The Orphanage

Although Guillermo del Toro—director of the brilliant Pan's Labyrinth —produced this visually elegant Spanish chiller by filmmaker J.A. Bayona, The Orphanage lacks the earlier film's haunting imagery and mysterious depth. The story revolves around a couple named Laura (Belén Rueda) and Carlos (Fernando Cayo) and their young son Simón (Roger Príncep), who move into an old seaside house—formerly an orphanage in which Laura lived before she was adopted 30 years earlier—with the intention of turning the place into a home for disabled children. But the couple's plans begin to go awry when Simón falls under the spell of a group of imaginary friends and starts making sketches of a frightening figure who is disturbingly familiar to his mother, after which a strange woman—claiming to be a social worker—suddenly appears to check up on the lad. Following a confrontation between mother and son in which the latter learns that he was adopted and is dying, Simón abruptly vanishes, and the remainder of the film centers on the distraught woman's search for her son, both literal and supernatural. The Orphanage is a variant on Henry James' The Turn of the Screw—is all of this real or merely the fevered imaginings of the heroine's mind?—but while the film successfully conveys an atmosphere of vague dread and features some solid “gotcha” moments, it's ultimately a rather slow-moving ghost story. Optional. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include an 18-minute “When Laura Grew Up: Constructing The Orphanage” behind-the-scenes featurette, “Tomas' Secret Room: The Filmmakers” mini-featurettes on director J.A. Bayona and his crew, art direction, the score, and visual effects (10 min. total), a nine-minute “Horror in the Unknown: Make-Up Effects” segment, “Rehearsal Studio: Cast Auditions and Table Read” (4 min.), a stills/poster gallery, and trailers. Bottom line: a fine extras package for an uneven film.] (F. Swietek)