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Movie Review | 'The Orphanage'

The Ghost Down the Hall Is Scary in Spanish, Too

By A.O. Scott

• Dec. 28, 2007

“The Orphanage,” a diverting, overwrought ghost story from Spain, relies on basic and durable horror movie techniques. Give a competent director a gliding camera, creepy music and a dim hallway lined with doors, and a decent scare is likely to follow. No matter how many times you have seen similar tricks, the sudden apparition of a child at the end of that hall — especially a child in a weird, anachronistic costume — is likely to make you jump a little in your seat. So when a distraught Laura (Belén Rueda) stumbles down the corridor and comes face to face with a boy whose shorts and knee socks are accessorized by a burlap sack covering his face, you are likely to be nearly as terrified as she is.

Even though “The Orphanage” is Juan Antonio Bayona’s first feature film, there is no doubting his skill. But like his patron Guillermo del Toro (who is both producer and “presenter” of this movie), Mr. Bayona is interested in using the horror genre to explore emotions beyond mere fright. Though there are plenty of sudden jolts and eerie atmospherics, “The Orphanage” is ultimately concerned with grief, remorse and maternal longing.

As a rule, if these emotions are credible, the lapses of logic and plausibility that haunt nearly every exercise in supernatural cinema will melt away. Metaphysical leaps can be forgiven if the underlying melodramatic architecture is sound; this is why no one pushes too hard against the premises of “The Sixth Sense” or “The Others,” two movies whose blending of the creepy with the weepy “The Orphanage” recalls.

Most of the ingredients are present: a sensitive mother (Ms. Rueda); an angelic, endangered child (Roger Príncep); and a spooky house in the middle of nowhere. The child, Simón, has been adopted by Laura and her husband, Carlos (Fernando Cayo), who have the perfectly sensible idea of moving to the orphanage where Laura grew up and turning it into a home for sick children. What could possibly go wrong?

But then Simón starts talking about imaginary friends, in particular one named Tomás, and a sinister old lady shows up claiming to be a social worker. And before you know it, Geraldine Chaplin, the honorary fairy godmother of Spanish cinema, stops by to lead a séance.

I won’t say what she sees, since I don’t want to spoil any surprises. The twists in Sergio G. Sánchez’s script, though fairly conventional in themselves, are deftly executed by Mr. Bayona.

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The orphanage.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 7 Reviews
• Kids Say 14 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Decent old-school ghost story, Spanish-style.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that even though the R-rating is too harsh, brief but grotesque visuals let us know the filmmakers could do worse if they wanted to. Disturbing imagery includes a mutilated victim of a car collision and a deformed kid with a skull-like face. A suicide attempt figures in the ending. There is a…

Why Age 15+?

An old woman fatally mutilated after being struck by a car (tearing her jaws ope

An intentional drug overdose (not for recreational purposes).

The F-word uttered once (in the Spanish-language, English-subtitled version).

Any Positive Content?

Even the lonely ghosts turn out not to be "evil" (though they seem to

Violence & Scariness

An old woman fatally mutilated after being struck by a car (tearing her jaws open grotesquely). A character's fingers caught in a slamming door, causing a fingernail to come off. A bloody leg injury. There is a theme of infanticide and dead children. Nothing is shown, but we get news of children causing a playmate's death, then being killed (by poison) themselves.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Even the lonely ghosts turn out not to be "evil" (though they seem to be vengeful, and capable of causing harm). One, who is hideously deformed, turns out to be not as monstrous as his appearance. There is a sense of motherly heroics and parental sacrifice in the leading lady -- despite the mortal danger. Simon's maintenance troubles and restlessness as an adopted child might not set a positive tone in some foster households.

Parents need to know that even though the R-rating is too harsh, brief but grotesque visuals let us know the filmmakers could do worse if they wanted to. Disturbing imagery includes a mutilated victim of a car collision and a deformed kid with a skull-like face. A suicide attempt figures in the ending. There is a theme of infanticide and dead children. Nothing is shown, but we get news of children causing a playmate's death, then being killed (by poison) themselves. An HIV-positive character is part of the plot, and it's pretty much given as a death sentence. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (7)
• Kids say (14)

Based on 7 parent reviews

Disturbing movie and very scary

What's the story.

A Spanish-made ghost tale, THE ORPHANAGE (original tite: "El Orfanato") happens at a sprawling old mansion, a former orphanage, looming by the seacoast. Laura ( Belen Rueda ) used to be housed here as a child. Now she's a doctor, and she, along with her physician husband Carlos (kind of odd we never see them do any actual work ) buy the building and move in with their own adopted boy Simon (Roger Princep). Simon is dying of AIDS, but the doting parents keep it a secret -- that plus the fact that he's not really their child. Disturbingly, Simon learns these things anyway. He claims his new "imaginary" friends in the mansion have told him. After strange glimpses of disappearing kids, and clues that something terrible happened to the orphanage children after Laura left, Simon vanishes. His adoptive mom turns to psychics and mediums to desperately come up with an answer.

Is It Any Good?

In the crowded field of movie ghost stories, The Orphanage belongs with the better ones that use mood and suspense, rather than blood/gore/sex/bad taste, to evoke shock value. Even so, sharp-witted viewers of any age might be asking themselves sensible questions, like why didn't this family, uh, check out the tragic history of the creepy old building before buying it? But there's a neat dark-fairy-tale atmosphere, a minimum of gross-outs (except a horribly mangled victim of roadkill), and a really clever way the script turns the Peter Pan plot inside-out, to suit a more modern and ominous story of Really Lost Boys (and girls). Give this one a chance on Halloween, subtitles and all.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about what parts of the movie are scariest, and does the (generally) non-gore approach work? Do you agree with Laura's choice at the end? How does this film stack up to other favorite movie ghost tales?

Movie Details

• In theaters : January 11, 2008
• On DVD or streaming : April 22, 2008
• Cast : Belen Rueda , Geraldine Chaplin , Roger Princep
• Director : J.A. Bayona
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : New Line
• Genre : Horror
• Run time : 105 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : some disturbing content
• Last updated : August 29, 2024

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What it's about

Pan's Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro creates another haunting movie that leaves you questioning your sense of reality. El Orfanato revolves around a mother tries desperately to find her missing adopted son soon after her and her husband move into her old orphanage. But the past horrors of the orphanage will not let her son be found so easily.

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• DVD & Streaming

The Orphanage

• Drama , Horror , Mystery/Suspense

Content Caution

In Theaters

• Belén Rueda as Laura; Fernando Cayo as Carlos; Roger Príncep as Simón; Montserrat Carulla as Benigna; Mabel Rivera as Pilar; Geraldine Chaplin as Aurora

Home Release Date

• Juan Antonio Bayona

Distributor

• Picturehouse

Movie Review

As a little girl, Laura once spent many happy hours of play with her fellow orphans in front of the sprawling, gothic-style house that was their home. Several decades later, she returns to the now-empty building with warm memories in her heart and a dream of transforming the place into a haven for special needs kids.

