#24: The Orphanage
Really, what a beautiful movie this is. How I wish more horror films would delve into their characters minds and trauma like this. The story, which is about a woman's dedicated search for her missing child, is so simple, but compels you in its slow journey down into madness and paranormality. When you look at most horror films, they tend to be a lot more plot driven than character driven. The idea that a character might be greatly emotionally affected by the unexplainable events around them isn't that common in horror, most work in this "here's the scare, people get scared, then they move on" way that makes it easier to keep a quick pace and keep a focus on the scares itself, which is what people expect when walking into a scary film. But there's so much more emotional stake in The Orphanage, so much emphasis on just how important the missing son is to the main character, Laura.
Part of that emotional resonance comes from The Orphanage moving at a slower, more sophisticated pace. Laura (Belen Rueda) more chance to show how she feels about what's happening. She gets the chance to cry, the chance to seem lastingly shocked, and most importantly, she gets a good chunk of the movie with her son Simon so we can see how much their relationship means to her, and why she's as brutally, hard core dedicated to finding him as she is. She makes stories about the lighthouse near their new orphanage they own, she goes on adventures with him, she supports him and his creative games whole-heartedly. So when Laura spends months and months searching for Simon and going to the extremes she goes to, it feels earned, it feels natural. And I get that she would of course she's dedicatedly search for him since he's her son, but if you saw this movie, you'd see that she's more than the average mom.
This movie works as something of a horror masterpiece due to caring much more about the main character and her struggle rather than creating scares. Don't get me wrong, the sense of fear and dread is constant, but there's an emotionally heavy backing to it. This is especially relevant in the climax, which isn't centered around the big final reveal of a monster or a gore filled scare, but is a mysterious, quiet ending to her psychological torment and fear, that leads into the singular best ending this movie could have. It's sweet, gives closure, and finds a resolution to Laura's personal story, but there's still a bleak and sinister edge to it.
And to perfectly match the nuanced, tender tone of The Orphanage, the scares are quiet, not flamboyant, and in the end pretty damn horrifying in just how realistic it seems. Whenever a ghost shows up, there isn't surreal imagery and a fantastical feeling to it. Like when Laura plays a red light, green light-ish game with the ghost kids to try and find her son. She knocks on the wood, speaks slowly and hesitantly, while the camera stays in a tight close up. Then she turns around, the camera shakily pans over, and there's nothing there. Then she repeats the process, turns around, and there are several kids, standing, watching. The whole scene goes on for a while, in that same shakycam method, with no swelling music or jump scares. There is great acting, a perfectly placed set, and amazing camera technique, which is what can be said about a lot of scenes. There is no levitation, no vomit spurting or spidercrawl. While the movie is centered around ghosts, the ghosts never seem to do anything outside of the realm of reality, and everything that happens feels completely like something that could happen in real life, to anybody.
I might end up placing this higher on the list. There is so much to praise about this film. It is so realistic, so quiet, so character involved and poetic in it's story. It's been 6 years and while The Orphanage hasn't influenced modern horror as much as I want it to, if any film deserves to change the landscape of horror forever, it's something as inventive and beautiful as this film.
Tomorrow: The whole movie is on a bus! And that's it! How is it one of my favorite action movies?
This movie works as something of a horror masterpiece due to caring much more about the main character and her struggle rather than creating scares. Don't get me wrong, the sense of fear and dread is constant, but there's an emotionally heavy backing to it. This is especially relevant in the climax, which isn't centered around the big final reveal of a monster or a gore filled scare, but is a mysterious, quiet ending to her psychological torment and fear, that leads into the singular best ending this movie could have. It's sweet, gives closure, and finds a resolution to Laura's personal story, but there's still a bleak and sinister edge to it.
And to perfectly match the nuanced, tender tone of The Orphanage, the scares are quiet, not flamboyant, and in the end pretty damn horrifying in just how realistic it seems. Whenever a ghost shows up, there isn't surreal imagery and a fantastical feeling to it. Like when Laura plays a red light, green light-ish game with the ghost kids to try and find her son. She knocks on the wood, speaks slowly and hesitantly, while the camera stays in a tight close up. Then she turns around, the camera shakily pans over, and there's nothing there. Then she repeats the process, turns around, and there are several kids, standing, watching. The whole scene goes on for a while, in that same shakycam method, with no swelling music or jump scares. There is great acting, a perfectly placed set, and amazing camera technique, which is what can be said about a lot of scenes. There is no levitation, no vomit spurting or spidercrawl. While the movie is centered around ghosts, the ghosts never seem to do anything outside of the realm of reality, and everything that happens feels completely like something that could happen in real life, to anybody.
I might end up placing this higher on the list. There is so much to praise about this film. It is so realistic, so quiet, so character involved and poetic in it's story. It's been 6 years and while The Orphanage hasn't influenced modern horror as much as I want it to, if any film deserves to change the landscape of horror forever, it's something as inventive and beautiful as this film.
Tomorrow: The whole movie is on a bus! And that's it! How is it one of my favorite action movies?
No comments:
Post a Comment