A fairytale is generally thought of as a children’s story with a happy ending. And a horror story is generally thought to be not. But combine the two and you get a thought provoking and stylish drama in the Guillermo Del Toro (Pan’s Labryinth) produced, The Orphanage. This is director Juan Antonio Bayona’s debut, which shows a promising outlook for this young director.
Laura (Belen Rueda) has bought the house that originally was the orphanage she grew up in. She wants to run a home for special children with her doctor husband. Her son Simon (Roger Princep) has an active imagination. After a visit to the beach that is near the orphanage, he tells Laura that he has six new friends. When he becomes rebellious and acts up at the opening of the home to the children, Laura and he get into a fight. Then he disappears. Laura desperately searches for him. She encounters events from the past and the children she grew up with in the orphanage that may or may not have something to do with Simon’s disappearance.
The story is reminiscent of 2006’s Pan’s Labryinth. Are the events happening real or they just the product of an overactive imagination? The ending will throw you off guard and you won’t see it coming a mile away. A gambit of emotions is thrown at you which include terror, sadness, fondness, and surprise. It keeps you guessing and lets you make your own conclusions with the director having faith in its audience. Belen Rueda is a television star who is the heart of the film. You feel her love for this boy who is not her biological son but is still apart of her heart. She doesn’t care if everybody thinks she is crazy, she just wants to find Simon. Roger Princep has an angelic face with beautiful brown curls. He can also go from a sweet child to an impertinent one with just a change in his tone of voice. Even though Guillermo Del Toro didn’t director the movie, you can feel his influence with the look of the film. It is dark, gothic, and eerie. The orphanage supplies many dark corners and secret hiding places for the children. You wait for things to come out of the shadows.
The Orphanage will not leave you happy. It will leave you with haunting moments that are scary and sad. But it will dare you to use your imagination in a way that you never have before. It is a good story, well acted, and visually unforgettable. It is an adult bedtime story that you will not forget.
