Watching the excellent Mexican/Spanish movie The Orphanage (El Orfanato) today, I realised it was the third emotionally-intense, chiller, supernatural film I’d really loved over the last few years. And all were produced or directed by Guillermo del Toro.
All had strong lead actors who were children and children were pivotal to the unfolding story. The other two films were The Devil’s Backbone (El Espinazo del diablo) and Pan’s Labyrinth (El Laberinto del fauno)
I saw all three at the cinema. It dawned on me today that besides their complex and emotional stories, it’s their sound that really immerses you. Maybe it’s because all three are in Spanish, with English subtitles. As in, we effectively switch off that part of our brain that is trying to recognise the spoken word and that gives us more focus on the rest of the film’s sound.
I don’t mean the music – which is relatively subtle – I mean the sound effects. They can be as simple as scurrying feet ‘behind’ you. And boy, is that effective in a darkened cinema with no music or other sounds. Tension-city.
A quick summary of The Orphanage. A family of 3 move into a large old orphanage near the sea. The young son starts playing with imaginary friends, who appear to be setting puzzles for him to solve. But are the puzzles clues to a darker past or are they portends of darker things to come? And off we go from there…
All three of the above movies are intelligent, well realised chiller/fantasy movies. And this bodes well; Guillermo del Toro is directing the long-awaited movie adaptation(s) of The Hobbit.
IMDB and RT pages for these movies. RT has lots of reviews and creates an average score; all 3 do very, very well. But beware, some pages at IMDB have spoilers, which are clearly marked:
- The Devil’s Backbone (2001) RT
- Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) RT
- The Orphanage (2007) RT