Juan Antonio Bayona
The Orphanage

Have you ever had an imaginary friend as a child?

Have you ever had the anguishing fear of seeing your child vanish into thin air?

Although the theme addressed in this film by Juan Antonio Bayona is not exactly "original," the skill of the actors, especially Belén Rueda in the role of the adoptive mother of little Simon (Roger Príncep), gives the story that extra touch beyond the usual "return from the beyond" of souls that have not yet crossed the threshold and wander uneasily in the real world.

Laura (Belén Rueda) spends her childhood in an orphanage and, after being adopted, returns, now as an adult, to that very place along with her husband (Fernando Cayo) and her son, with the intent to set up a home/family for needy children. The little one has his imaginary friends, and the parents, erroneously, don't give much importance to it; in fact, they try to indulge Simon's fantasies by participating in his everyday life.

An exploration of a cave by the beach, for fun, sets the first signs of the eerie scenario that will soon impact the fate of the three characters: the intrusion of a mysterious social worker, later revealed to be fake, the small and mysterious inhabitant of the cave who begins to torment Simon, the child's disappearance into thin air during the inauguration of the home/family, the parents' desperate search, contact with the beyond, and mysterious revelations that, piece by piece, unveil the secret of who imperceptibly populates the former orphanage, the macabre discovery, the atypical ending...

Several shivers run down the spine during this viewing, with no splatter except in one case, but psychological games and grim settings are the film's main attractions, joined by Geraldine Chaplin's cameo in a macabre interpretation as a medium with an impressive thinness, laying the groundwork for solving the mystery of Simon's disappearance.

The reasoned delirium of a mother who sees her child vanish, her firm belief that she will not descend into madness and that the child is still alive and captive to his little spectral friends in a parallel world, the gradual abandonment by those around her, the constant anguish keep the viewer in suspense until the final moments, finally relaxing in the concluding scene, although not entirely in line with the rest of Bayona's work, but still enjoyable.

The production is entrusted to Guillermo del Toro, who will have the satisfaction, together with the director and cast, of seeing his work nominated at the European Awards and winning a total of 6 Goya Awards out of the 13 nominations received. A special commendation for the excellent cinematography by Óscar Faura and the music by Fernando Velázquez (both nominated at the Awards).

Recommended for those who prefer psychological horror.