Word: bayona
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...mass murder gone awry, a hidden basement, a kidnapped child, and an eerie, ghost-filled cave. Think this batch of scenarios will provide the basis for the next unbearably dull horror flick? Think again. “The Orphanage,” directed by Spanish newcomer Juan Antonio Bayona, is frightening, no doubt. The gloomy tone present throughout the entire film, the camera movements that crawl creepily around edges and corners in anticipation of jolt-inducing scenes, and spooky childhood games and lullabies will provide thrill-lovers exactly what they seek. But viewers will also come away with something unexpected...
...most influential film festival, period, thanks to something rarer than its timing. Toronto boasts a festival oddity: "A semi-normal audience," says Picturehouse president Bob Berney, who is bringing The Orphanage, directed by Pan's Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro's protégé, Juan Antonio Bayona. Unlike Cannes and, increasingly, Sundance, Toronto saves lots of tickets for civilians, who buy the majority of the more than 300,000 tickets each year. And though hotel and restaurant prices have risen in recent years, you don't have to be on an expense account to go. With its "receptive, English...
...That definition, of course, could fit many a movie thriller. Indeed, horror and grief are at the center of Juan Antonio Bayona's The Orphanage, an intense sepulchral mystery about a Spanish woman (Belén Rueda) whose adopted son goes missing and is presumed dead; she, however, believes the boy's whereabouts can be determined by spirits in her house, which happens to be the orphanage she grew up in. It sounds hokey, and the film is not reluctant to dabble in ghost-story conventions. But this is a shuddery, splendidly made parable about the power of both grief...
...That's the urgent odor that this year attached itself to The Orphanage, a Spanish thriller written by Sergio G. Sanchez, directed by first-timer Juan Antonio Bayona and shown in the little-attended Critics' Week section. The movie does have a pedigree: it was executive-produced by Guillermo Del Toro, the Mexican filmmaker whose Pan's Labyrinth had its world premiere at last year's festival before becoming a surprise hit and an Oscar-winner in the States. The Orphanage has the same vital vibe: the sense that all crafts of filmmaking are bent to leading us into another...
...Maybe so. But to see The Orphanage is to believe in the power of images to evoke emotions. Bayona, working in the old-dark-house genre, is already a master of creepy mood and gorgeous visions. The colors in the house are rich browns, until night falls and a luscious darkness stripes the screen. Bayona sets his camera relentlessly gliding, creeping, tracking toward the eeriest mystery, or backing away from it to reflect our fear. He loves to lead us on treasure hunts and into secret compartments: doors and drawers, which may suddenly burst open or slam shut...
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