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(About Our Ads) "THE ORPHANAGE" (2007) (Belén Rueda, Fernando Cayo) (R) Alcohol/ Drugs Blood/Gore Disrespectful/ Bad Attitude Frightening/ Tense Scenes Guns/ Weapons None Heavy Extreme Extreme Minor Imitative Behavior Jump Scenes Music (Scary/Tense) Music (Inappropriate) Profanity Mild Moderate Extreme None Heavy Sex/ Nudity Smoking Tense Family Scenes Topics To Talk About Violence Minor None Extreme Moderate Heavy QUICK TAKE: Horror: A mother searches for her sick child when he disappears in their home that was once her childhood orphanage and is now seemingly haunted by spirits from the past. PLOT: Laura (BELÉN RUEDA) and her husband Carlos (FERNANDO CAYO) have just moved into a manor along the Spanish coast with their ailing, 7-year-old son, Simón (ROGER PRÍNCEP). Having grown up in that same house when it served as an orphanage, Laura wants to open its doors to special needs kids, but Simón isn't exactly thrilled with that idea. That's mainly because he's become fast friends with Tomás (ÓSCAR CASAS), a young boy who seems to live in a coastal cave when not hanging out at the house. The only problem is that he isn't alive, and Simón's parents initially think he's purely imaginary. Laura's opinion about that changes, however, when her son disappears during an open house event. After believing that a creepy social worker, Benigna (MONTSERRAT CARULLA), might be to blame -- a point debunked by a psychologist, Pilar (MABEL RIVERA) who informs her that no such person exists -- Laura eventually comes to the creepy belief that the house is haunted and that the ghosts have her son. Accordingly, she calls in a paranormal expert, Aurora (GERALDINE CHAPLIN), but that does nothing to help her progressively strained marriage. Desperate to find her missing son, Laura then does what she can to solve his disappearance. WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT? If they're into foreign-made, ghost-related, horror movies, they probably will. WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: R For some disturbing content. CAST AS ROLE MODELS: BELÉN RUEDA plays a mother and former orphan who wants to open the doors of her new home (her old orphanage) for special needs kids, but must then contend with the disappearance of her young son. Desperate to find out what happened to him, she goes to extraordinary lengths to solve the mystery, thus putting a strain on her and her marriage. FERNANDO CAYO plays her husband who also suffers from their son's disappearance, but becomes increasingly concerned about his wife and her newfound beliefs about what happened to him. ROGER PRÍNCEP plays their young and sick son who favors his imaginary friends (that turn out to be ghosts) over the flesh and blood type. MONTSERRAT CARULLA plays a creepy woman who claims to be a social worker and noses around the place. She has a tainted past. GERALDINE CHAPLIN plays a medium and paranormal expert who tries to help Laura find her son via contact with the ghosts that haunt her home. ÓSCAR CASAS plays the young ghost boy who haunts the house but befriends young Simón. CAST, CREW, & TECHNICAL INFO HOW OTHERS RATED THIS MOVIE Curious if this title is entertaining, any good, and/or has any artistic merit? Then read OUR TAKE of this film. (Note: The "Our Take" review of this title examines the film's artistic merits and does not take into account any of the possibly objectionable material listed below). OUR WORD TO PARENTS: The following is a brief summary of the content found in this R-rated horror film. Profanity consists of at least 1 "f" and "s" word, and only a handful of other expletives and colorful phrases. A little bit of cleavage is present, such as when a woman is seen in a wet dress. Violence includes a woman being struck and killed by a vehicle (with graphic injuries), while another character is injured in a supernatural encounter. Those scenes and the purposefully spooky/creepy ghost-related ones may be unsettling, suspenseful, or downright scary for viewers, particularly younger kids. Bad attitudes are present, as is some potentially imitative behavior. Tense family material includes the deaths of children (past and present), as well as the strain a missing child puts on a marriage. Should you still be concerned about the film's appropriateness for yourself or anyone else in your home, you may want to look more closely at our detailed listings for more specific information regarding the film's content. For those concerned with bright flashes of light on the screen, there's a partial strobe effect during a séance of sorts. For those prone to visually induced motion sickness, a fair amount of handheld and bouncy camerawork appears in the film, along with some spin-around camera shots. ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE None. BLOOD/GORE Laura's hand is very bloody and that's especially true of a broken fingernail that she yanks from her finger (after her hand was caught in a closing door). A woman pushing a baby carriage stops in front of Carlos and Laura's car, but is then suddenly struck by an ambulance. Laura rushes to the carriage to find just a doll, while Carlos tries to perform CPR on the bloody woman, but is unsuccessful. We then see her blood on his mouth and chin, and as Laura reaches out to touch something on the woman, she suddenly grabs her hand in one last gasp of life. We then see the woman's badly torn up face, notably her lower jaw that's been partially ripped aside, leaving her mouth agape in a ghastly fashion. There's a brief view of old home movies showing Tomás and his disfigured face. A woman shows all sorts of bad looking boils/blisters on her arm. Laura breaks the lock off a door that leads into an elevated chamber of sorts. She starts dragging out the heavy bags that are filled with some sort of powdery substance, but then finds a jawbone, skull and then other bones in the heavy white powder. We see partial views of a partially mummified child's corpse. DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE Simón doesn't want to see the special needs kids who might live with him, so he knocks a tray of cookies from his mom's hand. In response, Laura slaps him across the face, and then regrets that. There's talk that a woman poisoned children in the past as revenge on what they did to her child (playing a prank on the disfigured boy that led to his accidental death). FRIGHTENING SCENES Scenes listed under "Violence," "Blood/Gore" and "Jump Scenes" may be unsettling, suspenseful or scary to younger viewers and/or those with low tolerance levels for such material. Young Laura repeatedly knocks on a tree, counting to three each time, while young kids seemingly creep up on her, freezing each time she turns. All of this, however, turns out to be just a children's game. Simón peers into the darkness of a seaside cave, saying hello to someone we and presumably he can't quite see. After some looking, Laura finds Simón talking to someone in a seaside cave, but dismisses that as him talking to imaginary friends again. After Simón leaves, she slowly looks and is surprised to find footprints in the dirt/sand floor. Laura is awakened by loud thumping and banging sounds at night, and she slowly goes looking for them, eventually leading to a large shed across the lawn, where the front door is repeatedly banging open and closed. She goes inside and slowly looks around the dimly lit place, eventually spotting Benigna hiding in the corner with a shovel. The older woman then rushes out. Laura opens the front door in the morning to find a pile of seashells and a trail of them leading away from the house (with supernatural implications). A door inside the house closes on its own, while an old teeter-totter outside slowly starts to rotate on its own. On a treasure hunt sort of search, "coins" turn out to be "milk teeth" (human baby teeth). Laura is surprised when Simón says he knows she isn't his mother, saying that Tomás told him. A young, masked figure slowly approaches Laura in a hallway. She thinks it's Simón, but we hear a raspy, almost reptilian sound coming from beneath the mask. When she reaches out to remove that, the figure pushes her backwards, pulling a door closed on her fingers in the doorjamb. She then yanks them out, but falls backward into the bathtub, landing hard. Her hand is bloody, and we then see her yank a broken and very bloody fingernail from her hand. We then see that the child has locked her in the bathroom, and even later that her leg is injured. Certain that Simón is in a seaside cave now inundated by the rising high tide, Laura tries to rush there, with Carlos stopping her, despite her (and we) seeing the figure of a boy at the entrance. Laura has a dream where she's swimming underwater, hears a sound and turns. Laura hears all sorts of thumping and banging sounds, and slowly goes to investigate as loud crashing sounds occur above and around her. A bathroom door opens and closes on its own. A woman pushing a baby carriage stops in front of Carlos and Laura's car, but is then suddenly struck by an ambulance. Laura rushes to the carriage to find just a doll, while Carlos tries to perform CPR on the bloody woman, but is unsuccessful. We then see her blood on his mouth and chin, and as Laura reaches out to touch something on the woman, she suddenly grabs her hand in one last gasp of life. We then see the woman's badly torn up face, notably her lower jaw that's been partially ripped aside, leaving her mouth agape in a ghastly fashion. Thinking Carlos is in bed next to her, Laura talks of better times, but then hears a noise in the bathroom. She then looks to see a shadow under the door, the lights then going out, and then the door handle slowing moving. She panics, but it's just Carlos coming out, and she then realizes someone or something had been in bed with her. A medium, Aurora, and others set up a séance of sorts at the house, with a man putting Aurora into a spell where she can see the past. Seen through slightly grainy surveillance cameras, we then see her slowly walking about the dimly lit house, and then hear a child's ghostly voice over the audio system. She then goes to a door and hears all sorts of horrible ghostly screaming sounds, and reacts to what she sees (but we only see her on the camera monitors). The scene is quite creepy/spooky, especially when the monitors all go to snow one by one, but then nothing else happens. Laura breaks the lock off a door that leads into an elevated chamber of sorts. She starts dragging out the heavy bags that are filled with some sort of powdery substance, but then finds a jawbone, skull and then other bones in the heavy white powder. During that, we also see a POV shot going through the chamber toward her, but nothing comes of that. Trying to lure out the ghosts, Laura repeats the 1-2-3 knocking game on a wall, with the camera panning off to the right each time she finishes and looks. That goes back and forth, with one view showing nothing in the room (even after the sound of a door opening), then one ghost child, then many, and then them getting closer to her, until one reaches