The Orphanage: A Haunting Tale of Loss and the Supernatural
Laura (Belén Rueda) returns to the old orphanage where she spent her childhood, thirty years later, with her husband and adopted son, Simón. She plans to restore the dilapidated building and care for disabled orphans. However, before she can focus on helping others, Laura must confront the strange behavior of her own son. Simón invents invisible friends and engages in unsettling games with them. What starts as harmless fun soon turns sinister when Simón vanishes without a trace. In her desperate search for her son, Laura uncovers a dark history surrounding the orphanage, and the imaginary friends become all too real, and not always benevolent.
The film’s production faced challenges, with the budget doubling and filming taking longer than expected. Guillermo Del Toro’s name is prominently displayed on the posters alongside the director’s, and rightfully so. Without his involvement as a producer, this horror film might never have seen the light of day. However, Del Toro’s influence doesn’t turn “The Orphanage” into a derivative of his own works. It’s more of a mystical story than a fairytale. How can it be a fairytale when the distraught protagonist, in her quest to find her son, prepares beds and meals for deceased children, even playing with them? If “The Orphanage” bears resemblance to any other film, it’s Alejandro Amenábar’s “The Others” (2001), starring Nicole Kidman.
Subtlety in Horror
Like “The Others,” director Juan Antonio Bayona largely avoids typical horror tropes like excessive gore or grand special effects. The horror elements are surprisingly restrained: a couple of leather masks on children and a few skulls in bags. Instead, the film relies on carefully constructed scenes, lighting, and the eerie atmosphere of the 19th-century house, which provides ample space for ghosts to roam. The story of wandering souls of dead children blends seamlessly with the tragedy of a mother who has lost her son. “The Orphanage” successfully balances horror and melodrama, harmoniously combining the supernatural with a dramatic life crisis.
Lingering Questions
However, in his focus on the dead, Bayona seems to neglect the living, causing the film to falter at times. One wonders why the police, who searched for the missing boy for six months, never bothered to check the basement. And what would it take to convince a loving husband to willingly leave his wife in a house filled with supernatural occurrences? These questions remain unanswered. Despite these shortcomings, “The Orphanage” has garnered attention in the West, with Hollywood already acquiring the rights for a remake.
It seems Guillermo del Toro will be involved in the remake, once again as a producer.