The Orphanage Mini-Review

Kurt reviewed this fully just before me, just as well as I would’ve made a right tit of myself and had to rewrite most of it when I realised Del Toro didn’t direct this film.  My verdict stands anyway.  I think this was a great spooky horror film, the ending was off but that wasn’t enough to invalidate what had come before.

The Del Toro link is huge though this film came across as covering very very similar themes to Pan’s Labyrinth.  The idea of fantasy to make the real world bearable or make some kind of sense is exactly the same, the only difference is focusing on the fantasies of adults vs. children.  I couldn’t help comparing it with Pan’s throughout and it probably suffered in my rating as a result.  This was more Hitchcock than classic Del Toro, it lacked the poetry of Pan’s and Devil’s Backbone (plus check the Saul Bass-esque title sequence).  All the same director Juan Bayona and the writer Sergio Sanchez have a promising future.

It was well made and it rarely stretched it’s credibility of character or story.  I also didn’t guess the twist before I was supposed to.

I should also say that it was a very mixed audience and a packed theatre for this, the talking was loud to start with and the groan across the cinema when the titles came up in Spanish was unbelievable, but no one was complaining once the movie started.  And save for a few yelps at crucial moments there was nary a sound.

7/10