Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.

I’ve only seen a few stills from this. I don’t even want to see a trailer. What I’ve seen so far gives me the heebie-jeebies, and I love it. I hope this film delivers on the word of mouth it’s been building since Cannes at the start of the summer, and I’m glad to see reviews of it show up in the inbox.

Especially from a spy with such a great, great nickname:

Greetings Mori,

Sent this to Harry but sending it your way as well. Hitting up Toronto for the Fest, and had the pleasure of seeing The Orphanage.

It's a neat little thriller from director Juan Antonio Bayona and produced by Guillermo del Toro. The opening credit sequences garners marks for creepiness, as pale children's hands reach across the screen and tear off pieces of wallpaper, highlighting the names. We are soon introduced to the titular orphanage, a creepy building belonging to a Laura and Carlos, along with their son, Siméon. They've moved into the orphanage, where Laura grew up, in hopes of reopening it as a home for disabled children. Siméon is a nice kid--and the kid's acting is pretty great overall--and we learn that he has imaginary friends, with whom he converses and plays. "He'll forget about them once the other children arrive," the father says confidently, but Laura is more concerned. Siméon tells Laura that his friends play games; they take a treasure, something important to you, then leave clues for you to find them. Siméon demonstrates this to his mother--it's a sort of a weird scavenger hunt, with different clues being hidden all over the house. Take notes, kids.

What follows is pretty standard haunted house fare, but elevated by the acting and well-orchestrated creepiness. A sequence involving the opening of the orphanage has the guests wearing animal masks (perhaps an odd salute to The Wicker Man), and you immediately know that the kid wearing the creepiest mask is going to be evil and/or undead, but it's a neat touch. In fact, the party scene works incredibly well at building tension through the very end, culminating with Siméon disappearing. There are bangs and loud noises heard, and Laura begins to suspect there are supernatural forces at work. And subsequently spends so much time running through the house screaming, "Siméon!" that you'd think she went to acting school with Harold Perrineau. Zing.

The film flashes forward several months, and his haggard-looking parents are desperately looking for their son. Another short scene involving a red herring character (the social worker with ulterior motives) turns bloody, and the outright horror of the scene is welcomed after a bit of a slow start. And then there are Ghostbusters, a group of paranormal hunter-types who enter the film just enough to provide a vehicle for another creepy sequence, in which their medium goes into a trance to try and find Siméon, as well as communicate with the spirits haunting the orphanage, but they exit stage right immediately after--kind of a quick exit, and although their scenes are effective it feels different than the rest of the film. Felt shoehorned in a bit.

Viewers will be mixed on the ending; it's much more poetic and fairy tale-like than what is expected from the outset. The realization of what actually happened to Siméon is pretty horrific, not where I thought they were going to go... they don't write off all the supernatural elements, but it gets a bit confusing about how much exactly the creepy Spanish ghost animal mask children were involved in the death. Ultimately a good film, but has some plotholes. One gaping issue for me: when Siméon disappears, Laura finds a small doll in his bed; you'd think she'd remember the whole treasure-hunting-game thing, because the audience sure does. It's frustrating--quite literally months go by, not to mention a good portion of the movie, and we all get the gimmick--look for the clues, dammit. But despite that and a few other plot flaws, it's a good film overall.

If you use this, I am TrumpyEatsPotatoes.