The Orphanage is a wonderfully atmospheric ghost story that owes just as much to Steven Spielberg as it does to gifted producer Guillermo del Toro. While visually the film pays homage to the likes of Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth, there's also a healthy dose of Poltergeist and Close Encounters at play here as well. Which is not to say this is a knock off film. Far from it. In the end, The Orphanage marches to the beat of it's own drum. And in fact, it isn't even really fair to call this a horror picture even though it's being marketed that way.

In this creepy film, the wonderful Belen Rueda plays Laura, a wife and mother who hopes to restore the childhood orphanage of her youth and eventually re-open it. After a stranger appears on the grounds, bizarre and horrific truths pertaining to this orphanage and it's past, are revealed. Shortly thereafter, Laura is plunged into a nightmare involving her own son.

The Orphanage has all the makings of a picture perfect horror film. A massive, isolated location, a creepy looking individual with a potato sack over his head, a strange old lady lurking in the dark, a sinister looking building with corridors and hidden rooms, etc. These previously mentioned items are shot to startling effect by director Juan Antonio Bayona and his tone conscious crew. This is one frightening cinematic experience. But then something astonishing happens in The Orphanage. Something that changed my perception entirely.

In the end, The Orphanage isn't really a horror picture at all. It provides some of the biggest scares you're likely to see in a movie all year, but ultimately this is one of those clever movies that defies categorization. A film that takes on deeper, more resonate meaning with repeated viewings. Like The Sixth Sense and The Others (two films I greatly enjoy), The Orphanage leads the audience to believe it's one thing when in reality, it's something else entirely. Unlike the Sixth Sense and The Others however, The Orphanage doesn't work towards some big twist ending. Director Juan Antonio Bayona and screenwriter Sergio G. Sanchez do offer a surprise of sorts, but it's more of a subtle nature.

The Orphanage is just a terrific picture all around. It's tense and scary, but it has emotional weight to it. This is a movie with hefty themes. It's about loss and the grieving process, and the film makers explore these themes with fearless courage. They aren't afraid to take this tale into some pretty dark places. And as dark as the proceedings get, there's still something incredibly uplifting about the note this haunting film ends on. This is a great movie.