I have watched A LOT of horror movies (though there are some that I’m still too chicken to watch). So, I can tell you the difference between an effective horror movie and one that’s not.
This is only because I’ve seen most of the best horror movies of all time, and I don’t just mean domestically, either, because I love foreign films, too. So, when it comes to something like The Wailing from South Korea, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night from Iran, Suspiria from Italy, or Wolf Creek from Australia, I’ve likely seen it. And, the foreign horror movie that I want to talk about today is 2007’s The Orphanage (Or, El orfanato) from Spain.
The Orphanage is one of those rare horror movies that’s actually scary, and I want to talk about it just in case you haven’t seen it or forgot about it. Here’s why.
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Firstly, It’s A Foreign Horror Movie That Came Here And Never Got An American Remake, Which Is Amazing
Here’s the thing about foreign horror movies: For some reason, producers often think it’s okay to just “Americanize” them. Now, some American remakes are better than others. For example, I think a lot of people will agree that both the American remakes of The Ring and The Grudge were legitimately pretty good (And scary, even just being PG-13!).
However, for every The Ring, and The Grudge, we get a One Missed Call, or a Dark Water, or The Uninvited, which, you know, are vastly inferior to the originals. That said, we never got an American remake of The Orphanage (Though New Line Cinema apparently tried), and thank Heavens for that, since The Orphanage already works as-is, and it doesn’t need an American remake. It’s perfect already.
It’s the story of a woman named Laura (Belen Rueda) who wants to convert an old orphanage into a house for sick children. Laura used to live in the orphanage, and she thinks back on her childhood fondly. However, her memories might not be as rose-tinted as she thinks, as the orphanage holds a dark secret that she didn’t even know about at the time.
It’s a creepy story with a small child with a sack over his head named Tomas being the central haunting figure, and it just works on so many levels, mostly because it’s old-school scary, which I’ll get into next.
It Doesn’t Rely On Cheap Jump Scares
Though it doesn’t seem to be as prevalent a problem as it once was in the 2010s, jump scares used to be one of the greatest offenders in horror movies, and it’s mostly because they’re usually so cheap. There would be a loud noise, and then somebody would pop out, and the audience would scream, only to usually chuckle afterward. Honestly, it got annoying after a while. There would even be moments where a character would just grab another character’s shoulder, and THAT would be considered a jump scare.
Cheap, cheap, cheap. That said, I’m happy to report that The Orphanage is not that kind of horror movie. In fact, it’s the kind that we’re getting a lot more of these days, as it’s foreboding, creepy, and it gets underneath your skin, just like the horror movies from Ari Aster, or like Skinamarink (if something as experimental as that frightens you).
Because essentially, The Orphanage is a ghost story/haunted house movie. Throughout the plot, which takes its time, we learn what exactly happened to the inhabitants of the orphanage, and why our protagonist seems to be drawn to the place. Her husband, Carlos (Fernando Cayo), is supportive of her and is willing to see her dream through of turning her former home into a children’s hospital, but he’s repelled by the place as well, since he feels like he’s not wanted there, as he isn’t.
Another major character is Laura’s adopted son, Simon (Roger Princep). Simon goes missing, and it destroys Laura and Carlos’ marriage, but the creepiest part is that before Simon went missing, he befriended Tomas, who’s a ghost. It’s scary stuff with NO jump scares…
Okay, That’s Not True, As There’s One Jump Scare. But It’s Effective!
Okay, so here’s the thing about jump scares. They don’t HAVE to be bad. For instance, one of the scariest moments I’ve ever seen in any horror movie ever is a jump scare, and it’s from the movie Mulholland Drive (and yes, I consider Mulholland Drive a horror movie. You don’t?).
Anybody who’s seen the movie knows EXACTLY what moment I’m talking about, as all I have to say is “Winkies,” to get people to shiver. That said, not every filmmaker is David Lynch, and so it really isn’t fair to compare anybody else to him when it comes to jump scares.
Be that as it may, I must say, there’s a jump scare in The Orphanage that might not be AS good as the one in Mulholland Drive, but it’s damn well close. And, it all has to do with the way the tension is built up. I won’t spoil the moment for you because what would be the fun of that, but I will say that it involves a car accident. For example, I remember the first time I saw this moment, and I was unsettled the entire rest of the movie, sort of like I was for the “I saw her face” scene in The Ring.
It’s a jump scare where the image alone scares you, and I still think about it to this very day. It’s pretty hard not to since it’s THAT effective.
It Is Tonally Depressing Throughout, Leaving A Heavy Feeling Unlike Many Other Films
Another reason why this film works so well is that it’s so damn depressing. Every good horror movie relies on its premise and frights to be truly remembered, but The Orphanage is a damn good drama in its own right. In fact, it almost feels like a drama first, and a horror movie second.
A lot of this is because of the family dynamic. Laura was an orphan herself, and now she’s become a mother. She’s adopted a child who is HIV-positive, but she hasn’t told him this, or even the fact that he’s adopted. So, he grows up thinking that Laura is his biological mother, but when he finds out she isn’t, he runs away. This makes Laura’s marriage fall apart. At the same time, we have the story of what happened to all of the children in the orphanage, and it’s all just so sad!
The ending is also really depressing, and it’s mostly because we care for all of the characters involved, which makes the scary bits even scarier since we don’t want to see any harm come to them, which it does.
It all just adds up, making this still a highly effective horror movie, and one that I wish we saw more of these days.