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The Orphanage [Blu-ray] [2007]
from Optimum Home Entertainment
starring Belen Rueda, Geraldine Chaplin, Fernando Cayo
directed by Juan Antonio Bayona

Features:

• PAL

Editorial Review:

Belen Rueda, Geraldine Chaplin, Fernando Cayo

Backed by Guillermo del Toro and yet made by a surprisingly inexperienced group of film makers (especially considering the end result), The Orphanage is a chilling, tense supernatural thriller that could certainly teach more established directors a thing or two about how to send shivers down the spine.

It tells the story of a woman, Laura, returning to the orphanage where she was raised as a child. Her plans are to look after sick children there, but it doesn’t take long for things to go awry. Without giving too much away, visions from her past and a threat to her own family are the starting points for a complex and quite haunting thriller, that stays in the mind long after the credits have rolled.

A film that works on more than one level, The Orphanage really is some piece of work. Juan Antonia Bayona, behind the camera, generates an incredibly atmospheric mood that underpins the film, and wisely takes time to put pieces in place. He’s aided by a terrific cast, and an unsettling screenplay that layers in an uneasy horror that’s as anti-Hollywood as it comes.

The result of all of this is one of the scariest films of recent times, and yet something that still manages to be that little bit more, that sticks in your mind for some time afterwards. Make no mistake, The Orphanage really is something different, and all the better for it. --Jon Foster

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

• Creepy !
  I don't normally watch subtitled films but I have to say this was very good. It was very creepy in parts and the twist at the end was unexpected and pretty horrifying!! There was some great jumpy moments in it and overall enjoyed watching it!

• Decent Film But For The Sound
  Set in a remote, creaky, gothic house where the protagonists rattle round like peas I'd've given this two stars but for the rather poignant twist at the end which made me quite weepy. It's a workaday ghost story but very well acted, I have to say though that I've always found Geraldine Chaplin's face too comical for the kind of parts I've seen her play and here is no exception.
  Don't buy this version(Optimum Home) because the sound is infuriating. All the background hiss and crackle which you... more info

• Most Stunning and Original Ghost Story for an age.
  This is what tvs were made for. The film takes a while to get going but this is a good point not a bad point as the details in the early stages have to be taken in. The subtitles dont distract from from the pure class of this brilliant film and the acting is sheer brilliance. Although there is little or no gore it still has the ability of scaring the pants off you and is a film that long after you have finished watching it you start to understand it more and more. Guillermo has not put a foot wrong in this... more info

• A ghost story, not a horror
  After the visual splendour and powerful background of the Spanish Civil War in Pan's Labyrinth, I was really looking forward to seeing this. However The Orphanage is very different, though equally memorable. The film is much lower key; special effects here are subtle and never overpower the story. In fact this is a tour de force of understated, creepy and goosebump inducing cinema.
  If your preferred type of scary movie involves teenagers and multiple graphic murders then you may not enjoy this. On the... more info

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