DVD/150: EL ORFANATO (THE ORPHANAGE) (JA Bayona, 2007)

I haven't seen EL ORFANATO in a while and I'm happy to report this daytime ghost story still chills...

Bayona and Guillermo del Toro had been friends since 1993 so Bayona turned to him when Sergio Sanchez's script couldn't find backing; del Toro agreed to produce it - unsurprising as it shares many del Toro themes.

Laura has bought the orphanage where she briefly lived as a child and wants to turn it into a special needs school as well as a home for her, husband Carlos and son Simón.

Simón soon says he has new imaginary friends who are now in the house.

Playing a game devised by the 'friends', Simón discovers that he was adopted and is HIV Positive which leaves him angry and confused.

On the school's opening day, Laura and Simón argue; soon after Simón vanishes...

Laura later discovers that only she can resolve the house's ghosts..

Shelf or charity shop?  EL ORFANATO can happily haunt my plastic DVD storage box. EL ORFANATO received a ten minute standing ovation at Cannes, was a huge box office hit and won seven Goya Awards.  An American remake has been on the cards for the past 15 years, let's hope it never happens.  Bayona made his feature debut with EL ORFANATO and he directs with a delicacy and taste that only adds to the darkness lurking at the films centre; only at the end does he allow the film to slip into a tweeness that would soak a US remake one suspects.  Atmospheric and claustrophobic, the film benefits from unshowy performances from Belén Rueda as Laura, Fernando Cayo as Carlos and an impressive performance from 9 year-old Roger Princep as Simón.  There is also a wonderful cameo from Geraldine Chaplin as Aurora a medium who senses the heartbreak within the house, in only a few scenes she delivers magnificently.  There are certain moments in EL ORFANATO that resonate - none more so than when Laura summons the ghostly orphans by playing a statue game which as it's caught with a handheld camera and in silence is genuinely scary.