Spooky shit.

This shit is creepy.


The Orphanage is a film that centers around memories and fucked up ones at that. The main character Laura played wonderfully by Belen Rueda plays a mother who adopts a young boy who vanishes after a party. She was also an orphan in her youth and has always wanted to help those in need of families. She is your all around nice lady that doesn't need the shit that the rest of the film brings to her.

Mysteries unfold throughout the film which kept me at the edge of my seat just wanting to figure out whats going on. It's not so much of "Hey, it's a twist" but the film is just so interesting and well made that you just want to keep on reeling it in. It's wonderfully shot and put together. The film comes from director Juan Antonio Bayona which "The Orphanage" happens to be his first feature film. I can see nothing but great things from this young filmmaker and i hope Guillermo Del Toro is with him every step of the way. The directing styles are very similar with the tones and looks of the films but where Del Toro is set in a fantasy/reality world, Juan Antonio Bayona brings the horror elements into a real world that adds to its creepiness. There isn't any evidence that we are watching a horror film, the first 20 minutes of the film doesn't seem like it would even go to the lengths that this film goes to and trust me, it goes to some far out lengths.

Bayona seems very confident behind the camera and i am very anxious to see what he has next up his sleeve. I hope he stays in the same universe of The Orphanage because we need some good creepy films right now and i think he is the person we've been waiting for. He has conceived some of the most haunting scenes that I've seen in a long time. He just doesn't creep you out, he has a scene that come out of no where and just grosses you out with one shot in particular. I won't describe it because the scene literally comes from left field and i mean that in a very good way.

This just goes to show that the Hispanics are making some of the most interesting and best films of the past years. I am glad to say that we have a new talent to look out for from the amazingly talented Hispanic filmmakers.

Grade A