Her husband, Carlos, is happy to lend his doctoring skills to the endeavor, but their young son, Simón, isn’t so enthusiastic. The one-time orphanage scares him and makes his two imaginary friends, Pepe and Watson, very uncomfortable.

Laura tries to sweep away her son’s fears—and his need for invisible companionship—by introducing him to some of her favorite childhood places, including a sea-washed cave that she and the other kids used to explore during low tide. However, when Laura gives Simón a moment to examine the dark grotto on his own, he discovers something more than seashells. She seeks out her son and finds him conversing with a new imaginary friend named Tomás—a character who plucks the strings of a shadowy memory that Laura can’t quite place.

When Simón draws a crayon portrait of the scarecrow mask-wearing Tomás and five more new ghostly friends, Laura becomes concerned. When the make-believe buddy starts to negatively influence her son, lead him on spooky treasure hunts and reveal secrets that no one else is supposed to know, she gets scared. And when she’s attacked by a flesh-and-blood Tomás, and Simón mysteriously disappears, Laura becomes frantic.

Even after the authorities give up the search for the boy and encourage her to move on, an emotionally stretched Laura doggedly seeks the truth and slowly pieces together clues about the orphanage and its horrid past. It’s a past filled with terrors that she was unknowingly a part of and must face once again.

Positive Elements

Laura and Carlos have a passion for helping children and are both very loving toward their son. In fact, they adopted Simón with full knowledge that he was suffering from a deadly disease. After the young boy disappears, Laura speaks to her husband about their family, stating that, “Together we’re strong.”

Laura refuses to give up hope that her son might be alive and bravely faces any life-threatening obstacle to find him. After an old woman is struck by a truck, Carlos struggles to save her life.

Spiritual Elements

Ghosts. Life. Death. And everything in between. We hear the voices of suffering “dead” children, and we’re shown their shadowy images. Thus, we’re introduced to the afterlife—at least the kind of afterlife that has dead children still hanging around an orphanage. A medium is asked to use her abilities to explore the preternatural goings-on in the old orphanage. She talks of the intersection of a spiritual “timeline” that some people (especially those close to death) are particularly sensitive to. The medium also states that, “Seeing is not believing. It’s the other way around.”

Simón tells his mom that if he solves all the clues in a treasure hunt that his whispy friends have given him, they’ll grant him a wish. Later, Laura plays her own treasure hunt game with the spirits and asks for the return of her son.

An old film displays a group of children praying before a meal. Laura tries to re-create the moment and prays before a table filled with food, asking for God’s blessing. When Simón goes missing, Carlos gives Laura a Saint Anthony medal “for luck.” She wears the medal and clutches it when she’s scared. The orphanage has a small chapel with a stained glass image of Jesus.

Sexual & romantic Content

Laura wears form-fitting tank tops, a low-cut sundress and, in a dream, a cleavage-revealing nightgown while swimming.

Violent Content

In an intense jump scene, an old woman is violently struck by a speeding truck. She is thrown to the side of the road and we see that her jaw is ripped away from her face and hanging by a knot of muscle tissue (though it’s oddly bloodless). Laura is attacked by a mask-wearing child; he smashes her fingers in a door jam and she falls back into a bathtub. When she gets up, she pulls a fingernail off her gore-smeared hand.

We’re shown a boy’s badly deformed face and are told of his malicious drowning. Large bags containing ashes and bones (including a partially smashed skull and a jawbone) are poured out on the floor. We see the corpse of a boy on the ground. While running to save her son, Laura falls in the crashing surf and breaks her leg. Her knee is bloodied. A large glass window slams down suddenly and smashes into shards.

Suicide is attempted. Laura slaps Simón’s face during an argument. We hear about a woman who poisoned children.

Crude or Profane Language

English subtitles reveal an f-word, an s-word and “a–.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Simón and Laura both take prescription medication.

[ Spoiler Warning ] Laura downs handfuls of pills in an apparent suicide attempt. And when she discovers her son’s corpse, she tries to force medication into his mouth.

Other noteworthy Elements

Simón becomes particularly disobedient at one point, screaming at his mother.

Produced and presented by Guillermo del Toro (the man who created Pan’s Labyrinth ), El Orfanato , or The Orphanage in English, is an eerie and atmospheric—Spanish-language—flick that feels like something from a bygone movie era. Let’s face it, most contemporary scare-fare has devolved into gory flights of sadistic torture-porn that has all the finesse of putting a pig in a meat grinder (and yes, that’s been done). Such cinematic cauldrons of calamity contain collections of disgustingly cheap “thrills” that don’t rise to the entertainment level of gagging on rotten food.

This film, however, draws much more from the directing repertoire of Alfred Hitchcock than Eli Roth. Audience anxiety is sustained by creaking floorboards, slamming doors, a mother’s protective passion and the shadowy unseen rather than slash-and-splash gore.

In fact, the one hit-by-a-speeding-truck moment (that seems almost ho-hum on today’s celluloid violence scale), stands out as shocking compared to the rest of this movie’s bump-in-the-night effects. The result is a taut, well-acted film with goodly amounts of old-school panache and flare. Why, it even has a “happy” ending.

But, oops, there’s where things get hinky. In addition to all its questionable spiritual mumbo-jumbo (that is to be expected—but not excused—in a ghost story) The Orphanage ‘s final plot twist essentially glorifies death and suicide. Overdosing on pills is sugarcoated and lifted up as the singular warm-and-fuzzy moment in the story.

This dark worldview may be shrugged off by some as just another M. Night Shyamalan-style dramatic gotcha. But in truth, it’s serious stuff, and it can change the way people think about their own demise. It also negates all those aforementioned artsy restraints as it leaves viewers mulling something much more disturbing than the campfire ghost story it concludes.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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Where to watch

The orphanage, el orfanato.

Directed by J. A. Bayona

A tale of love. A story of horror.

A woman brings her family back to her childhood home, which used to be an orphanage, intent on reopening it. Before long, her son starts to communicate with a new invisible friend.

Belén Rueda Fernando Cayo Roger Príncep Mabel Rivera Montserrat Carulla Andrés Gertrúdix Edgar Vivar Óscar Casas Geraldine Chaplin Carmen López Óscar Lara Georgina Avellaneda Carla Gordillo Alejandro Camps Enric Arquimbau Blanca Martínez Isabel Friera Jordi Cardus

Director Director

J. A. Bayona

Producers Producers

Mar Targarona Joaquín Padró Álvaro Augustin

Writer Writer

Sergio G. Sánchez

Casting Casting

Geli Albaladejo

Editor Editor

Cinematography cinematography.

