The Orphanage

I write this review of The Orphanage with such warm and fond recollection of the film, perhaps it was because it was one of the most emotionally-fulfilling horror films I have watched in recent years (the others include Pan's Labyrinth and The Others, funny they're all Spanish horror films).
Being a fan of the horror film genre, I have accustomed myself to being flooded with horrific imagery only to be left emotionally drained and wanting genuine human contact after viewing most horror films. The experience I had with viewing The Orphanage was the complete opposite. The sympathetic characters and their personal tragedies grab the attention from the very beginning, making the slow unraveling of the narrative and the discovery and illuminating of the main mystery a pleasant journey occassionally and expertly peppered by effective horror. One can discern the warmth that illuminates the film, making every intimate revelation of emotion, tragic or celebratory, ring true and compassionate.

The greatest draw perhaps for me, other than the glorious technical achievements in atmospheric lighting and sumptuous imagery, is the maternal love as the central theme of the film. This version of maternal love that will do every good thing possible for her child is a love more attuned to the one I believe in--the Christian and even Platonic (pre-Christian) concept of love that is that which desires only for the good of everyone--as opposed to the one presented in an earlier film screened in class, Grace. The self-sacrifice of the mother and the lengths to which she goes (but notice that they harm no others as opposed to the homicidal spree of Grace's mother) to find her son's whereabouts (plus the very very important fact that the child is not biologically hers, indeed an adopted one) plays a great and pregnant premise for much of the horror of the film, as the main mystery and the horror are situated in.

Oh I can go on gushing about how I love the film and how it is one of my favorites, but I guess everyone gets it by now...