Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. This one looks great! I can't wait to see it... I think (hope) it plays Fantastic Fest... Produced by Guillermo Del Toro and all the reviews have been phenomenal, including the one below! Enjoy!!!

Hey Harry,
I just saw the Orphanage and just wanted to let you guys know just how amazing it is!

I saw The Orphanage last night at London's Fright Fest. To be honest I'd be surprised if you haven't already had reviews from other Fright Fest goers and I'm not the best with words but this film was too good to not say something about it.

The film focuses on Laura, her husband and their young son Simon. They move into the former orphanage that Laura lived in as a child, intending to turn it once again into a home for special children. Simon, as many young children, has some imaginary friends but after moving into the orphanage he makes some new imaginary friends that begin to frighten Laura. When Simon goes missing, their presence becomes stronger so Laura must battle to find her son and cope with ghostly disturbances in the house while trying to convince everyone else she isn't crazy.

I won't say much as I don't want to give anything away, but the film is incredibly creepy. There was a couple of moments when the whole cinema jumped (followed by nervous giggles). There is no gore but there is one gruesome moment that is just totally brilliant. The only film of recent years I would class as 'scary' would be A Tale of Two Sisters which sure had some creepy moments. The Orphanage is certainly the scariest film I've seen in some time. To be honest I was sitting completely tensed up for the whole film. The film is not only horror/thriller but encompasses many human emotions and is incredibly touching in places.

Beautifully shot with an interesting and original story (ok so nothing is original but you know what I mean) this film is going to do amazingly well. The Orphanage is probably going to be compared to Pan's Labyrinth in every review not only because it is of a similar genre and also Spanish language, but Guillermo del Toro helped with the funding and co-produced the film. I have to honestly say this is much better than Pan's Labyrinth by far! It was actually written 10 years ago by Sergio Sanchez and it has taken this long to get the film made. Helped by director Juan Antonio Bayona and his friendship with Guillermo de Toro, the film finally got made.

Both Sergio Sanchez and Juan Antonio Bayona attended the viewing at Fright fest and did a short Q&A after the film which gave a little more insight into its history and the references to other literature and film that are in the The Orphanage. The film had only previously screened at Cannes and they were genuinely pleased to be present at a 'proper' screening with, as they said, the people it was made for. It is released in cinemas in the UK in December 2007 and I will definitley be going to watch it again then.

Bye for now,
Alex Pallix.