Óscar Faura

Executive Producer Exec. Producer

Guillermo del Toro

Production Design Production Design

Josep Rosell i Palau

Visual Effects Visual Effects

Jesús Luque

Stunts Stunts

Marta Vilajoana Desirée Guirao Marina de Mendialdua Laura Dursi

Composer Composer

Fernando Velázquez

Sound Sound

Oriol Tarragó

Costume Design Costume Design

Maria Reyes

Makeup Makeup

Montse Ribé

Telecinco Cinema Rodar y Rodar

Spain Belgium France

Releases by Date

27 aug 2007, 07 sep 2007, 20 may 2007, 11 oct 2007, 26 dec 2007, 28 dec 2007, 11 jan 2008, 18 jan 2008, 25 jan 2008, 14 feb 2008, 15 feb 2008, 28 feb 2008, 05 mar 2008, 07 mar 2008, 13 mar 2008, 14 mar 2008, 21 mar 2008, 22 may 2008, 29 may 2008, 30 may 2008, 19 jun 2008, 25 jul 2008, 13 nov 2008, 14 nov 2008, 20 dec 2008, 24 apr 2020, 20 may 2020, 30 sep 2008, 26 nov 2008, 07 oct 2009, 29 oct 2009, releases by country.

• Theatrical 13
• Theatrical MA15+
• Theatrical 14
• Premiere Toronto International Film Festival
• Theatrical 18A
• Theatrical 11
• Theatrical Cannes
• Theatrical 12
• Physical 12
• Theatrical 16
• Theatrical 15A
• Theatrical T
• Theatrical B-15

Netherlands

• Physical 16 DVD
• Physical 16 Blu ray
• Theatrical 15
• Theatrical M/12

South Korea

• Theatrical 15세이상관람가
• Theatrical 15세이상관람가 재개봉
• Physical 15 DVD & Blu-ray release
• Theatrical 輔12級 重映
• Premiere 15 London FrightFest Film Festival
• Theatrical R (limited)
• Theatrical R

105 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Karsten ★★★★ 7

*Borat voice* “My son!”

Review by Evan ★★★★½ 2

Wow. Easily one of the best horror films of the 21st century. What a film, I'm pretty speechless right now. So spooky and creepy. I seriously had shivers going up my spine several times throughout the movie because of how genuinely creeped out I was.

Review by ScreeningNotes ★★★ 9

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

I'm not sure I'd really call The Orphanage a horror film. It certainly has horror elements—haunted house, ghosts, brief scenes of gruesome gore—and its atmosphere is positively chilling, but the overall emotion that the film inspires isn't one of fear, but one of sadness. The Orphanage is a tragedy, and it's so thoroughly built upon a single utterly fascinating scene that I want to skip right past talking about how beautiful the cinematography is and how exceptional the central performances are and just unpack this one scene.

Laura, her husband Carlos, and their adopted son Simón move into the old orphanage where Laura was raised in order to turn it into a facility for disabled children. Simón makes a few…

Review by Flobzy ★★★★

I was here to get scared not leave with depression.

Review by 🤎jess🤎 ★★★½

that one scene where she's playing that knock knock game with the kids......ummm yeah ¡NO GRACIAS!

so this was not what i was expecting it to be at all.....had a few good twists and scares and then it turned sad and y'all i was not prepared.

Review by chantal ★★★ 1

this is Peter Pan but fucked up lmao

Review by Jaxi ★★★★ 5

you could NEVER make this movie in america and for that reason american horror will never reign supreme

Review by Peaceful Stoner ★★★★★ 9

How often does a horror film provide hair rising scares along with a nail bitingly suspenseful and believable story? Even though I am a novice when it comes to the number of horror films watched, I can say with certain amount of confidence that such a brilliant combination of two of the most difficult genres to tackle is indeed a very rare breed. The orphanage is classic in its way of making, in its way of shocking and in its story line which paves the way for it to be deservedly called a modern horror masterpiece. This film is as perfect and as heady a mix of both these incredibly potent genres can ever get.

Every single shot in the…

Review by aaron ★★★★ 1

*sighs and grabs tissue box*

A pretty good ghost story that almost tricked me into believing it had a happy ending...

-------------------------------- Watched as a part of 100 Horror Movies in 92 Days and Hooptober.

Review by Graham 2

What starts as a family based drama steadily descends into unexplained disappearance and supernatural shenanigans. I'm not really sure what to think of this to be honest, though as a Del Toro produced film I guess it was inevitable that there would be an element of oddity. More supernatural suspense than pure horror, it definitely hit the mark with a really compelling script and great production.

Laura, Carlos and Simon appear to be the perfect little family living in an old orphanage, and as the story unfolds we are introduced to some interesting and well considered back story. With great performances, especially from Belén Rueda as Mum Laura and Roger Princep as her young son Simon El Orfanato is a solid entry in Spain's catalogue.

HORRORx52 challenge by kynky 6. 2000's

Review by {Todd} ★★★★½

"Seeing is not believing. It's the other way around. Believe, and you will see." -Aurora,

-Hooptober 5.0 (Film 27 of 33): boxd.it/23f1e

A woman, raised in an orphanage, returns with her husband and adopted son to the orphanage of her childhood. Her goal is to reopen the orphanage but soon her son disappears after talking to "imaginary" friends. Panic and horror ensues.

This movie is pretty close to perfection and I would recommend it to anyone, including people that normally dislike horror. The story is well-told, the acting is exceptional, the tone is very creepy but occasionally gives you moments to breath and recommit. It's great. I think if the film had simply done a bit more to ground the relationship between the mother and Simon, before he disappears, I would've rated this 5 stars.

Review by C4rlo5 ★★★★

Keeping on my way of watching Spanish movies here we have a Spanish one , directed and also produced by Spanish people.

This horror thriller directed by Juan Antonio Bayona got quiet famous and that’s for a reason, it’s a well crafted movie .

It’s about a family that adopted a child who has AIDS. They live in an uncommon big mansion that serves as a park for a creepy game .

This movie has a great premise, interesting characters and an engaging story . It’s really creepy . I felt like at some parts it wasn’t entertaining, but since there was a piece of the puzzle missing, it managed to keep me on the edge of my seat.

Highly recommended Spanish horror movie for your spooky season . "Soooky" Month 🧟‍♂️ 2022 List of movies I watched from Amazon Prime Spain 🇪🇸 Spanish Movies 🇪🇸 

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The Orphanage Review

21 Mar 2008

NaN minutes

Orphanage, The

The delicate fingerprints of Guillermo Del Toro are visible all over The Orphanage. The Pan’s Labyrinth director may have just served only as producer on Juan Antonio Bayona’s crisp horror thriller, but the pair share the same zeal for the fantastical and a curiously romantic view of terror. It’s also clear neither has ever met a shadowy corner they couldn’t put to gainful employment.

Following Del Toro’s blueprint is no bad thing, as Bayona shares not only a rich aesthetic with his mentor, but also a sense of priority for story before scare, which, of course, makes the scares that much more effective. This is not horror for those who queue up to see Saw on opening night with a thirst for cider and gore. This is more in the groove of The Shining, with a constant sense of unease achieved not by shocks and blood, but by good scripting, great acting and a well-told story. There are respectful nods to classic frighteners as divergent as Psycho, Rosemary’s Baby and The Others, but there’s never any slip into mere imitation.

