THE ORPHANAGE

Director: Juan Antonio Bayona
Stars: Belen Rueda, Fernando Cayo, Roger Princep, Mabel Rivera, Montserrat Carulla, Geraldine Chaplin
Year: 2007
Rating: R
(in Spanish w/English subtitles)

Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona's debut is a suspenseful, touching and fairly spooky little masterpiece that is reminiscent of Alejandro Amenabar's The Others while being an entirely original story unto itself. El Orfanato (The Orphange) opens with sepia-toned memories of a group of orphan children, all close friends, playing a version of hide-and-seek, with little Laura being "it." Laura, we soon learn, is being adopted out that day to new parents - and when the film flashes forward to modern day, some thirty years later, we find the adult Laura (Belen Rueda, in a poignant, very honest performance) now has her own family (a husband and young son) ... and in fact, she and her husband have just bought the old orphanage Laura grew up in (long since shut down), in the hopes of fixing up the place to turn it into a home for special-needs children. The home is huge, near the edge of the sea, and fairly remote but a beautiful and ideal setting for the couple's plans - as well as a good place to raise their son Simon (Roger Princep), whom we find out is ill, himself.

Things go well until one day when Laura takes Simon out for a walk near the lighthouse, and in some nearby caves Simon discovers a new imaginary friend, named Tomas, whom he brings home to live in the old orphanage. Even though Simon has had imaginary friends in the past, there's something different with this one; soon Simon almost seems obsessed with Tomas, and begins making up new games that seem way beyond his age and ability. He also becomes more petulant and talks back to Laura. Worse still, a further wedge seems to be driven between the boy and his parents when he tells them that they aren't his real parents after all - that Tomas told him he's adopted. Which, viewers know by this point, is true (making things that much creepier). Even an old lady named Benigna (Montserrat Carulla) shows up, first asking questions about Simon - but then Laura even finds the old lady sneaking about on the grounds one night, though she gets away before Laura can talk to her.

Then, on a gray afternoon when Laura and her husband Carlos (Fernando Cayo) are hosting an outdoor party for some of the special-needs kids and their families, to show off the house, Laura has a huge argument with her son. Little Simon disappears soon afterward, without a trace, and during her search for him in the house Laura comes face to face with a small child - a child in tattered clothing, whose head is covered with a crudely-stitched-together burlap sack made to look like a face. When she's attacked by the child - who then quickly gets away - Laura becomes convinced that the kid was Tomas ... and that not only is he responsible for Simon's disappearance, but that there is also something quite supernatural (and very unsettling) going on in her home.

From here things escalate; as the months go on with no sign of Simon, Laura hears and sees things that come close to driving her mad when they bear no clues to her missing boy. Simon's disappearance has pretty much killed the business plan, too - after all, who would put their child in the hands of people who lost their own son in the same home? - and in fact, after close to a year with no word on their son, Carlos wants to call it quits and move far away.

But Laura's not having it. She knows, now, that there are forces in her home that have taken her child; are keeping him from her. And she won't leave until she gets Simon back.

The Orphanage is incredibly atmospheric, chilling, suspenseful, and creepy; more than a couple of times you will either jump in your seat, or feel the gooseflesh crawl up your arms. And if you're expecting the gore and/or high body count you often find in many American horror films, then yeah you'll be greatly disappointed (if not bored).

But The Orphanage is also poignant, touching, and ultimately real affirmation of a mother's love and devotion. Rueda, as Laura, is an accomplished actress who carries the film well on her strong shoulders, and anyone without at least a tear in his (or her) eye by the time the credits roll is a cold fish, indeed. This is a movie that may well get under your skin, all right - but somewhere, along the way, it also manages to sneak its way into your heart. ****1/2 - Reel Awesome-Reel Must-See