The Orphanage

2007 • 105 minutes
4.4
165 reviews
87%
Tomatometer
Eligible
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About this movie

The Orphanage centers on Laura (Belén Rueda) who purchases her beloved childhood orphanage with dreams of restoring and reopening the long abandoned facility as a place for disabled children. Once there, Laura discovers that the new environment awakens her son's imagination, but the ongoing fantasy games he plays with an invisible friend quickly turn into something more disturbing. Upon seeing her family increasingly threatened by the strange occurrences in the house, Laura looks to a group of parapsychologists for help in unraveling the mystery that has taken over the place.

Ratings and reviews

4.4
165 reviews
Jeremy Goetzke
October 26, 2017
I can only imagine the bad reviews coming from someone who can't get over subtitles or is looking for "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" I have always loved Guillermo del Toro. "The Devils Backbone", his masterpiece "Pans Labyrinth", and while we really enjoyed this movie in the theatre if you haven't seen "Pans Labyrinth" I'd suggest that as a better example of his genus. "The Orphanage" is a good film, enjoy!
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M A
April 23, 2020
This is a great bedtime ghost story, a charming variation to a familiar and much loved children's play. Del Toro lures us into the typical creepy little children flick and later flips the switch to reveal the innocence and highly imaginative introspect of the young mind.
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Bradford Finn
November 28, 2022
Guillermo del Toro does a phenomenal job of provoking more realistic feelings of anxiety, dread, and (eventually) sorrow by tapping into the paternal fear of losing a child. I do feel that the ending was too obvious, hence the 4 stars, but other than that I really enjoyed this movie and look forward to watching more of his work. My biggest complaint is that I couldn't get the subtitles to go away (and I'm not a native speaker), but that's not what I based my rating off of.
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