Bayona doesn’t come armed with any incredible new ideas, but it’s his back-to-basics style and lack of trickery that makes the film feel fresh among the usual pop video horror clones. The debutant Spanish director builds his film on one of the genre’s most solid foundations: a sprawling, empty, isolated building (the titular orphanage) complete with groaning staircases and an outside carousel that squeaks balefully whenever anyone looks out the window. With mood instantly established, Bayona settles into telling his story and building up layers of fear like lacquer.

Slowly we slip into the world of Laura (Belén Rueda). We see her past life as a young resident of the orphanage, one of the few without obvious disability and so the only one to find a new family. Driven by either ghosts or affection, she returns to the now abandoned building to run it as a home for a new generation of foundlings, taking her husband (Cayo) and her son, Simon (Príncep) with her, about whose own past she hasn’t been entirely honest. In this new home, Simon finds friendship with an imaginary ( or is he? ) chum who likes to hide in caves on the beach and play games that show too much knowledge of Simon and his family. To tell you much more of the plot from there would be to rob you of many of the treats within.

Suffice to say, something goes wrong with the arrival of a child in a horrific sack mask and an old lady (Carulla) with an interest in Laura’s son (and the most patently absurd glasses this side of Elton John), who opens up old wounds and provides the movie’s only concessions to traditional scares – creative and well enough executed to have the person in front picking your popcorn out of their hair. Laura ends up in a desperate situation that takes her further into contact with the ghosts of her past, both literally and figuratively.

Through all its meanderings and flip-flops between ghost story and crime procedural, the story is riveted together by Belén Rueda’s performance, a turn consistently on the brink of emotional collapse. It’s largely down to her that the film is just as saddening as it is scary. The finest sequence comes when Laura’s fraught energy is offset by the eerie calm of a psychic, played by Geraldine Chaplin. She explores the orphanage, lit in the sickly green of night vision that instantly makes anything 15% scarier, looking for the spirits of former lodgers as Laura watches on a set up of monitors. There’s no gore, but the editing, sound and divergent emotions in play make it chilling, a scare sequence for the ages.

With the depth of story he mines, Bayona needs a killer ending to sew everything up and he very nearly achieves it. The climax is an emotional wallop, but it opens up a few questions that it can’t quite answer, and leaves some loose ends trailing.

However, a few head scratches can be forgiven when set off by such a high level of spine chills.

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Movie and Film Reviews (MFR)

Movie Review of ‘The Orphanage’ (‘El Orfanato’) (2007)

The Orphanage  (a.k.a.  El Orfanato ) possesses a similar look and feel to other thrillers which originated from Latin American and Spain during the noughties, most noticeably Guillermo del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone  and Alejandro Amenabar’s  The Others . Going above and beyond the cheap, empty-headed trappings which plague mainstream supernatural horror films (such as 2007’s  The Messengers ),  The Orphanage  is first and foremost a weighty, existential and shocking study of the frailty of life and the mysteries of death. Guillermo del Toro also served as a producer on this film, so it’s therefore no surprise that it has been imbued with the same love of storytelling which makes del Toro’s work so brilliant. See, unlike Hollywood’s endless recycling of mindless slashers and remakes of Asian pictures,  The Orphanage  has an honest-to-goodness narrative. There is an art to spinning an effective scary yarn, and the makers of  The Orphanage  nailed this requirement.

The story begins with a scene set at an orphanage where a group of young children are playing a game. Little do the kids realise that the time has come for one of them, Laura, to leave and start life with a new family. Fast-forward thirty years or so, and Laura (Rueda) is a grown women with a husband named Carlos (Cayo) and an adopted son named Simón (Príncep). The story starts proper when Laura and her family move into the abandoned orphanage where she used to live. Their goal is to open a spacious, loving home for children with special needs; something near and dear to their hearts since they themselves are struggling to come to terms with Simón’s own illness (he’s HIV-positive). Soon, Simón starts making imaginary friends. However, when Simón suddenly disappears without a trace and Laura starts hearing mysterious noises within the house, Laura begins to consider that Simón’s imaginary friends might not have been a figment of his imagination after all.

While the pacing is at times a tad clumsy, the resolution to the film is close to perfection – it represents a winning combination of hope and tragedy. The overall narrative is dense, and writer Sergio G. Sánchez managed to weave together a number of plot threads which combine at the end. With that said, though, the final scene is entirely unnecessary – the film should have ended on a bittersweet note and allowed room open for interpretation. Instead, the final scene leaves no room for debate and pushes the film into the realm of sweetness. Additionally,  The Orphanage  is at times distanced and vapid when it’s clearly screaming to lunge out at the viewer. These moments are conceptually sound, but are lost in a picture in need of more concentration. This is perhaps a reflection of first-time director Juan Antonio Bayona’s inexperience with feature films. On a more positive note, though, the film was hauntingly shot by cinematographer Óscar Faura.

As a ghost story,  The Orphanage  is similar in terms of plot to such films as  Dark Water and  Silent Hill . The difference, however, is the execution –  The Orphanage  is a more classical, tense thriller which instils a sense of asphyxiating apprehension. The picture is usually more unsettling than genuinely frightening, and gore is minimal. The scares are often of the nature of strange noises behind walls, odd apparitions appearing in the distance, and shocking images. It may seem accurate to label  The Orphanage  as a horror film, but it’s almost unfair – there’s almost nothing to connect it to the popular, “in-your-face” horror films which dominate the genre. There are no dazzling pyrotechnics or instances of impressive CGI on display here either since the movie relies on escalating tension, mystery, and the possibility of supernatural forces. Plus, the frights exist in the service of the story, not the other way around.  The Orphanage  is definitely a horror film that Alfred Hitchcock would’ve been proud of.

The Orphanage  admittedly exercises more than a few horror film conventions, including parental separation from their kids, physical manifestations of emotional traumas, and otherworldly spirits. Fortunately, the story never seems to be rehashing the same old tired details in a stale fashion, even if they sometimes serve the immediate purpose of a scare or a shocking sequence. With that said, though, the hackneyed ideas usually seem fresh because they were wonderfully re-imagined by director Bayona – even the customary “don’t go into the basement/dark place” moments are rendered compelling because they were treated with commendable sincerity and style. Part of the reason for this success is Sánchez’s expert writing. Sánchez provided real motivation and clear logic for the actions of the characters, and the few jumps in the movie feel well-earned rather than purely exploitative.

The acting anchor of the film is Spanish television actress Belén Rueda, who received her first international exposure here. As Laura, she is amazing; fearlessly committing to the performance (she reportedly shed 10 pounds during filming) and carrying the entire film on her tense shoulders. She’s mesmerising in virtually every scene; never playing the emotions too broadly, and drawing us in so we can see things from her perspective. All the American starlets who have sleepwalked through recent thrillers should hang their heads in shame. Alongside her, as Simón, young Roger Príncep is remarkable. Neither cloying nor artificially bratty, he is a believable child, and, when he exits the film, a viewer will feel Laura’s loss and actively yearn to uncover what has happened to him. Also memorable is Geraldine Chaplin (daughter of Charlie Chaplin) who steals her screen-time in the role of a colourful medium called upon to investigate the supernatural presence which Laura insists is in her home. Rounding out the main players is Fernando Cayo as Laura’s husband Carlos. Cayo’s performance is natural and believable.

