El Orfanto – A

A good scary movie is becoming harder and harder to find.  The Strangers lived up to my expectations and surpassed them.  A challenging feat considering how hard it is to pull off a really scary flick.  The Orphanage is presented to us by Guillermo Del Toro, Mr. Pan’s Labyrinth himself.  Since his new project Hellboy II is around the corner, I thought I’d highlight some of the other things he’s associated himself with.  But first, my love for scary movies is intense.  Much like a craving for hot wings, I’ll see anything that looks remotely scary (or eat anything that resembles a hot wing).  I like to push my limits, and The Orphanage certainly did that.

Much like my favorite scary movie to date, The Ring, The Orphanage has both a past and a present.  Smoking hot Belén Rueda plays Laura, a one time occupant of the now  defunct  orphanage that she and her husband decided to buy.  Roger Príncep plays Simón, a cute kid with both a malady, and a gift.  He has many imaginary friends that he likes to play games with, and his parents believe this is quite normal until strange things begin to happen…

The movie picks up into a scary sort of mystery (very Ring-esque).  Laura is forced to make increasingly hard decisions that involve her family and her own life.  Director Juan Antonio Bayona has really done his homework on what is creepy.  He uses a few camera techniques to surprise the viewer into fright.  He’s also great and prolonging what he knows is his bread and butter, creepy little orphans.  There are countless scenes where I contemplated shutting off the TV and going to sleep for fear of bad dreams.

Why are kids so creepy?  I’ve given this a bit of thought, and I think it’s because they hold on to a lot of the fantasy world.  A child is prone to believing and making up things that adults pass off as ludicrous.  Also, one child can easily be taken out with a baseball bat.  But imagine if there were many, swarming around you and pulling you to the ground.  Step Brothers makes fun of this in it’s preview, but children have been used for frights for a long time (Children of the Corn!).

What I really like about The Orphanage is the way in which the story unfolds.  It’s not rushed through, ending in a gruesome murder like every “Slasher” film.  Saw is not a scary movie.  It is a GORY movie pretending to scare people by dismemberment.  This is more of an art for Bayona and he makes the orphanage a character.  Behind the scary jolts that are sure to make your heart beat faster, is actually an amazing plot.  It’s not easy to tie together a bunch of otherworldly ideas, so Sergio G Sanchez like many other screenwriters I admire will have his name immortalized in the blogosphere.

Creaking floor boards and encounters from beyond might seem kitchy, but turn your surround sound up and sit back for a twisted ride, it’s worth the price of a rental for sure.