Alethea's been having nightmares
The girl and I got out this weekend to go see The Orphanage. Oh man, this was seriously the creepiest movie I’ve seen in quite some time.
The last time I had this many jump-in-my seat moments was probably for 28 Weeks Later, but this was a totally different kind of horror movie. 28 Weeks was more shock-gore, while Orphanage falls in line more with maybe The Others and the original The Haunting. It was just a good ghost story without all the gore and things jumping out at you for a cheap thrill.
Probably as good an explanation as there could be from one of the online reviews:
The scares in The Orphanage derive first and foremost from Bayona's skillful deployment of horror-movie grammar. He gives the audience the tension of a close-up, followed by the relief of a long shot-where bad things rarely happen-before dropping us straight into the "Oh hell, what's that" tension of a medium shot.
Highly recommended.
The last time I had this many jump-in-my seat moments was probably for 28 Weeks Later, but this was a totally different kind of horror movie. 28 Weeks was more shock-gore, while Orphanage falls in line more with maybe The Others and the original The Haunting. It was just a good ghost story without all the gore and things jumping out at you for a cheap thrill.
Probably as good an explanation as there could be from one of the online reviews:
The scares in The Orphanage derive first and foremost from Bayona's skillful deployment of horror-movie grammar. He gives the audience the tension of a close-up, followed by the relief of a long shot-where bad things rarely happen-before dropping us straight into the "Oh hell, what's that" tension of a medium shot.
Highly recommended.