The Orphanage  earned several nominations and awards at festivals, and a great deal of notoriety precedes it. While it’s not quite as superlative as all of this might suggest, it’s a solid horror movie. For those who enjoy good ghost stories and are willing to be patient with a film that gradually unveils its secrets rather than uncovering them in an orgy of gore, 2007’s  The Orphanage  fills a need. Predictably, talks began soon after its release of an English-language remake; the kind of pillaging that should be outlawed by now. Do not wait for the version without subtitles, as this is the real deal, and boy is it a humdinger.

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Orphanage, The (Mexico/Spain, 2007)

The Orphanage is an effective mixture of horror and fantasy, with the supernatural bleeding into dreams that teeter on the brink of reality. It employs a similar, although not identical, approach to the one that marked 2006's late-year success, Pan's Labyrinth . It should come as no surprise, therefore, that filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, the director of Pan's Labyrinth , has lent his support to The Orphanage , allowing the opening credits and poster art to state "Presented by Guillermo del Toro." So his shadow looms large over the film and one can acknowledge that director J.A. Bayona and screenwriter Sergio G. Sanchez have learned well from him as they proceed down this unusual path.

The story begins with a flashback to an orphanage where a group of children are playing a game. Little do they know that the time has come for one of their most popular number, Laura, to depart. Fast-forward some thirty years. Now, Laura (Belén Rueda) is a grown woman with a husband, Carlos (Fernando Cayo), and an adopted son, Simón (Roger Príncep). She and Carlos have purchased the old orphanage building with the goal of turning it into a home for handicapped children. But strange things begin to happen. Simón, who has always had a vivid imagination, makes "friends" with boys and girls his parents cannot see. Things begin to go bump in the night. A strange woman (Montserrat Carulla) wanders the grounds. Everything culminates in the kidnapping of Simón. But who is behind his disappearance? Has he wandered into a cave by the sea and been drowned at high tide? Has he been taken by the strange woman or one of her confederates? Or are there spirits within the orphanage that will not rest? The more Laura becomes convinced that the supernatural may be at work, the more Carlos begins to doubt her sanity.

While the plot structure of The Orphanage occasionally runs into dead spots and unnecessary detours (such as a séance conducted Geraldine Chaplin's medium), the ending is perfect (or nearly so). It represents the right combination of tragedy and hope, of the inevitability of death and the promise of existences undreamed of. The movie's overall story is dense and weaves together a number of different plot threads, all of which combine at the end.

As with most ghost stories, this one is more unsettling than genuinely frightening, and there is no gore to speak of. The scares are often in the nature of strange noises from behind sealed-off walls and odd apparitions appearing in the distance. Labeling The Orphanage as a horror film, while accurate, is almost unfair. There's nothing in this movie to connect it with the popular, graphic entries that have come to dominate the genre. This movie relies on growing tension, mystery, and the possibility that supernatural forces may be at work to achieve its storytelling power.

The film's acting anchor is Belén Rueda, a popular Spanish television actress who is receiving her first international exposure. As Laura, she is amazing, displaying a variety of reactions believably and drawing us in so we see things from her perspective. For Laura, The Orphanage becomes a gradual journey from skepticism to faith as she surrenders her doubts about the supernatural and gives up everything in her quest to find her son. In the end, nothing else matters, and her solution to a seemingly intolerable situation illustrates the depth of her love. In this difficult role, Rueda is never anything less than convincing.

The Orphanage is not as good as Pan's Labyrinth . The set design fails to achieve the same level of inventiveness, the screenplay is less tight, and the secondary characters are not as compelling. However, for those who enjoy ghost stories and are willing to be patient with a movie that gradually unveils its secrets rather than uncovering them all in an orgy of violence and terror, The Orphanage fills a need. The spell it casts early does not evaporate until the epilogue is finished.

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• Halloween (1978)
• Frankenstein (1931)
• Blair Witch Project, The (1999)
• Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)
• Captivity (2007)
• Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)
• Sea Inside, The (2004)
• (There are no more better movies of Belén Rueda)
• (There are no more worst movies of Belén Rueda)
• (There are no more better movies of Fernando Cayo)
• (There are no more worst movies of Fernando Cayo)
• (There are no more better movies of Roger Príncep)
• (There are no more worst movies of Roger Príncep)

The Orphanage (2007) Movie Ending Explained & Themes Analyzed: How did Simon Die?

In 2007, a chilling thriller called “The Orphanage” (Original title: El Orfanato ) hit the screens, sending shivers down the spine. The story centers on Laura, a mother, and her family. The narrative is set in her childhood home, an orphanage. Laura, once an orphan herself, was adopted in 1975 and, after 30 years, returns to the orphanage with a heartfelt mission. She dreams of reopening the orphanage to care for specially-abled children.

In a nutshell, this eerie tale delves into themes of revenge, guilt, and fear, painting a picture of Laura’s pure intentions. Despite her son Simon being adopted and HIV positive, Laura’s love for him knows no bounds. This film beautifully captures her unwavering devotion to her son and her dream of giving back to children like herself.

The Orphanage (2007) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis

In the eerie 2007 Spanish film “The Orphanage,” the talented Belen Rueda plays Laura, who navigates a series of chilling events upon returning to the orphanage where she grew up. The story takes a heart-wrenching turn when Laura’s son, Simon, mysteriously disappears, prompting her to uncover shocking truths about her past and her childhood friends. With Fernando Cayo as Carlos and Roger Princep as Simon, the film keeps you on the edge of your seat as Laura’s world unravels around her.

Why did Laura return to the Orphanage?

Laura was an orphan at the Orphanage until she was adopted (in 1975). After 30 years, she returns with her husband Carlos and their son Simon. Laura wants to reopen the orphanage for disabled children. One day, Laura and Simon go to a nearby beach, where she tells him about a special cave and suggests that the cave is not to be feared but actually a place to hide presents and keep secrets.

Curious, Simon goes into the cave and doesn’t come out for a long time. When Laura goes to check on him, she finds him talking to another invisible friend of his. Carlos joins them on the beach, and they all walk home together. Along the way, we see Simon leaving seashells for his friend to follow them home. On a rainy day, Laura receives a visit from a social worker named Benigna Escobedo.

Benigna reveals that she is Simon’s adoption consultant and informs Laura that Simon is adopted. Benigna is very intrusive about Simon’s pre-existing illness, so Laura asks her to leave. Laura then checks Simon’s files and discovers that he is HIV positive. Later that night, a noise awakens Laura. She investigates and finds Benigna rummaging around in the shed. Laura tries to wake her husband to confront Benigna, but by the time they get there, she is gone.

Why are Laura and Carlos worried about Simon’s friends?

