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The Orphanage (2007)
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All reviews for The Orphanage
Knocking on the door has never ...
by
dj4our
in
dj4our Blog
loved it.
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"written by: Sergio G. Sánchez produced by: Mar Targarona, Joaquín Padro, Álvaro Agustín & Guillermo del Toro directed by: Juan Antonio Bayona rated R (for some disturbing content) 105 min. I'm a big fan of "less is more" which can be applied to almost anything really and it also correlates well with the phrase "show don't tell". I prefer when art stands on it's own without any additional interpretation. I don't want anything accompanying the art that states the obvious, tells me what to feel or think, or bats me over the head with a message. I especially feel th "
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Disturbing and Very Effective H ...
by
edwa8698
in
edwa8698 Blog
loved it.
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"The film starts off slow but builds to give the viewer one hell of an ending. I love Guillermo Del Toro's work and one of the only reasons I got this was because of the fact that he produced this I knew nothing about the story or plot before seeing it. I was pleasantly surprised by the result. This is a well crafted, well acted and very well directed horror film. I loved the mood and tone of the piece and thought that the film was well worth what I paid to rent it. As a horror buff I found it scary enough to keep my interest but it wasn't just hack and slash it actually had a decent story and I found the characters very interesting. If you like horror, or foreign films definitley give this one a try. "
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The Orphanage - Review
by
Ibetolis
in
Film for the Soul
is neutral about it.
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"Juan Antonio Bayona, 2007After a career directing award winning pop videos and shorts, Bayona's first foray into the world of feature length film couldn't really have a higher accolade than being associated with Guillermo Del Toro, who is credited here as producer. However such an association is not without it's pitfalls, expectations are invariably raised and what if you fall flat on your face and fail to deliver? Fortunately, for all involved, Bayona passes the test, with the odd wobble here and there, with resounding flourish and style. A success both at home; where it won 7 Goyas (the Spanish equivalent to the Oscars) and overseas, Bayona has created an old fashioned style chiller, teeming with gothic pretensions, finger nail chewing mise-en-scene and ghostly children, set in a old orphanage in modern day Spain.
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Tragically beautiful
by
glowbugg
in
glowbugg ramblings
loved it.
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"I am a fan of DelToro from The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth, to The Hellboy films, and I was not disappointed at all. This film was very similar in that there is always a tragedy that befalls a child or children. Maybe this has something to do with Mexican/Spanish folklore. It seems a common thread in many stories I have read. This is by no means a horror film but more of a ghost story. The Devil's Backbone was very much the same in that regard. This film spoke to me as a mother. I could fee the pain and anguish of the parents in the film. It was brutal and beautiful all at the same moment. Maybe it was the PMS talking (or crying as it were), but the end of the film actually brought me to tears. Really, I'm not usually so easily moved. "
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Sicko Love Story of Iron Man an ...
by
dibot
in
dibot Blog
liked it.
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"OK. The internet has crashed on me twice while I was working on this review. So please forgive any spelling or other errors as I am going crazy trying to get this posted. At the beginning of Love Story, I wasn't sure I felt the repartee between Ali MacGraw ("Glam") and Ryan O'Neal ("Waste Land"). Then a young Tommy Lee Jones ("No Country for Old Men") popped up out of nowhere. Then there was some hockey. Then the banter got better. The passage of time was handled pretty well. And by the end of the film, I was crying like a baby. So take that as you want it. Iron Man was a pretty good comic book movie. Robert Downey Jr. ("Charlie Bartlett") is perfect (as always) as Tony Stark. He and Gwyneth Paltrow ("The Good Night") have excellent chemistry. Jeff Bridges ("Surf's Up") is kind of thrown away in the you-can-see-it-coming-a-mile-a way bad guy role. The suit was amazing, and I think director Jon Favreau ("Zathura") handled it with the right light touch. I will see the sequel. Cause ... "
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The Orphanage (2007)
by
JJ79
in
JJ79 Blog
hasn't rated it.
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"Billed as a horror movie but not of that genre in the classical sense, The Orphanage builds its tension without any appreciable bloodshed, cursing or maniacal killer. Instead, it is a story of a mother trying to find her son, an adopted boy with HIV, before he dies. It's also the story of unlocking the secrets of the past when, in fact, only dead bodies can speak the truth.The Orphanage owes its aesthetic look to, among other films, Pan's Labyrinth with its grey color scheme, downplayed scare moments and an emotional story at the core. The horror here isn't in the masked, deformed child of a former nurse at the orphanage where Laura (Belen Rueda) grew up. It's in what happened to the children after Laura was adopted and Tomas (Oscar Cascas) turned up dead. While the first half of the film develops the relationships and characters so we become emotionally invested for the second, which turns into a child's game of sorts.See, the dead children continue to inhabit the orphanage w ... "
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The Orphanage
by
meghanator
in
meghanator Blog
hasn't rated it.
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"Ok, so I finally saw The Orphanage (2007) this past weekend. My best friend had warned me against seeing it; stating simply, "That movie sucks!" Eloquent and well-thought-out as his review was I thought to check it out for myself and it was actually quite good. I suspect that my friend did not like it because he is a big fan of violence and gore. The film was marketed as a horror movie but it really had neither of those elements. So yes, if that's what you're looking for "The Orphanage" will be a sore dissapointment. It is much more of a mystery/thriller than a horror flick. A lot of people, I'm sure, saw Guillermo Del Toro's name attatched and were expecting the next "Pan's Labyrinth". This is not that either. While it does have aspects of the supernatural, "The Orphanage" is much more about human nature and psychology. The film opens with a scene of a bunch of children playing at an orphanage- focusing on Laura who is about to be adopted. Cut to roughly 30 years later (it speci ... "
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A haunted house movie for the a ...
by
analogzombie
in
analogzombie Blog
liked it.
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"Finally, a film that is genuinely creepy, that isn't Asian, and doesn't rely on gore or blood. It does cover the jump scare pretty well, but it's mood is so well maintained throughout that I'll forgive it that minor horror convention. It's one of the best ghost movies in a year with several other notably understated freak outs (the Mist, 1408). I wonder what sort of condition the project was in when Guillermo Del Toro got involved? His name definitely carries weight, it is the only reason it's gotten any kind of major release here in the States, after all. Or maybe it isn't, I'll have to look into that. Suffice to say, you could find a lot worse ways to spend your movie money. "
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The Next School of Horror
by
Demndiary
in
Demndiary Blog
loved it.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
[What do you think?]
"Juan Antonio Bayona's The Orphanage is a scary film about a family moving into a former orphanage and being haunted by its former charges. The film is driven by Belen Rueda's Laura as a caring mother desperately seeking her child. The film has many elements. It is a ghost story in the vein of The Changeling. It incorporates both shadows and ghosts as humans as good as any J-Horror. It also has the best scene with a psychic medium since Poltergeist. The cast is filled with standout performances. Roger Princep is Simon, Laura's son, and is unaware that his imaginary friends are more than that. Fernando Cayo is Carlos, Laura's husband, who fights tooth and nail to come up with logical explanations for everything. Montserrat Caralla is Benigna, the spooky former worker at the orphanage who knows too many secrets. All make an ensemble cast that brings realism and fear to this story. Bayona has a beautiful style from location to lighting tha ... "
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