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Children are scary. Evidence? The Exorcist. The Omen. The Shining. Myriad others. The Orphanage continues in this horror film tradition. (Why do they all start with "The"? Creepy.) Considering this well-established horror convention, it is surprising that until now there hasn't been a film set in that most foreboding of child-related locales, the orphanage. Well, Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona - under the tutelage of executive producer Guillermo del Toro, who has received so much poster space that most people probably think he directed it - has finally plugged the gap, so to speak, and the resulting film is one that makes excellent use of the creepy setting, while not bringing anything particularly new to the horror table. If The Orphanage proves to be something of a patchwork of older ideas, though, that's not necessarily a negative point; it takes inspiration from several classic genre films and assembles the various components into a compelling whole. As the old saying goes, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."
But calling The Orphanage entirely unoriginal isn't completely fair. Yes, it does liberally borrow and recycle numerous elements of 70s and 80s horror, but to those familiar with Hollywood's current, mostly dismal output of sanitised PG-13 teen-friendly "horror" it may come as a revelation. The Orphanage is definitely unnerving and extremely suspenseful, as well as containing a couple of good sudden jumps in the bargain (one in particular may cause a few nervous chuckles due to its complete lack of foreshadowing). The plot concerns a mother who moves into the old disused orphanage in which she grew up, with the intention of using it as a home for disabled children. But her son starts seeing visions, and talks of seemingly imaginary friends - very The Shining - leading to all sorts of spooky eventualities.
Bayona establishes his setting very well indeed. We come to know not only the shadow-strewn interior of the building, but also the geography of the immediate area, dominated by a non-functioning lighthouse. It's particularly satisfying that the film never resorts to conspicuous CGI, and there's no typically overblown finale, just an effective, quietly emotional and somewhat bittersweet conclusion. There's not even much in the way of violence or gore throughout the running time, which again proves that leaving things to the audience's imagination rather than showing everything in graphic detail can make things far more disturbing and affecting. Indeed, it's the level of restraint in the direction that makes it such a gripping experience.
The summary
An excellent and surprisingly subtle Spanish horror film that's only really lacking in the originality department.
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