Haunting

A very strong recommendation for Juan Antonio Bayona’s El Orfanato that bears the unmistakable stamp of producer Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Chronos). It takes the best elements of The Sixth Sense (without all the hey, look-at-me self consciousness), The Others, and Don’t Look Now and proves once again that, in great horror films, the less that is seen the more there is to dread.

It also doesn’t hurt to have a script that ties itself up quite nicely and tears your heart out (figuratively) at the end.

By the way, the ticket taker was advising patrons that the movie is in Spanish with subtitles and she told me that some people, when advised of the fact, chose to see something else. That is why there is crap like National Treasure on 3000 screens.