulness that's not easily soothed. Sadness and loss, it says, are the threads connecting the spirit world and our own, and women, who bring life into the world, understand that far better than men ever will.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

What distinguishes The Orphanage are some spare but fiendishly well-placed shocks that give the film an extra sense of danger: You can't take comfort with this one assuming you know what lurks around each corner, because you don't. Trust me.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Bayona's moves are deft, the atmosphere oozes with anxiety and grief, but the big payoff - like the big payoff in The Sixth Sense, another film The Orphanage has more than a bit in common with - never comes.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

You're either in the mood to go along with the puzzle pieces or you're not. I'm not usually a puzzle-piece fan myself, not when it's clear that the filmmaker rigs the moves. But I couldn't help but fall for the repurposed real estate, and cheer for the lady strong enough to break through walls when she senses a child is waiting.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Though the movie has a handful of shots that are downright gross to witness, what makes The Orphanage scary is not what it threatens to show but what it suggests about life.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The filmmakers know the tropes of spooky movies: Glowering shadows, squeaking playground equipment, eerie storms and half-glimpsed forms, but the film rests on Rueda's subtle, intense performance, rooted in every half-articulated anxiety that ever gnawed at a parent's brain.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

As in “Pan’s Labyrinth,” The Orphanage relies on a risky blend of clinically realistic horrors and poetic suggestions of an alternate world, one that can be visited, but at a price.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

An unexpectedly poignant ghost story.

The Hollywood Reporter Richard James Havis

This Spanish supernatural thriller begins interestingly and finishes intriguingly. But what lies between drags because the film lacks a driving story line.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

The Orphanage, a diverting, overwrought ghost story from Spain, relies on basic and durable horror movie techniques.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

The Orphanage is a careful, elegant work that looks a little rough around the edges; it was shot largely with natural light and employs minimal special effects.

LA Weekly Mark Olsen

There’s not really a bogeyman in The Orphanage and not much blood; just insane intensity and a building sense of bad vibes.

Premiere Aaron Hillis

The Orphanage's joys come from the experiential: Bayona's cultured technical skills, including some phenomenal sound design, and sustained anxiety. It's about as healthy as junk food gets.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

It's worth a look, even taking into consideration the lack of zombies.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

You may see The Orphanage for what it is, an enjoyable contraption, without believing a bit of it.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Ultimately the composition comes off as both overplayed and underdone.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

A combination ghost and shaggy dog story that is so well-made and acted you can nearly overlook its murky, unsatisfying ending.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 66 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Kevin C. gave it a9:
A beautiful film the evokes a creepy atmosphere instead of going for cheap scares. It plays with your expectations, as some of the things you think are important end up being inconsequential, or vice versa, creating a conclusion that is completely logical but that still manages to surprise you. My one caveat is that I wish they had included a couple of the deleted scenes to add more of the character depth, but maybe it's hindsight and if they were in there I would think they were spoon-feeding the end to me.

Austin gave it a10:
Terrific suspense and a great textured story. The acting is much better than I'd expected. The ending was one of the most moving to ever come out of the horror genre. Well worth your time! See it!

Catullus P. gave it a9:
An almost unbearably chilling film with surprising emotional heft and humanity, which makes this a highly original entry in the thriller genre. Scary, yes, but heartbreaking, compassionate and sad as well. The cast--especially the mother--the direction, the gorgeous photography, the music--are all first class. The Orphanage succeeds brilliantly with tropes that are familiar to the genre. Like a great song, it contains many familiar chords and notes and yet is put together in such a way that makes you feel as if you're seeing it for the first time. I can't imagine what it must take to pull something like this off. Those looking for cheap thrills and gore won't find it here. This movie requires an attention span above 9 years old.

[Anonymous] gave it an8:
Screw you, Steve. You don't know what a good film is. Sure it coulda been shorter and characters coulda been developed more. But it is scarier than any other film I've ever seen. So Steve, go to hell, and cry like the little bitch you are.

Luiz gave it a9:
Fantastic! The movie captures the attention from the first minute till it´s brilliant ending. A must see!

David gave it a10:
This was an excellent movie even though when you stand back and look it is really just a haunted house pic. The movie maker that can get a jump from an audience from a simple slamming door like this did is the new Hitchcock.

Danielle M. gave it a10:
This movie was amazing, i couldn't get enough. You really have to pay attention to understand whats going on. I like it when a movie keeps you on the edge of your set, and this one does.

Orphanage, The Picturehouse

Orphanage, The
Picturehouse