The Orphanage
|
List Price: Our Price: $2.81 You Save: $3.16 (53%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $1.21 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of The Orphanage
Movie Review: A very impressive and satisfying ghost story.
Summary: 5 Stars
O.K. first of all I have to say that there were plenty of great reviews for this film on other websites, some calling it one of the best horror films of the year and scariest film ever and blah, blah etc. So was this film worth all the hype? I would definitely say yes!. The Orphanage is the latest supernatural thriller/horror film from Spain, its a slick and quietly chilling piece of work blending traditional scares with modern touches. The way this film works is that it manages to get under your skin and makes you think about it for a while after its ended, the ending was quite moving, sad and horrifying at the same time. The film also had a great storyline which tells a great ghost story that was very original and it was beautifully directed by Juan Antonio Bayona which also happens to be his directorial debut and in my honest opinion he did a wonderful job, the film was also produced by Guillermo Del Toro so you can see how influential his films were to The Orphanage so if you liked Pan's Labyrinth or any classic haunted house films like The changeling, Burnt Offerings and The Haunting then your going to love this.
The acting was phenomenal especially from Belen Rueda as Laura who was very distraught but still strong as the mother looking for her missing son and she showed a wide range of emotions its no wonder that she won several awards for her performance in this film. The plot deals with a woman named Laura (Belen Rueda) who purchases her beloved childhood orphanage with dreams of restoring and reopening the long abandoned facility as a place for disabled children. Once there she discovers that the new environment awakens her son's imagination but the ongoing fantasy games he plays with an invisible friend quickly turn into something more disturbing, check out the knock on wood game the kids play during the beginning then the following similar scene that happens during the course of the film that has got to be one of the scariest scenes I've ever seen and once you've seen the film then you'll understand why I'll just leave it at that, I never thought that a kids game could be so damn scary I thought it was very clever. Laura's son Simon also happens to have a fatal illness he seems to be HIV positive and frequently requires some medication, his actions later on begins to worry his mother his erratic behavior and the fact that he seems to have more imaginary friends becomes even more bizarre and at one point during a party with the disabled kids he vanishes and Laura is simultaneously attacked by a mysterious child in a sack mask, she imediately suspects Simon's 'new friends' and to make matters worse Simon needs his medication before its too late. Laura becomes frightened and increasingly more paranoid as it is very hard for her to explain these things to people especially her husband Carlos played by Fernando Cayo and she even brings in a medium to find out where her son disappeared to.
The film had some great drama as well as some nice intense moments and the use of locations in this film was terrific, first of all you have the huge and creepy mansion thats been used many times in these type of films but was still quite effective then theres this cave near the beach as well as others so the film uses different locations utilising some great cinematography. The director has fantastic use of mood and setting as the ghosts are used to creep out the viewer and doesn't have to get messy doing it which is something that Hollywood needs to learn when making a horror film, it doesn't have any gore but there is a horrific car accident and plenty of scares which catches you off guard like the Knock on wood game and it has a very ominous and eerie setting that was very well shot and the characters are very well developed and I'm not going to over analyze the characters cause I've noticed that other reviewers have done that already I'm the type of person who enjoys a film without questioning what the main character's motivations are or why they did this particular thing in the first place unless it was a dumb blockbuster and besides I'm not a snobby critic ;-).Anyway The Orphanage is a very unique Spanish horror film and one of the best I have ever seen, an entertaining and great horror film thats guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat and I highly recommend this so what are you waiting for GO WATCH THIS NOW!.
Movie Review: "When something terrible happens sometimes it leaves a trace. It's like an echo repeated over and over, waiting to be heard..."
Summary: 5 Stars
The old, old stone mansion that once was an orphanage sits isolated within its ill-kempt gardens and grounds. The abandoned lighthouse on the cliff not far away no longer shines a beacon. The cave below and the sandy beach still receive the incoming tide. Be wary. Laura Sanchez grew up in the orphanage. When she was about seven she was adopted and left. Now she is 37, married to Carlos, and they are parents to a little boy, Simon, about seven. They adopted Simon, who doesn't know this, and who is deadly ill with a disease only pills can keep at bay. Now Laura and Carlos have just bought the abandoned orphanage and are moving in. It is a large building of many rooms and hallways, with dark oak paneling, old fire places and frosted, etched glass. They hope to make it a home for children with special needs. There are no children yet, just Simon.
Simon makes friends, make-believe friends. They tell him things, he says. "I won't grow old. I'm not going to grow up," he tells his mother. "Will you be like Peter Pan?" Laura asks. "Like my new friends," Simon says. "There's more than one?" "Six." "They won't grow up either?" Laura asks. Simon looks at her. "They can't," he says
Simon leads Laura in a game to discover clues, a game he and his friends have invented. Suddenly the game is foreboding. "You're not my mother!" Simon screams at Laura. "Who told you that?" she asks, stricken that this little boy, her son, is facing something she and her husband were waiting to tell him when he was older. "My friend told me," Simon says. "What friend?" "Tomas," Simon yells, crying and defiant. "Tomas told me the truth, that I'm just like them.... I have no mother or father and I'm going to die."
