The Orphanage
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Mon 26 May 2008 // 20:00
(Mon 26th, Tue 27th & Thu 29th / 8pm / £4/3/2ttt)
(Juan Antonio Bayona / 2007 / Spain / 35mm / 105 mins / Cert 15)
(Spanish with English Subtitles)
Spanish horror has had something of a renaissance in recent years, defining a new set of stylistic conventions which - much like recent Japanese horror - could in some sense be read as an emerging national sub-genre. If this is the case, then 'El Orfanato' could well be seen as the film that consolidates this format, taking visual and narrative cues from other recent Spanish titles - such as 'The Others' and 'The Devil's Backbone' - and developing them into a new yet recognisable format.
The film tells the story of Laura who returns to the abandoned orphanage where she was raised in order to re-open it as a home for children with disabilities. Along with her husband and adopted son Simon who is HIV Positive, she prepares the orphanage to receive its new residents but all is not as it seems, and steadily the sins of the past begin to resurface through a series of ghostly happenings.
Creepy and melancholic in equal measure, the story owes as much to Peter Pan as any ghost story - a ghostly fable about memory and loss that will tingle the heart as much as the spine.
(Juan Antonio Bayona / 2007 / Spain / 35mm / 105 mins / Cert 15)
(Spanish with English Subtitles)
Spanish horror has had something of a renaissance in recent years, defining a new set of stylistic conventions which - much like recent Japanese horror - could in some sense be read as an emerging national sub-genre. If this is the case, then 'El Orfanato' could well be seen as the film that consolidates this format, taking visual and narrative cues from other recent Spanish titles - such as 'The Others' and 'The Devil's Backbone' - and developing them into a new yet recognisable format.
The film tells the story of Laura who returns to the abandoned orphanage where she was raised in order to re-open it as a home for children with disabilities. Along with her husband and adopted son Simon who is HIV Positive, she prepares the orphanage to receive its new residents but all is not as it seems, and steadily the sins of the past begin to resurface through a series of ghostly happenings.
Creepy and melancholic in equal measure, the story owes as much to Peter Pan as any ghost story - a ghostly fable about memory and loss that will tingle the heart as much as the spine.