Ghost Story

El Orfanato
Regal Countryside 16
Frederick, MD
35mm

When I tried to see this two weeks ago I had no idea it would be expanding wide and no idea that it would be playing in Frederick. It's in Spanish and, well, it's in Spanish, so it's nice to see it get a fairly wide release. We've come a long way from when The Devil's Backbone came out and only played on one screen in DC in a theater the size of my living room.

I've said before that I'll pretty much watch anything with Guillermo Del Toro's name on it, and I may have to just expand that to say that I'll watch any ghost story with a Spanish speaking director. The Devil's Backbone is probably my favorite ghost move (Yep, I like it even more than The Shining. And I like The Shining a lot.) and I'm very fond of The Others and, now, The Orphanage.

I don't want to go into to much detail about the story, but the basic gist of it goes something like this: A woman and her husband move into the orphanage where she spend some time as a child. Their son goes missing. There may or may not be ghosts. It's a very tense movie and like the very best ghost stories it relies on mood and tension rather that things jumping out and going "boo," although there is a fairly gruesome "boo" moment that comes bout midway. But it's earned.

Although not directed by Del Toro, The Orphanage revisits the questions of his two best films. The central question of The Devil's Backbone, "What is a ghost," is actually spoken by one character here and Pan's Labyrinth's question of whether or not the fantasy elements are all in the protagonists head can also be applied. I think you can probably watch the film from both perspectives and have it work equally well, though I think I would like it more if the ghosts are real.

Still, it's beautiful, scary, and heartbreaking. Just what I like it my ghost stories. And like the very best ghost stories, it's haunting.