The next morning, Simon excitedly tells his mother about his six new friends. He even sketches all of them. But one drawing catches Laura’s attention—a kid with a strange mask, whom Simon introduces as Tomas. Simon explains that the kids have planned a scavenger hunt game where a treasure is hidden, and the owner must find it.

Simon further reveals that his friends have hidden his coins, so Laura and Simon embark on a treasure hunt. However, the clues unexpectedly lead Simon to his adoption papers, upsetting Laura. Simon, sensing his mother’s distress, yells at her that he knows he is adopted and believes he will die soon because of his illness. When Laura asks Simon who told him about the adoption and his illness, Simon replies, “Tomas.” This worries the parents about Simon’s unusual friends. The scene then shifts to the day the orphanage reopens. Laura and Simon argue about Simon wanting to play with Tomas at the beach. In a moment of frustration, Laura slaps Simon, causing him to run away from her.

The orphanage’s reopening is a festive animal masquerade-themed party. When Laura can’t find Simon for a long time, she goes inside to search for him. Rather than finding Simon, Laura encounters a kid wearing a mask similar to Tomas’s. Laura initially thinks the kid is Simon, but when she tries to remove his mask, he pushes Laura and locks her in the bathroom.

As other guests come to Laura’s rescue, she reveals that Simon is missing. Everyone starts looking for Simon in the orphanage. Meanwhile, we see Laura rushing to the cave near the beach to look for him, but Carlos stops her, and they decide to file a police complaint instead. Pilar, the head police psychologist, reveals that a relative might have kidnapped Simon. Laura mentions Benigna as an intruder, but Pilar informs her that there is no registered social worker by that name.

What happened to the Kids in the orphanages after Laura was adopted?

Benigna becomes the prime suspect in Simon’s disappearance. Laura, now bound to a wheelchair due to a sea-related injury, hears mysterious noises one night in the hallway. She follows them to Simon’s room, where she finds a doll. The movie then jumps six months ahead, and Simon is still missing. His parents are struggling with grief over their son’s disappearance.

On their way home from a counseling session, the couple spots Benigna with a stroller. However, before they can confront her, Benigna is fatally hit by a truck and dies on the spot. When Laura looks into the stroller, she finds a doll resembling Tomas. Pilar gathers some pictures and videos from Benigna’s house and gives them to Laura. It is later revealed that Benigna is a former employee of the old orphanage. Unknown to many, Benigna had a son named Tomas, who, due to his facial deformity, was mostly kept hidden.

Pilar then shows Laura some news articles about Tomas’s death, revealing that Laura’s childhood friends had played a cruel trick on Tomas, forcing him into the cave where he died due to high tides. Laura also goes through some of the film reels from Benigna’s house and watches a video showing Tomas’s real, deformed face. Later in the film, it is revealed that Benigna poisoned Laura’s childhood friends as revenge for Tomas’s death. She killed them and hid their bodies in the shed. Benigna also returned to the shed on another night to retrieve the bodies.

The Orphanage (2007) Movie Ending Explained:

How did simon die.

After watching the film showing Tomas’s true appearance, Laura starts to experience haunting encounters every night, confirming her belief in the supernatural. Seeking answers, she reaches out to Professor Balaban, who connects her with Aurora, a medium. After Aurora’s investigations, she concludes that there are spirits of five kids in Laura’s house, but there is no sign of Simon.

Laura sinks deeper into depression and decides to search for Simon inside the orphanage on her own. She starts receiving hints, such as her and Simon’s picture, a chocolate wrap, and a door knob. Laura tries to use the door knob on every door at the establishment. But when everything fails, she recreates the orphanage as it was in 1975. In the process, she comes across the bodies of the kids who died in the orphanage, realizing they belonged to her childhood friends: Martin, Rita, Alicia, Guillermo, and Victor.

Laura tries to explain her theory to Carlos, but they get into an argument, and he walks out. She transforms the place to look like it did in 1975 and takes a large amount of sedatives to try to contact the spirits of her friends. Laura then plays a game of knocking on the walls, and the spirits of her friends draw close to her. They lead her to a small room where construction materials are stored, hinting at Simon’s location.

Laura empties the room, tears off the wallpaper, and inserts the doorknob, revealing a hidden room leading to Tomas’s room. She goes down the stairs and finds her son lying in a corner, apparently unharmed. Overwhelmed with relief, she holds him and cries. However, she soon realizes that the weight in her arms is getting lighter. She discovers that she is actually holding a blanket and finds her son’s corpse, which causes her to scream in grief, realizing what caused his death.

It is revealed that while looking for Simon on the night of his disappearance, Laura had arranged pieces of construction scaffolding, unknowingly blocking the entrance to the secret room. The mysterious and crashing noises that night were caused by Simon as he was trying to escape. In his attempt to get out, he fell down the stairs and broke his neck.

Laura takes her son’s body to the recreated orphanage room and takes a fatal dose of sedatives, choosing to end her life. However, in a surreal twist, Laura and Simon wake up in the orphanage bedroom, surrounded by all the other childhood friends of Laura, who now look at her as a motherly figure. Laura tells all the kids a bedtime story, bringing them comfort and peace. The movie concludes with Carlos returning to the orphanage and looking at someone with a smile, suggesting a sense of closure and acceptance in the face of tragedy.

The Orphanage (2007) Movie Themes Analyzed:

There are striking parallels between Benigna and Laura. Both women have sons facing significant challenges—Benigna’s son, who had a facial deformity, was tragically killed by Laura’s childhood friends, while Laura’s son is dealing with a health issue. However, their responses to their sons’ situations differ drastically. Benigna’s deep love for her son led her to seek revenge on Laura’s childhood friends, whom she blamed for her son’s death. In a twisted act of love, Benigna ended up taking the lives of all of Laura’s childhood friends.

When Simon goes missing, Laura is consumed by guilt, especially regarding the argument they had before he disappeared. Her guilt deepens when she realizes that she accidentally locked Simon in a room in the basement, where he tragically died. Unable to cope with her overwhelming guilt, Laura decides to take her own life. In a poignant twist, the movie gives a glimpse into a happy afterlife where Laura, Simon, and the children from the orphanage find peace together.

Read More: 15 Best Netflix Original Horror Movies

The Orphanage (2007) Movie Links: IMDb , Rotten Tomatoes , Wikipedia , Letterboxd Cast of The Orphanage (2007) Movie: Belén Rueda, Fernando Cayo, Roger Príncep, Mabel Rivera, Montserrat Carulla, Andrés Gertrúdix, Edgar Vivar, Geraldine Chaplin The Orphanage (2007) Movie Genre: Mystery & thriller/Horror, Runtime: 1h 45m

Where to watch the orphanage.

