Popular reviews

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  Review by karsten ★★★★ 10

  *Borat voice*
  “My son!”

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  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.

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  Review by ScreeningNotes ★★★ 9

  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…

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  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.

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  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…

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  Review by Graham ★★★½ 2

  What starts as a family based drama steadily descends into unexplained disappearance and supernatural shenanigans. I'm not really sure what to think of this to be honest, though as a Del Toro produced film I guess it was inevitable that there would be an element of oddity. More supernatural suspense than pure horror, it definitely hit the mark with a really compelling script and great production.

  Laura, Carlos and Simon appear to be the perfect little family living in an old orphanage, and as the story unfolds we are introduced to some interesting and well considered back story. With great performances, especially from Belén Rueda as Mum Laura and Roger Princep as her young son Simon El Orfanato is a solid entry in Spain's catalogue.

  HORRORx52 challenge by kynky
  6. 2000's

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  Review by aaron ★★★★ 1

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

  *sighs and grabs tissue box*

  A pretty good ghost story that almost tricked me into believing it had a happy ending...

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  Watched as a part of 100 Horror Movies in 92 Days and Hooptober.

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  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.

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  Review by Jaxi ★★★★

  you could NEVER make this movie in america and for that reason american horror will never reign supreme

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  Review by Héctor ★★★★

  Just watched this. It was ok. Wasn't a horror, more of a fantasy story with a couple horror elements. Bad music used in the film, should have had none.

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  Review by Lou (rhymes with wow!) ★★★★ 4

  A very suspenseful and moody haunted house movie from Spain. It was directed by J.A. Bayona (of Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom fame) and produced by Guillermo del Toro. This gave me all the del Toro vibes actually. It's basically about how the sins of the past haunt the present. It is a very beautiful movie that almost had me in tears for the final 10 minutes.

  I'm having a haunted themed movie marathon with Michelle (and later on Sophie) today, and this was the movie I watched before she joined in.

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  Review by CinemaCl🎃wn ★★★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…