Horrorthon 2008 alert, If you love being scared to death, visit 'The Orphanage'

By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY
Strange things have been happening in the hulking and isolated Gothic mansion where a mother, father and young son have taken residence.
The Orphanage is much more than a simple horror tale of things that go bump in the night. It also is chock-full of the standard, but effectively rendered, hallmarks of a ghost story: spooky children, scary antique dolls, a creepy old lady, doors mysteriously slamming, an old merry-go-round suddenly spinning and creaking.

Oh, and yes, the house, a former orphanage, is on a lonely stretch of coastline dominated by eerie caves and craggy cliffs broken up only by a deserted lighthouse.

Clearly, Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona, working with producer Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth), understands what makes a powerful psychological thriller and does a great job conjuring the appropriately spine-chilling atmosphere. The movie is being labeled this year's Pan's Labyrinth, and there are a few supernatural similarities, but there's a greater similarity to The Others, the suspenseful and stylish 2001 film that starred Nicole Kidman and was directed by Spanish filmmaker Alejandro Amenabar.

Unlike Pan's, there is not much blood and gore in The Orphanage. But like that wonderfully inventive film, it is infused by a palpable sense of mounting dread.

Belén Rueda (The Sea Inside) gives a fine performance, anchoring the terror. She plays Laura, the devoted mother of 7-year-old Simon (Roger Princep) and loving wife of Carlos (Fernando Cayo). Laura had grown up in the house when it was an orphanage. She and Carlos decided to buy the stately but slightly decrepit estate, move into it and take in special-needs children. But that dream is never realized. A series of frightening events derails their plans and upends the cozy comfort of their lives.

Before the mayhem takes hold, Laura frets about Simon's growing corps of imaginary friends. But the ever-rational Carlos, a doctor, allays her concerns, assuring her that it's not unusual for young, lonely children to invent playmates. But, of course, something darker is at play.

Like Pan's Labyrinth, the film deals in such emotional themes as faith and love, but its chills, jolts and disturbances dominate to rattle and unsettle audiences. It exceeds our expectations of a haunted house horror flick, featuring some truly harrowing, if occasionally overwrought, moments.

The terror builds slowly, even somberly, which adds to the powerful aura of menace. A rather low-tech ghost-searching sequence involving a medium (Geraldine Chaplin) feels out of place. The story- book allusions to Peter Pan and lost children work more effectively to create a resonant subtext.

The beautifully rendered production design and cinematography augment the fear factor, and Rueda's understated, sympathetic and believable performance is a highlight.

Told in Spanish with English sub-titles, The Orphanage has already won awards overseas. It should appeal to a wide audience here as well. In a season filled with dark-themed films, it stands out as an elegantly mounted, surprisingly humane but terrifying horror thriller well worth seeing.