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The Orphanage

• A woman brings her family back to her childhood home, which used to be an orphanage for handicapped children. Before long, her son starts to communicate with an invisible new friend.
• Laura (Belén Rueda) has happy memories of her childhood in an orphanage. She convinces her husband to buy the place and help her convert it into a home for sick children. One day, her own adopted son, Simón (Roger Príncep), disappears. Simon is critically ill, and when he is still missing several months later, he is presumed dead. Grief-stricken Laura believes she hears spirits, who may or may not be trying to help her find the boy. — Official synopsis
• After 30 years, Laura returns to the mysterious children's home where she spent her childhood. Not knowing what to expect, Laura and her husband set foot in the abandoned building, having ambitious dreams about the institution. But some places bear the indelible mark of suffering. When an ailing boy vanishes into thin air, the unsightly ghosts of the past resurface, inviting dark thoughts, guilt, and grief. Suddenly, spine-chilling nuances of paranormal activity blemish the physical world, demanding answers and closure. Are supernatural forces at work? Has Laura unwittingly summoned the sinister spirits of the orphanage? — Nick Riganas
• The film is set in Spain, where Laura (Belén Rueda) returns to the dilapidated orphanage where she grew up, accompanied by her husband, Carlos (Fernando Cayo), and their seven-year-old son, Simón (Roger Princep). Her plan is to reopen the orphanage as a facility for disabled children. Once there, Simón claims that he sees a friend named Tomás, whom he draws as a child wearing a sack mask. Later, Benigna, the social worker (Montserrat Carulla), visits the orphanage and tells Laura that she has Simón's adoption file. Laura becomes angry at Benigna's intrusion and sends her away. That night, Laura finds Benigna snooping around her garden shed, but Benigna escapes before Laura can confront her. Later, Simon teaches Laura a type of scavenger hunt game that Tomás taught him. The game involves hiding a person's possessions, with the player who recovers his final possession winning a wish. While playing the game, Laura discovers Simón's adoption file is missing and angrily accuses Simón of hiding it. An angry Simón denies this and says that Tomás told him that Laura is not his real mother and that he is going to die. Later, at a children's party at the Orphanage, Laura and Simón argue, and Simón hides from Laura. Laura looks in the bathroom, only to be confronted with a boy in a sack mask with the name "Tomás" embroidered onto his shirt. When Laura approaches Tomás, he traps her in the bathroom. Laura escapes and frantically searches for Simón. She sees a vague figure of a boy standing in a cave in the distance; in her haste to go to the figure, Laura trips and injures herself. At a medical center, the police psychologist, Pilar (Mabel Rivera), suggests to Laura and Carlos that Benigna may have abducted Simón. That night at home, a bedridden Laura hears unexplained banging in the walls. Months later, Laura and Carlos spot Benigna pushing a baby carriage downtown. As Laura calls out to her, Benigna is suddenly hit and killed by a speeding ambulance. Laura rushes to Benigna's carriage, but finds only a doll wearing Tomás' sack mask. With this clue, Police search Benigna's home and find evidence revealing that Benigna worked at the orphanage long ago. Pilar shows Laura an old photo of a young Benigna (Carol Suárez) and her deformed son named Tomás. Laura learns that the children of the orphanage played a trick on Tomás, which led to his accidental death. In desperation, Laura goes to a medium named Aurora (Geraldine Chaplin), seeking clues to her son's disappearance. The medium tells Laura that she is close to death, and so has the ability to see the dead. Unable to cope with the situation, Carlos leaves the orphanage, and Laura takes sedatives to get into a state of near-death. She begins to see ghost children around her who lead her to a hidden door which leads to a basement room. Here, she finds Simón alive and hugs him in a blanket. She tells Simón to think about what he's going to do when he grows up, next year's Christmas, and anything that will make the children go away. As the ghost children vanish, Laura sees the basement back to the present. She then finds the blanket in her hands as light as a feather. She drops the blanket to realize Simón is gone again. She turns around to see the rails of the stairs to the basement had been broken. Lying right beneath the stairs, Laura sees a body of a young child with Tomás's sack mask on. She slowly approaches the motionless body and takes off the mask to realize the body is actually her son, Simón, but dead. She cries in pain and grief. She then realizes that when she threw the metal poles in the closet leading to the basement, she trapped Simón inside. The big crash she heard in the middle of the night was Simón falling to the ground by the stairs. So Simón had been wearing Tomás's mask all along. Laura then carries Simón's body upstairs and swallows all her medication, begging to be with Simón again. Laura's wish is granted as the ghosts of the dead children appear and Simón comes to life in Laura's arms. Alone outside the orphanage, Carlos walks over the gravestones for Laura and Simón who both were found dead while he was gone. Carlos returns to their old bedroom and finds a medallion that he gave to Laura on the floor. Carlos hears the sound of the bedroom door opening. When he moves his head up, he smiles. Screen cuts to black.

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And when she was bad, she was very, very bad

Isabelle Fuhrman as little orphan Esther.

After seeing “Orphan,” I now realize that Damien of “The Omen” was a model child. The Demon Seed was a bumper crop. Rosemary would have been happy to have this baby. Here is a shamelessly effective horror film based on the most diabolical of movie malefactors, a child.

Pity. Esther is such a bright child. So well-behaved. Her paintings are so masterful. She sits down at the piano and rips off a little Tchaikovsky. So why does her adoptive mother have such a fearful attitude toward her? Could it be because after her arrival, Kate, her new mom, got drunk and almost let her son Daniel drown? Had Max, a darling daughter, but then miscarried a third child? Is an alcoholic trying go stay sober? Just doesn’t like the little orphan girl’s looks?

There is something eerie about her. Something too wise, too knowing, too penetrating. And why won’t she remove those ribbons she always wears? And why does she dress like Little Bo-Peep when she goes to school? Daniel is cool toward her. Max is too young to be sure. Only John, the father, is convinced she’s a bright kid, and blameless in a series of unfortunate events.

Vera Farmiga is at the film’s core as Kate, a onetime Yale music professor who feels she is unfairly targeted by her therapist, her husband and eventually the authorities. Peter Sarsgaard is John, the kind of understanding husband who doesn’t understand a damned thing except that he is understanding. And Esther, the orphan, is played by Isabelle Fuhrman , who is not going to be convincing as a nice child for a long, long time.

“Orphan” hinges on a classic thriller device: the heroine who knows the truth and insists on it, even though everyone is convinced she’s mad and wants to ship her off to rehab or even a mental institution. It’s frustrating to know you’re right when no one can see the truth you find so obvious.

Things happen around Esther. A child falls from a playground slide. A car rolls down a hill. A nun comes into harm’s way. Esther spreads disinformation. She’s secretive. And sometimes she’s so perfect, you want to wring her neck. When it turns out the orphanage has faulty info on Esther’s Russian origins, Kate starts sniffing around in what her husband dismisses as paranoia.

“Orphan” begins like your usual thriller, with Scare Alerts and False Alarms. You know, like a nice, peaceful shot until suddenly the sound blares and something rushes past the camera and — hey, it’s only kids. We even get the old standby where Kate is looking in the medicine cabinet and closes it and ohmigod! — there’s another face in the mirror! But hey, it’s only her smiling husband.

Sarsgaard is well-cast in the role. He looks normal, sounds pleasant and yet can suggest something a little twitchy. Not that he’s evil. Simply that he really should trust his wife more. Really.

