El Orfanato (2007)

Directed by J. A. Bayona. Starring Belén Rueda, Roger Príncep, Fernando Cayo, Montserrat Carulla, Mabel Rivera, Geraldine Chaplin, Edgar Vivar, Andrés Gertrúdix. [R]

Spanish chiller (English translation: The Orphanage) of a mother bringing her husband and adopted child—once an orphan himself—to the closed orphanage where she grew up, intent on reopening it as a sanctuary for disabled children. But not long after arriving, her little boy is communicating and “playing games” with a child named Tomás who wears a sack mask…and then the son disappears. A well-crafted ghost story, doling out the expected scares in a more restrained and infrequent fashion than one expects from these types of pictures, but Sergio G. Sánchez’s script can’t shake off the contrivances and plot holes one also expects, resulting in a labored middle act where the viewer is more likely to be waiting for the payoff than becoming further immersed in the spooky spell. With an ending that goes from haunting to touching, at least the movie finishes strong. Rueda is quite good as the upset mother, but young Pincep is more shaky (as much the fault of the writing/direction, which requires him to launch into abrupt emotional reversals multiple times), and Cayo’s dad is a dull-eyed dud. In the small role of a medium who tries to help locate the missing child, Chaplin makes a welcome appearance. Director Bayona’s first feature; Guillermo del Toro executive produced.

69/100