ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies

THERE IS nothing that can compete with the power of the human imagination. Technological advances mean that cinema can create gruesome, elaborate illusions but they pale by comparison with what you imagine could be lurking in the dark shadows of a gloomy house.

Acclaimed Spanish production The Orphanage makes exemplary use of atmosphere and the unknown to create an intelligent, intriguing ghost story.

The Orphanage is produced by Guillermo Del Toro, who made Pan’s Labyrinth. It has a literary pedigree that can be traced to Henry James’s The Turn Of The Screw and even the lost boys of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan.

Belen Rueda gives a spellbinding performance as Laura. Accompanied by her husband Carlos (Fernando Cayo) and son SImon (Roger Princep), she moves into the old, neglected orphanage where she lived as a child. The plan is to create a home for children with special needs.

The sickly, introverted Simon has soon created a group of imaginary friends whose games turn increasingly disturbing. Then he disappears. Even as weeks and months pass, Laura remains convinced that he is still alive somewhere in the house. Perhaps those playful friends weren’t entirely imaginary after all.

The Orphanage is the kind of film that creates unease from the creaking of a door, the whisper of the wind and the scurry of unseen footsteps. It works on more than one level as a supernatural thriller and as an emotional portrait of a mother’s grief and guilt. If you admired the Nicole Kidman chiller The Others, the Deborah Kerr classic The Innocents or simply enjoy the best of world cinema, then The Orphanage is unmissable.

Nationwide release

Director: J.A. Bayona
Stars: Belen Rueda, Fernando Cayo, Roger Princep, Mabel Rivera, Montserrat Carulla, Geraldine Chaplin
Screenwriter: Sergio G Sanchez
Certificate: 15
Running time: 106 mins
Country: Spain
Year: 2007