Days later, Simon disappears, apparently kidnapped. The parents, with Laura increasingly frantic, try everything to find him. In time, there will only be Laura and this moldering stone mansion where she was raised as an orphan with other orphans. We begin to learn what happened there when Laura as a child left.
So...whose imagination, whose story are we inhabiting?
"Horror" is a term that has been debased in the movies over the last thirty years or so. Technology and computers have eliminated most of the need for imagination and the kind of dread we make for ourselves out of little things. Market research drives so many creative decisions into the dead end of splatter and special effects. The Orphanage is just slightly a horror movie. It is lonely, deliberative, sad, thoughtful, even quiet, even, surprisingly, with a degree of contentment at the conclusion.
All the actors do fine jobs, and there is a notably quiet and intense performance by Geraldine Chaplin as a psychic whose own death is near. It is Belen Rueda as Laura who helps make this movie something special. There are so many opportunities for intense "acting," distraught "acting," tearful "acting." Rueda does nothing of this. We believe her as Laura because she doesn't try to over-dramatize Laura. Laura is often intense and sometimes distraught. She also puzzles through this mystery, is determined to find her son and can take action. But Rueda never overacts. Thanks to Rueda's performance and fine directing and screenwriting, I think The Orphanage establishes itself as an unusual and intriguing movie.
The audio and video transfers are very good. There are some typical "How we made the movie" extras. If you have a taste for unusual and unsettling stories, I recommend you try The Innocents and The Sixth Sense (Collector's Edition Series).
Movie Review: My Killerfilm.com Review of "The Orphanage"
Summary: 5 Stars
Chilling 2007 Spanish horror film, The Orphanage tells the story of a woman and her family returning to the home where she was cared for as an orphaned child. Her fond memories of growing up in the house are soon soured after her only child goes missing. As she searches and strains to find answers to the boy's disappearance, the alarming and long concealed past of the orphanage is slowly unearthed, piece by distressing piece. With heavy atmospheric presence, tension building sequences and cleverly placed plot devices, the story unfolds like a dark and brooding "Peter Pan" told through the experiences of the mother, losing her child to another world that she struggles to uncover and understand.
The film begins with Laura (Belen Rueda) as a child playing with her fellow orphans in the yard of the house, it's a beautiful day, it's sunny, all the children are smiling and laughing, yet we sense something amiss. We are then taken to Laura 30 years later awakening to her son calling out to her in the middle of the night in a haunting, distant and almost otherworldly voice. Simon (Roger Princep) is an adopted and very ill young boy, with a few "seemingly real" imaginary friends to keep him company. His father Carlos (Fernando Cayo), a doctor, cares for the boy the best that he can. He is a very practical and grounded character that Laura looks to for support and stability through their troubles and complications with Simon. They plan to reopen the orphanage for special needs children, but on the day of the welcoming party, Simon mysteriously disappears after finding out that he is adopted and dying of HIV. From there we are taken on a terrifyingly disturbing roller coaster ride through reality and the next life as Laura and Carlos do everything in their power to find their lost child. Over the course of a few months time, options begin to dwindle, though Laura's resolve is still intact, she begins to slip further and further into madness and desperation. Once Carlos decides to leave the house, we the viewer are left uncertain as to what's even real in Laura's world anymore.
Brought to us by first time Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona and his crew of equally fresh talent, with gorgeous cinematography and flawless special effects, The Orphanage is a classic tale of mystery, drama and suspense, produced by genre auteur Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, The Devil's Backbone). It is an intelligent ghost story, with very moving dramatic elements that add to the depth of our involvement with the characters and their plight. More than just a straight forward horror flick, the story weaves like a Hitchcockian thriller. Utilizing the process of building up to the point of release, only to leave you with greater anticipation than before. We are helpless to look away from this captivating film, watching every moment more fervently than the last, anxiously awaiting the next tragic turn of events in this obscure and somber journey through the passages of time and the mind's eye, illustrated by the strongest of bonds, between a mother and her child, the outcome is ultimately sorrowful, as well as beautiful. A must see film!
4.5 out of 5
The Orphanage
The Orphanage [Blu-ray]
Movie Review: A Phantasmagoric, Romantic Story
Summary: 5 Stars
The Orphanage is a well-crafted yarn that takes its time to envelop viewers into its world. The music, visuals and acting are amazing, especially from first time director Bayona. I'm sure it helped that he had a genius in the shadows with Del Toro.