out and touches her shoulder (to start the chase game). Laura goes into a closet and the door slowly closes, leaving her in the dark. She opens the door and no one is there, but the door then closes again. Laura finds a secret stairwell down into a large basement. She turns on the light that flickers, first showing the figure of a boy there, and then nothing. Laura finds Simón, and then prepares him to try to pretend the ghosts aren't there (that we hear on the floor above them), but he then vanishes in the blanket she's carrying. Laura spots a child's body on a basement floor and slowly goes over to it, tentatively removing the mask covering the head. GUNS/WEAPONS A person carries a toy gun at a party. IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR Phrases: "F*cking up our lives," "I don't want to keep taking this sh*t," "You're such a smart-ass" and "Damned." The film might inspire some kids to try to scare others via material seen onscreen. JUMP SCENES Laura turns and spots Benigna hiding in a corner. Looking for Simón, Laura opens a closet door and large metal pipes suddenly come crashing out. A woman pushing a baby carriage stops in front of Carlos and Laura's car, but is then suddenly struck by an ambulance. A supposedly dead woman suddenly grabs Laura's hand. Alone in the house, Laura says she isn't afraid, immediately followed by a window suddenly slamming downward, shattering the glass. A sudden sound late in the film might startle some viewers. A figure passes by in the dark foreground of the camera shot. MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE) An extreme amount of ominous and suspenseful music plays in the film. MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE) None. PROFANITY At least 1 "f" word, 1 "s" word, 1 ass and 1 damn. SEX/NUDITY We see Laura in a clingy wet shirt out in the rain, but nothing is seen (no nipple shape, etc.). Laura shows a little cleavage. Laura shows some cleavage in a wet dress as she runs and stumbles through the surf. Laura shows cleavage while swimming underwater in a dream. SMOKING None. TENSE FAMILY SCENES We see a report that shows that Simón is HIV positive. Laura is surprised when Simón says he knows she isn't his mother, saying that Tomas told him. Simón doesn't want to see the special needs kids who might live with him, so he knocks a tray of cookies from his mom's hand. In response, Laura slaps him across the face, and then regrets that. Certain that Simón is in a seaside cave now inundated by the rising high tide, Laura tries to rush there, with Carlos stopping her, despite her (and we) seeing the figure of a boy at the entrance. Pilar informs Laura and Carlos that there isn't any social worker named Benigna and believes that Simón may have been kidnapped. Simón's disappearance is trying for the couple, especially Laura. Laura and Carlos attend a parental grieving support group meeting where a woman talks about one night seeing her dead daughter (long after her death) and others acknowledge having experienced similar things. Laura sees Carlos crying over their loss. Laura's progressive belief in the ghostly issues puts a bit of a strain on her marriage to Carlos, who doesn't believe any of it, and eventually leaves her there at the house by herself (which is her decision). Spoiler Alert: A mother finds her long dead child, and then realizes that she was the accidental cause of his death. She then carries around the partially mummified body, and then eventually takes her own life via an overdose of pills. Spoiler Alert: A man visits the gravesite of his wife and son, and then briefly tours their former house, but then seems happy when a door opens on its own (presumably that of his wife and/or child). TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT We see a report that shows that Simón is HIV positive. Laura and Carlos attend a parental grieving support group meeting where a woman talks about one night seeing her dead daughter (long after her death) and others acknowledge having experienced similar things. The comment that seeing is not the same as believing. Orphans and orphanages. Ghosts. VIOLENCE Simón doesn't want to see the special needs kids who might live with him, so he knocks a tray of cookies from his mom's hand. In response, Laura slaps him across the face, and then regrets that. A young, masked figure slowly approaches Laura in a hallway. She thinks it's Simón, but we hear a raspy, almost reptilian sound coming from beneath the mask. When she reaches out to remove that, the figure pushes her backwards, pulling a door closed on her fingers in the doorjamb. She then yanks them out, but falls backward into the bathtub, landing hard. Her hand is bloody, and we then see her yank a broken and very bloody fingernail from her hand. We then see that the child has locked her in the bathroom, and even later that her leg is injured. A woman pushing a baby carriage stops in front of Carlos and Laura's car, but is then suddenly struck by an ambulance. Laura rushes to the carriage to find just a doll, while Carlos tries to perform CPR on the bloody woman, but is unsuccessful. We then see her blood on his mouth and chin, and as Laura reaches out to touch something on the woman, she suddenly grabs her hand in one last gasp of life. We then see the woman's badly torn up face, notably her lower jaw that's been partially ripped aside, leaving her mouth agape in a ghastly fashion. There's talk that a woman poisoned children in the past as revenge on what they did to her child. Reviewed October 30, 2007 / Posted January 4, 2008