The Orphanage

2007 ‘El orfanato’ Directed by J. A. Bayona

A tale of love. A story of horror.

A woman brings her family back to her childhood home, which used to be an orphanage, intent on reopening it. Before long, her son starts to communicate with a new invisible friend.

Belén Rueda Fernando Cayo Roger Príncep Mabel Rivera Montserrat Carulla Andrés Gertrúdix Édgar Vivar Óscar Casas Geraldine Chaplin Carmen López Óscar Lara

Alternative Titles

灵异孤儿院, The Orphanage - Das Waisenhaus 1, 오퍼나지 - 비밀의 계단, 靈異孤兒院

drama thriller horror

105 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Karsten Runquist ★★★★ 12

*Borat voice*
“My son!”
Review by Adam Cook ★★★★½ 18

After my eighth viewing I firmly believe this is the best horror film of the last 15 years. Admittedly competition in the last decade has hardly been stellar but that doesn’t stop this from not only being a fantastic horror film but a great film irrespective of genre. It isn't the scariest by any means but much like Rosemary's Baby it works on more than one level and takes you on a far greater emotional journey than most genre films do.
The Orphanage is, on the surface at least, a very old fashioned horror film. It exists in the same world as The Innocents: a world of large empty houses and fragile mental states. It relies on the suggested rather…
Review by Evan ★★★★½ 2

Wow. Easily one of the best horror films of the 21st century. What a film, I'm pretty speechless right now. So spooky and creepy. I seriously had shivers going up my spine several times throughout the movie because of how genuinely creeped out I was.
Review by Peaceful Stoner ★★★★★ 9

How often does a horror film provide hair rising scares along with a nail bitingly suspenseful and believable story? Even though I am a novice when it comes to the number of horror films watched, I can say with certain amount of confidence that such a brilliant combination of two of the most difficult genres to tackle is indeed a very rare breed. The orphanage is classic in its way of making, in its way of shocking and in its story line which paves the way for it to be deservedly called a modern horror masterpiece. This film is as perfect and as heady a mix of both these incredibly potent genres can ever get.
Every single shot in the…
Review by ScreeningNotes ★★★ 3

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

I'm not sure I'd really call The Orphanage a horror film. It certainly has horror elements—haunted house, ghosts, brief scenes of gruesome gore—and its atmosphere is positively chilling, but the overall emotion that the film inspires isn't one of fear, but one of sadness. The Orphanage is a tragedy, and it's so thoroughly built upon a single utterly fascinating scene that I want to skip right past talking about how beautiful the cinematography is and how exceptional the central performances are and just unpack this one scene.
Laura, her husband Carlos, and their adopted son Simón move into the old orphanage where Laura was raised in order to turn it into a facility for disabled children. Simón makes a few…
Review by <Todd> ★★★★½

"Seeing is not believing. It's the other way around. Believe, and you will see." -Aurora,
-Hooptober 5.0 (Film 27 of 33): boxd.it/23f1e
A woman, raised in an orphanage, returns with her husband and adopted son to the orphanage of her childhood. Her goal is to reopen the orphanage but soon her son disappears after talking to "imaginary" friends. Panic and horror ensues.
This movie is pretty close to perfection and I would recommend it to anyone, including people that normally dislike horror. The story is well-told, the acting is exceptional, the tone is very creepy but occasionally gives you moments to breath and recommit. It's great. I think if the film had simply done a bit more to ground the relationship between the mother and Simon, before he disappears, I would've rated this 5 stars.
Review by CinemaClown ★★★½

Ingeniously weighing the elements of supernatural & psychological horror, The Orphanage is an expertly crafted horror film from Cinema of Spain which with its welcome absence of cheap scares & more emphasis on its plot turns out to be one of the finest examples of its genre. Cleverly plotted, it dares to take its time to create the required atmosphere rather than prematurely rushing into scaring its audience like so many horror films do nowadays.
The story concerns Laura; a former orphan who returns with her husband & son back to her childhood home which used to be an orphanage for handicapped children, which she hopes to reopen again. Things are set in motion when her son Simon, who claims to have invisible…
Review by Marianna ✨🪐 Neal ★★★★ 1