I won't bother going over they storyline as I find that repetitive. I'll try to add some things that may not have been said.
1. This movie is NOT a horror movie. It has its fair shares of tense, scary scenes but it seems US marketing/eager fans have hyped this, leading to disappointed people who can't get over the fact that they aren't watching what they expected to watch. It has a curious, supernatural feel to it and it is creepy but don't go in thinking you're going to be bombarded with spleens and flying heads.
2. This movie is subtitled in English. No subs here, folks. Those of you who can't watch a movie with subs or prefer dubbing to the actual voice of the actor - need not apply. This movie is to good for you.
3. This movie is NOT Pan's Labyrinth, nor does it try to be. There are similarities to be found with Del Toro producing but it's more in the vein of The Devil's Backbone. It plays with fantastical elements but don't expect some amazing fantasy land a la PL.
4. Don't "expect" anything. If there is one thing that really grinds my gears it is reading other people say, "Oh, I didn't like it, I was expecting it to be like this". How stubborn can one be? It's like people cry and wail about there being no creativity in current cinema and then when one actually comes along, it suffers from not falling within specific genre guidelines. I'm not sure how much of this is to blame on marketing or the human mind's ability to relate everything they see/hear/do/touch/smell to PAST EVENTS. Thankfully, it appears that the majority of people are able to make that segregation.
5. This movie is romantic and sad - it's really a love story. It's layered and the relationship between the main leads seems real. It's only until the third act that the storyline may fall into the cliche trap but it still fits perfectly fine into the framework of the story. I really wouldn't change anything about the ending.
So that's my review in simple, bullet fashion for the mentally impaired. The movie isn't perfect but it's probably within a standard deviation of perfect. Some of the lines seemed odd/unnecessary but that may fall into the translator's hand as I needed the English subs. The story takes time to unravel, leaving viewers bread crumbs along the way to keep the ADD-inspired folks interested. The music, acting and direction is inspired. Some say this is a mixture of Poltergeist and The Others. I can understand the comparison but, in my opinion, The Orphanage is a better film. I may stand alone in thinking The Others was overrated and relies on a twist that doesn't enhance the movie. The Orphanage really relies on no such twist - maybe this is why some don't like the ending, they were "expecting" a twist. Anyway, I highly recommend it.
Other films you may enjoy if you liked this movie:
The Devil's Backbone
Pan's Labyrinth
The Others
Poltergeist
A Tale of Two Sisters
Shutter
The Vanishing (Original, not the remake with K. Sutherland and J. Bridges)
Movie Review: Amazing Mix Of Darkness And Light; A Must-See Ghost Story
Summary: 5 Stars
The Orphanage is an atmospheric, frightening and moving horror film that was a runaway blockbuster in its native Spain (and a major success in much of the rest of the world as well). When the now-adult Laura (Belén Rueda) returns (along with her husband and their young son Simon) to the closed-down sprawling manor that once served as an orphanage where she spent a short part of her youth, she hopes to re-open it and turn it into a more home-y and loving place for orphans, a place less austere and gloomy than where she spent part of her own childhood. Things don't go as planned though.
After Laura left the orphanage, a string of tragedies occurred there, most of which are not widely known and talked about, and some of which remain completely unsolved. And ramifications of this dark past reach into the present - before the orphanage can even be re-opened - and result in the disappearance of Laura's son Simon, who before going missing has become convinced of the reality of his 'imaginary friend'. The search for the missing Simon goes through the normal channels - police investigations and such - but in order to really find out what happened Laura's going to have to learn more about the true history of the orphanage, things she never guessed at at during her short stay there as a little girl.
The gorgeous Spanish seaside, an eye to visual detail, an array of subtle little touches in the background and undertext, and great cinematography all help to make The Orphanahge what it is, a movie that, like Pan's Labyrinth (New Line Two-Disc Platinum Series), Dark Water [Blu-ray] and the original The Eye, mixes and contrasts terror and darkness with beauty and tenderness, all to tremendous effect. It's worth noting that The Orphanage walks a path different from traditional ghost stories in that, while the ghosts can be (and are) scary, the ghost can just as often be a sympathetic character and much of the fearsomeness can come from the living instead of solely from the supernatural. The Eye (and to a lesser extent, its remake) was like that too, where both spirit and mortal can be either good or malevolent, or often some strange (and tragic) combination thereof.
The only possible shortcoming of The Orphanage will be that those who dislike ambiguous storylines and endings may not be fully satisfied. It doesn't always tell you what certain events and implications mean, and you're left to figure some things out yourself. I don't mind this kind of thing at all, and for me this was one of the best ghost stories ever told. A must-see for horror fans, and even non-horror fans who like mystery and the supernatural (like Meet Joe Black and Ghost) should check this one out as soon as possible. A+