How the movie handles the other children, Daniel and Max, would probably have offended Gene Siskel, who had a thing about movies exploiting children in danger. This one sure does. What with the treehouse and the pond and the runaway SUV, it’s amazing these kids are still able to function.

The climax is rather startling, combining the logic of the situation with audacity in exploiting its terror. Yet you have to hand it to “Orphan.” You want a good horror film about a child from hell, you got one. Do not, under any circumstances, take children to see it. Take my word on this.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

• Isabelle Fuhrman as Esther
• Vera Farmiga as Kate Coleman
• Peter Sarsgaard as John Coleman
• Aryana Engineer as Max Coleman
• Jimmy Bennett as Daniel Coleman
• Rosemary Dunsmore as Grandma Barbara
• CCH Pounder as Sister Abigail
• Margo Martindale as Dr. Browning

Screenplay by

• David Johnson

Directed by

• Jaume Collet-Serra

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THE ORPHANAGE

"rehashed pagan horror. . . in spanish".

What You Need To Know:

(PaPaPa, OO, AB, H, C, B, L, VV, DD, MM) Very strong pagan worldview takes place in haunted house with vengeful ghosts, poltergeist spirits and strong occult elements as couple brings psychic team in to contact spirits through regression ritual, psychic woman communicates with the dead, pagan view of the afterlife, humanist elements as Jung’s psychoanalytical studies are quoted, some Christian and biblical elements as prayer is depicted in two scenes, some Catholic elements as man gives a St. Anthony medallion to his wife for protection and a crucifix is seen in the background in one scene; three obscenities and no profanities; strong violence and disturbing imagery includes woman gets pushed by ghost, her fingers get smashed in a doorway, woman slaps her son, woman falls and breaks her leg, another woman is hit by car and killed, a deformed child is seen, ghosts are heard screaming, woman finds skeletons in bags, and, ghosts slam doors, move objects, etc.; no sex; no nudity but female cleavage shown; no alcohol; woman overdoses on pills; and, woman trespasses, some deceit, woman commits suicide, and woman chooses her relationship with her son over her relationship with her husband.

More Detail:

THE ORPHANAGE is a Spanish language horror movie about a woman, Laura, who moves her family back to the orphanage home where she was raised years earlier. When her adopted son, Simón, begins to talk with new invisible friends, though, Laura realizes that the orphan friends she grew up with may have never left the house alive.

Playing in a cave near the orphanage house, Laura’s son Simón meets an invisible friend, Tómas. When Simón invites Tómas home with him, strange occurrences begin. Then, Simón tells Laura that Tómas wants to play a game where he will take something valuable, and Laura and Simón must find it. Finding valuable items mysteriously missing throughout the house, Laura believes that her adopted son Simón is simply taking his imaginary friend games too far. That is, until the vengeful spirit of Tómas wants to play the game only with Laura so that Simón is the valuable thing that goes missing.

For many months, Laura and her husband Carlos search for Simón but to no avail. Carlos believes that Simón is dead, but Laura knows that Tómas has taken him. Bringing in a team of psychics, Laura learns that Tómas is not the only ghostly spirit in the old orphanage. She learns that the spirits of all of her playmates from childhood, all of whom had been brutally murdered in the orphanage, still lurk about. Now, Laura must play all of their games if she ever wants to see her son again.

THE ORPHANAGE uses some of the same rehashed, retread, and worn-down pagan, horror, movie devices. Although it uses these devices well and there is plenty of tension and nail-biting moments, this movie is still nothing original. It’s almost as if the writer and director sat down with a checklist to make sure that they had an abandoned old building, creaking wood floors, doors that close by themselves, a child with extra sensory perception, a creepy old woman, a character who is seen as crazy by her unbelieving family members, sequences with deadpan children standing in shadows, psychic visions, and all the other things that go bump in the night.

Most disturbing to people of faith and values, though, is the spiritual content of this movie, especially the sequence with the team of psychics that go through stages of regression in an occult ritual in order to find out what horrors have occurred in the old home. As the lead psychic journeys through the house, she hears the screams of the children who were murdered there years before. She speaks to the dead children, and they answer her. This is a clear violation of the Lord’s mandate in scripture to avoid communication with the dead.

Although not brutally violent like most modern horror movies, THE ORPHANAGE is still an excessive, blatantly pagan movie with strong occult elements that directly violate the Word of God. MOVIEGUIDE® advises that all audiences, not just culture-wise people of faith and values, would be well served to spend their time and their money on other more worthwhile movies. For a list of morally uplifting and enjoyable movies, please go to www.movieguide.org.

Review: ‘The Orphanage,’ an imperfect yet charming blend of Bollywood and Soviet Afghanistan

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Bollywood meets Soviet-controlled Afghanistan in writer-director Shahrbanoo Sadat’s “The Orphanage.” Based on the unpublished diaries of actor Anwar Hashimi — who plays the only significant adult role, the title institution’s supervisor — it’s a modest coming-of-age period piece that incidentally diverges into over-the-top dreamscapes.

The year is 1989, just before the mujahedin guerrillas took control of the country. Apprehended for scalping movie theater tickets, Kabul teenager Qodrat (Quodratollah Qadiri) is placed in a government-run boys home where learning Russian is a priority. Sadat cast Afghan nonactors to paint a scatterbrained picture of parentless adolescence, and outstanding production design immerses us in this historical remembrance.

As she introduces several core characters, including Qodrat’s best friend, Hasib (Hasibullah Rasooli), Sadat chronicles everything from their nascent sexual desires and soccer rivalries to their trip to Moscow. Unfortunately, and perhaps because it’s derived from nuggets of memories, “The Orphanage” suffers from having minimal development of the characters’ innermost wounds and their interpersonal bonds within this prison-like refuge.

Every time we are about to pry a little deeper, or learn a bit more about any of them and what landed them here, the next story point comes along. What could have been a potent character-driven drama loses traction the more it meanders. Nevertheless, Qadiri and his multiple costars bring a raw sensibility, making one forget this is fiction.

The blending of genres feels less jarring than some of the other jumps between scenes. Cutting away from its social-realist construct and into musical sequences inspired by Bollywood, a level of charmingly imperfect kitsch is preserved. Qodrat adores the popular Indian films, and so he imagines himself a part of those fanciful stories. Though outwardly cheerful, one of the numbers, a heartfelt ode to friendship devoid of all malice, provides the work’s most emotionally charged note.

There’s a purity to all of the young men’s actions and reactions, even the misunderstood bullies, that Sadat treasures and shares with the viewer. Amid the missteps, the care the filmmaker has for this story prevails.

‘The Orphanage’

Not rated In Dari and Russian with English subtitles Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes Playing: Available on Amazon Prime for rent or purchase

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Jaume Collet-Serra

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Isabelle Fuhrman

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Season 2 (2018), season 3 (2022), season 4 (2026), screenrant reviews, orphan: first kill review - psychological horror is chaotic & entertaining.

Due to stellar performances from Fuhrman and Stiles, and the absurdity of the premise, Orphan: First Kill proves to be engaging enough for audiences.

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