In hindsight, I didn't even know what the movie was about. I also didn't know it was subtitled (which I have no issue with).
This movie is a rough one to explain because as it progresses, it constantly adds new layers to what started out as a quite simple story. By the end, it deals with a large arc of themes and covers a gulf of emotions. It's more like a Japanese horror movie than an American one, if you get my meaning by that comparison.
The story is about a woman who was adopted from an orphanage. She's all grown up now and buys the old abandoned orphanage with her husband. They intend on housing 5-6 special needs children and taking care of them once the place is in running order. She and her husband have an adopted child, who also happens to be HIV positive. Soon after moving in, this child soon has some imaginary (and quite mischievous) friends in the house. One day, he simply vanishes. The distraught mother spends the next year-ish trying to find her child. She has to do some detective work, and soon uncovers horrible secrets about the staff, and her childhood orphan friends she left behind.
Btw, I oversimplified the plot a great deal.
The movie itself is slower than I expected. Pacing-wise, I would compare it to The Others, with a hint of Pan's Labyrinth. It's a slow burn. It clocks in at 105 minutes, yet feels longer. The majority of the movie focuses on the mother in this gigantic old orphange, looking for clues about her missing son. There are frights abound in this flick, ranging from eerie to the stereotypical "loud noise/sudden movement" scares. They seemed pretty few and far between, which made them that much scarier when they did happen. I'll admit, there was one time in particular where I swear to christ I got so freaked out, my bones hurt. I mean it. I don't recall a single movie that got me so good. If I would've been holding something, I would've either dropped it or thrown it up in the air. I blame this on it being around midnight, raining outside, and I was completely blindsided by the scare.
The ending got me good. I mean real good. I'm talking like "the first time I watched the Sixth Sense" good. It was like a punch in the heart. It was disturbing. There were about 3 endings total in this (think Return of the King), each one adding a new layer of closure to the story. I want more people to see it just so that I have someone else to discuss the ending(s) with.
When it was finished, my wife and I had a hell of a lot of discussion over this movie (this is one of my favorite things in life btw). It was definately engaging, heartbreaking, and somewhat redeeming in a weird way. I have a 14 month old daughter now, and movies dealing with children have an entirely different effect on my wife and I than they ever did before we had children. This movie will strike a deeper chord with parents IMO.
I would sum this movie up as a deep, layered, psychological thiller with supernatural overtones. It also touches on some fantasy elements.
I give it a solid 8.5/10. It should've gotten more attention.
Here is part of a review that mirriors my feelings about the pacing.
Because elegant, gothic and yes art-house horror films aren't so much like nonalcoholic beer, or otherwise robbed of the simple and graphic thrills that we associate with the genre. Rather, The Orphanage and films like it are more akin to a fine wine: They eventually accomplish the same purpose as their plebeian counterparts -- namely, to shock and scare audiences -- but savoring the experience is more often the point than the end result.
