The Orphanage

The Orphanage (Orfanato, El (2007)) is a cracking horror film that delivers so, so much more than the average scary movie. Director Juan Antonio Bayona bravely uses every "big dark house" movie cliche in the book to leave the audience wrung out and nervously laughing as he delivers a stunningly visual and incredibly tense ghost tale of guilt,child abuse and murder. Producer Guillermo del Toro obviously has injected some of his(Laberinto del fauno, El ) brutality into two horrific key scenes (the trapping of a hand in a slamming door and the sudden mutilating of a malevolent old woman in a car accident),but Bayona himself does not let the visual horror overshadow a moving and emotional story. about people that you actually care about.

Belén Rueda gives great depth to the lead role of haunted mother Laura and it is lovely to see Geraldine Chaplin in a small but highly effective role as a medium called in to help her. Both women give the film a soul which is so evident in one of the most moving and bitter sweet climaxes I have ever seen in any horror film.Not a dry eye in the house.

A wonderful 9 out of 10