Language: Spanish Year: 2007
The Spanish do 'horror' very well, particularly under the direction of Guillermo Del Toro. Juan Antonio Bayona enlists suport from Del Toro as producer on his directorial debut 'The Orphanage'.
This film neatly tells the story of Laura (brilliantly played by Belén Rueda) who buys an orphanage she lived in as a child, and attempts to fix it up and open it once again. As the story unfolds we discover that unfortunatley for her and her family, there would appear to be others in the house who may cause her a few problems.
The film builds tension slowly and effectively with excellent character development and some terrifying scenes; in particular when a psychic is asked to investigate the house and we follow her encounters through night vision.
Unlike many horror's, this film has a very rich story. It has the ability to combine proper scares with real emotion and has characters you actually care about.
This is a film that is genuinely scary but also perfectly realised. Not one for the faint hearted but if you can brave it, you will be heavily rewarded.
No comments:
Post a Comment