—Seeing is not believing. It's the other way around. Believe, and you will see.
Haunting and beautiful.
J.A. Bayona takes a classic ghost story, and makes it his own.
Reminded me a bit of Guillermo del Toro's The Devil's Backbone.
A must-watch for any fan of quality, old fashioned horror.
Review by Rafael Jovine ★★★½ 2

Once Upon A Time…. An Spooktober List
So Spanish cinema, Belen Rueda and Guillermo Del Toro (oficially) are all back into my little marathon with a film I wouldn't describe as much as a horror film but rather a family drama with some ghost story undertones, almost in the same way as A Monster's Call. That's not to say they aren't some legit moments of scares like the car crash and game of tag scene.
JA Bayona, who has made a name for himself thanks to some true story disaster drama and dinos, directorial's debut shows his great skills behind the camera and balancing the frightening moments with the drama of a mom trying to get back to her son…
Review by 🤟🏻jess🤟🏻 ★★★½

that one scene where she's playing that knock knock game with the kids......ummm yeah ¡NO GRACIAS!
so this was not what i was expecting it to be at all.....had a few good twists and scares and then it turned sad and y'all i was not prepared.
Review by Jack Attack ★★★½ 6

I'm really starting to have my doubts that J. A. Bayona had absolutely anything to do with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
Review by Maevez 9

The idea of a place where something so horrible happened that there's a type of open wound impossible of healing. Impossible of escaping. The place and its energy will always call you and drag you back into the pain.

El Orfanato displays this type of horror masterfully, J. A. Bayona's a very talented director but I think the way he directs dramatic scenes specifically are always what stands out of his movies for me. There's a game scene near the end that's absolutely horrifying, at least from what I could see when I'd stop covering my eyes. The score and the performances really sell the horror parts of the story.
Sadly the years I've heard about this movie created some expectations that weren't completely fulfilled but the final product is still a fantastic ghost story that'll get some scares and maybe tears out of you.

Recent reviews

Review by Ryan Jacobson

watched
Review by Bruna ★★★★

comecei o filme com medo, terminei ele chorando
Review by ravi8910

10/20- great great movie, I like Bayona when he's not doing a Jurassic movie and this was really well done, great story and lots of twists, kept me involved, dragged a little at times, big recommend
Review by Rodrigo ★★★★

Me gustó mucho y me dieron ganas de ver más cine de terror español.
Tiene una idea definida desde un principio y la cumple de manera más que correcta.
Una buena fotografía, buenas actuaciones y un guión muy bien armado. Esto último quizás fue lo que más me gusto y lo que más me dejo pensando. Alterna entre terror psicológico y las clásicas películas de fantasmas y apariciones con mucha naturalidad, lo cuál te hace dudar a vos de que está sucediendo realmente. Y eso me pareció genial.
Quizás, lo único que tengo para criticarle es que a veces peca de sobre-expositivo. Situaciones o referencias que se entienden, tienen que explicartelas de manera explícita o en un diálogo, y la realidad es que no hace falta. A veces subestima al espectador.
Pero, el desenlace es muy bueno y la definición perfecta de "agridulce".
Review by Aryav

Having skipped through this while toggling between the film and the wikipedia summary in preparation for my verbal Spanish test on this in the morning I don’t deserve to log this or (nor?) mark it as watched but here we are
God its been so long since I’ve logged an actual film on here
Review by Niall_A

i watched this in some kind of film viewing club in multiple installments and remember feeling silly for how frightened i was despite being among this large group of people in a classroom
Review by Sarah Macambira ★★★★

Morri de medo. Chegou no final morri de chorar. Complicado
Review by lizardpenny ★★★★

Uno, dos, tres, toca la puerta.
Not exactly the feel-good family flick of 2007; I remembered the ending about halfway through but that didn’t stop me doing a fat sob when it arrived.
Review by Santiago Hardie ★★★½

Es una peli que sabe que quiere hacer y lo hace más que correctamente, me gustó, pero no deja de ser medio trillado ya el tema de orfanatos espiritus y esas cosas.
Review by Dimas Saguier ★★★½

Damn no esperaba emociomarme en una de terror
Review by Mephistofilia ★★★★★

Esta joya de horror española se convirtió en una cinta atemporal, necesaria y memorable, un cuento de amor fraternal, de como el pasado siempre tiene un hilo deteniendonos y como el horror siempre está ligado a la tristeza.
Review by moonmi ★★★★½

fiquei assustada e triste (mais triste do que assustada)