Lying beneath the façade of a classic ghost mystery is the richly woven, psychologically disturbing narrative of Spanish supernatural thriller El Orfanato (The Orphanage).

Deriving its inspiration from such literary classics as The Turn of the Screw and Peter Pan, it also references several cinematic works like Our Mother’s House, The Haunting and The Shining.

This understated thriller marks a refreshing change to the endless slew of remakes and needlessly excessive films currently degrading, yet sadly dominating, the horror genre. The Orphanage, simply told, is an elegantly composed tale of a mother’s quest to locate her missing son, whatever the cost.

The film’s protagonist, Laura (Belén Rueda), returns to the now defunct orphanage with her husband Carlos (Fernando Cayos) and their adopted son Simón (Roger Príncep). Her intention is to re-open the premises as a home for disabled children and return it to its former glory as a happy refuge.

Meanwhile, tension builds up through a greatly restrained use of sound, charging the atmosphere with irregular thumps and creaks of the house’s timbers, slamming doors and shattering windows. The house develops a significant character in its own right, possessed and straining, struggling to contain its ghastly secrets and scarred by the imprint of past horrors.

The title sequence also hints at a concealed past, as the credits are revealed through the peeling away of wallpaper.

The removal of layers and an endless quest are integral to children’s games and become central to Laura’s voyage of investigation.

The cinematography repeatedly suggests the presence of an unseen observer, an otherness, through laconic tracking shots and still shots held back at some distance from character interaction.

The audience is left in some discomfort, uncertain as to whether there really is someone else in the frame, listening in, blurring the clear distinction between the living and the dead. Should we trust our instincts? The film asks its audience the same dilemma facing its protagonist, do we pursue what we think but cannot prove to be in existence, in order to find closure?

The Orphanage questions our use of institutions, in trusting our children’s care into others; it brings into question the effectiveness of police and media search methods; it makes a positive case for mediums and psychics; it underlines our own worst fears of losing a child and failure to overcome grief. It also heightens our fear of our children and the limitless, potentially dangerous capabilities of a youthful imagination. It emphasises the foreboding that we are never entirely in control of their futures, however much we may hope to be.

This is intense and intelligent storytelling, relying on the conventional traits of horror and ghost stories to enable its protagonist to face up to a troubled past.

Relying on a subtle narrative in order to develop tension, it is a tale with strong modern resonance, particularly in the wake of high profile child kidnapping and abuse cases.

Do events unfold purely within the constraints of Laura’s mind? Can we truly trust what we see and hear? Should unexplainable occurrences simply be dismissed? A profoundly moving tale of loss, isolation and mistreatment, this is an involving and at times shockingly uncomfortable film and an astoundingly assured debut from Bayona.

Release: 2008
Country: Spain        
Runtime: 105 mins
Director: Juan Antonio Bayona
Cast: Belén Rueda, Fernando Cayos, Roger Príncep, Geraldine Chaplin

19 February 2009

text: Graham Jackson / Expatica
photo credit: wikipedia
 

British expat Graham Jackson lives with his Dutch girlfriend in the Netherlands. A budding writer, he enjoys writing about music, film and literature.