Starring Belen Rueda, Roger Princep
Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona

This latest Spanish shocker has all (and I do mean all) the necessary ingredients: a neo-gothic mansion, thunderstorms, caves, ghosts, an abandoned lighthouse, a psychic medium, a creepy old lady, a distraught mother and a young boy with ethereal friends.

Having set up the parameters of his paranormal parable, Bayona throws a curve ball that takes a while to present, for The Orphanage is more of a ghostly whodunit than a tale of otherworldly vengeance.

That said, it still arrives overstocked with tension, fear and frights. One scene involving a woman, a pram and a truck has the capacity to trigger heart failure. Laura has moved into a rambling house with more than a few skeletons in its closets.

Her son makes some imaginary mates then suddenly disappears. Fearing the impossible she embarks on a one-way journey to find her son. And it’s in this adjunct that the hand of producer Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) is most felt.

While The Orphanage has the capacity to scare the impressionable witless, it also plays a redemptive, sorrowful card that gives the film its edge.

Bayona capitalises on solid performances and a truly, haunting atmosphere to create a simple, scary movie made the old-fashioned way.

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