El Orfanato (2007)
Genre: Horror / Mystery
Duration: 105 minuten
Alternative title: The Orphanage
Country:
Spain
Directed by: J.A. Bayona
Stars: Belén Rueda, Geraldine Chaplin and Fernando Cayo
IMDb score:
7,4 (170.030)
Releasedate: 20 May 2007
El Orfanato plot
"A tale of love. A story of horror."
Laura (Belén Rueda) and her family return to the orphanage where Laura spent the happiest part of her childhood. When she returns, she reopens the orphanage to help underprivileged children. But once in the orphanage, her own son Laura's behavior begins to frighten. He invents an invisible friend and starts playing strange games.
Actors and actresses
Laura
Carlos
Simón
Pilar
Benigna
Enrique
Balaban
Tomás
Aurora
Alicia
Reviews & comments
sinterklaas
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- 11821 messages
- 3321 votes
Pretty good orphanage horror from the Spaniards. It's a bit tame, but it's definitely doable.
You could call it a standard story, but the elaboration still manages to captivate the viewer. Mother takes her husband and son to an old orphanage where she has had the best days of her childhood and tries, with the help of her nostalgia, to fix things up there. But as you may already know, that house is haunted and that entity has presumably taken the little boy; aggressive behavior, imaginary friends and probably something else that has to do with a forgotten past. The atmosphere is indeed oppressive and especially the Uno, dos, tres, quatro.. scene was nerve-wracking. At the location you would initially think that this takes place fifty years back in time, but in vain...
The ending was very different, compared to most horror movies.
But all in all, a strong haunted house film... I think it has been a source of inspiration for the many Blumhouse productions.
4.0*
Translated from Dutch · View original
De filosoof
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- 2487 messages
- 1698 votes
Possibly the best horror film ever – even better than The Babadook (2014) - MovieMeter.nl – and in any case a perfect horror film. The film combines several classic horror elements; on the surface, the starting point is mainly that of the haunted house, but on a deeper level, especially Peter Pan is the starting point where the film succeeds in making you – just like Laura – believe in a childhood fantasy. The film is intelligent in every detail without a single flaw or weak moment, including very cleverly conceived how Laura and Simon mirror each other in their fantasy, their play and meeting between the living and the dead. Everything is beautifully and atmospherically filmed, but also very excitingly worked out and woven together, whereby the film is both very scary with a steady build-up to the climax and (eventually) very moving. The film has everything you can expect from horror.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Flat Eric
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- 6444 messages
- 1026 votes
House, mind, children's voices.
Those are ingredients that I enjoy in a horror movie. After years I revised it again and I can remember that I was impressed by it at the time, but the exact course of the story had faded a bit.
Fortunately, because now I was able to watch the film fairly refreshed.
The film has a lot of atmosphere because of the location and is actually not only a horror but also a drama. The scares are not omnipresent, but the minor scares and shocks come exactly when you don't expect it, or are subtle in nature and therefore come in all the harder.
Very nice film, my 5* remain.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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