As you will know from previous posts, I absolutely love horror films. I love a thriller, love a suspense… even though I’m the jumpiest girl you will ever come across. I try not to shriek (especially in a cinema, how embarassing!) but I quite love the nervous laughter post-squeal/shriek/jump as it seems to unite people in the cinema somewhat.

After seeing Pan’s Labyrinth recently, and knowing the type of noir/gothic style that Spanish director Guillermo Del Toro used (most known for his Hellboy body of work) I was intrigued and had heard quite a bit about El Orfanato and hello? Ghost children. Terribly scary. Whenever I hear little kids humming, and/or singing along to a music box – that spells a horror film. Poltergeist anyone?

Plus, the image alone – its almost as if the scary mask faced killers in The Strangers procreated and came up with these kids!

What is so strikingly wonderful about this film (and what Hollywood needs to somehow learn..) is that whilst it reads on paper like a horror film, whilst the darkness of the film’s cinematography lends to that feeling – the brilliance of it is that it is eerie & creepy without any of the convential & formulaic creaky doors, abrupt silent moments, or high-pitched violin scores.

I’m not even sure what genre I could class this in (much like I marvel at my video store’s placement of American Beauty in the comedy section. Really?) but to fill you in; El Orfanato begins with a seemingly innocent setting in a sprawling rustic old orphanage where children play, squealing and playing a game of tag. That will become important later..

Laura (played stunningly by Belen Rueda) and Carlos (Fernando Caya) are a couple that now live in the orphanage, the very orphanage in which Laura grew up where they have an adorable chubby cheeked son named Simon (pronounced See-mon, just to put you in the Spanish feel, played by Roger Princep)

Simon has invisible friends, he is quite lonely there in the big mansion just the three of them, and so of course its quite natural to have invisible friends. Hopefully that will all change when more children from a special needs home comes to join the family, children that need homes and to be taken care of Laura explains to her son.

One night, Laura tells him a story about the lighthouse, the one whose light never shines; unless you believe in it. Unless you need it to shine – and then its light will guide you. Again – a detail which will become important later on. Simon is fascinated and wants to explore the grounds of the lighthouse, and the surrounding caves.

Seriously – things I learn from films; don’t go to remote sites off map. Don’t go to Tasmania. Oh, and don’t go into caves! But she in the best interest of letting her child grow, and explore and play allows him to enter the cave, and after calling for him, has to go in herself (yes, she stayed outside… ) where he is seen to be talking to a new friend. He wants to invite him back to play, and he leaves a trail of seashells leading back to the orphanage.

This is where the sense of impending doom, or horror seeps in. You know that perhaps the boy in the cave wasn’t invisible. Laura sees footprints that aren’t necessarily Simon’s.. but surely not. Soon its all Simon can talk about. Then there are more.. then, there is a strange old lady that comes to visit, asking about Simon’s situation and we discover he too is adopted, and he’s also ill.

You’re probably thinking Kimberley, you’ve given away quite a bit – and, well I’ll disagree. That’s the amazing intricacy and layered nature to this movie; there is so much more that I want to leave for you to discover, so many layers, and subtexts withing the one movie that just when you think you know what genre it is, it pulls you in another direction.

It has you wondering about the children that Simon sees. Evil? Ghosts that are stuck in orphanage childhood for eternity? Zombies? Laura is the only one that knows something is awry, especially when Simon goes missing.

El Orfanato is so beautifully paced, bone chilling in parts, jumpy in others but not in the places you’d expect. Belen Rueda’s performance is a standout here as a mother determined to find her son, to protect him against the unknown, succumbing to any  method to find him.

One of the funny parts of this movie is not in the movie itself but more in the fact that I had to pause it sometimes, and have a think about what I’d just seen. For the most part I was watching it alone, and then by then, a friend of mine would walk in and I’d be talking/thinking out loud to myself putting together the puzzling pieces of the film. I’d have lightbulb moments where I was OHHHH… that’s what happened there. Or I’d wonder oh! Who was the boy with the sack on his head? Cave boy? Was it Simon? Its a wonderful movie to watch with friends, lights off, popcorn, a bit of chocolate and one which certainly inspires someone to watch it all over again to catch things most likely missed during the first viewing. I absolutely loved it.

P.S You know how I mentioned that game of tag, and the lighthouse story becoming important? Watch it and find out.

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