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 Orphanage (2007)
Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Starring: Belen Rueda, Fernando Cayo, Geraldine Chaplin
Screenwriter: Sergio G. Sanchez
Producer: Guillermo Del Toro
Composer: Fernando Velazquez
DVD Info
Release:
Oct 4, 2009
DVD Features:
- Keep Case
- Widescreen - 2.35
Audio:
- DTS-ES 6.1
- Dolby Digital 5.1 EX
- Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
- Subtitles - English, Spanish
Additional Release Material:
- Behind the Scenes - Rehearsal Studio
- Featurettes - 1. WHEN LAURA GREW UP: CONSTRUCTING THE ORPHANAGE
- 2. TOMAS' SECRET ROOM (THE FILMMAKERS)
- 3. HORROR IN THE UNKNOWN: MAKEUP EFFECTS
Text/Photo Galleries:
- Still Gallery
Reviews
Superb. Even the cliche spooky kids are handled with aplomb.
Haunting and heartbreaking, The Orphanage delivers a double whammy of chills both real and supernatural.
An astoundingly well-made debut - even if The Orphanage is ultimately as empty as it is haunted.
The Orphanage proves the haunted house genre is alive and well - in the right hands.
A visually charged but psychologically hollow occult offering and horror rehash along the lines of, I see dead orphans.
Not only is the story spooky...there are several good shocks along the way that will knock you out of your seat.
O espanhol Juan Antonio Bayona se une ao mexicano Guillermo del Toro e ao chileno Alejandro Amenábar no grupo de cineastas latinos com talento particular para o macabro.
It captures pure terror. It's horrific. That's horror plus terrific. It's almost impossible for a film like this to be lumped into the same category as...
Belén Rueda, the film's star, is that rare woman in her 40s who is allowed to look naturally beautiful, with the lines of a woman in her 40s (even though she's playing a character who is 37).
This is the worst sort of horror film, one that cloaks its shameless pulls at the heartstrings in overemphatic sound design, hyped-up visuals, and a tear-streaked lead performance by Belen Rueda.
A spectacular entry into the horror thriller genre, The Orphanage twists and turns and gives the audience some truly scary and sorrowful moments.
The historical details and enthralling magic of Guillermo del Toro's own productions are missing, and it's more reliant on boo scares than its somber story can support. Yet an intriguing subtext, fierce lead performance and a perfect ending make it work.
At once mother and child, victim and antagonist, space and inhabitant, Laura is remarkable, but also traumatized and unnerving.
Poltergeist meets The Others in a satisfying story about what you believe... You'll never watch children playing "Red Light, Green Light" the same way again.
The kind of movie that reminds horror fans why they became hooked on the genre in the first place.
In Spanish with subtitles, this magical, mystical tale seems anointed somehow with Del Toro's thick atmospheric elixir that served Pan's Labyrinth, Del Toro's unsettling Oscar-winner of last year.
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by: REEL_REVIEWER 3/18
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