The Orphanage

Neuroscience can tell you the what and the how, but not really the why. If they'd hooked us up to sophisticated machines last night, and monitored our heartbeats and our brain activity, they would have seen our fear sensors lit right up, and imagined a fight-or-flight, threat-of-death scenario, whereas in fact we were watching a horror movie voluntarily, for fun.

Still, watching horror whilst cuddled between two of your close friends on a big double bed (with blanket to hide under when it got too much) on a big beautiful Sony screen is the best horror film experience I've ever had. Thanks for that P.

Anyway, the long and the short of it: Laura returns to the orphanage where she grew up, along with her husband and little boy, planning to open it as a home for disabled children, when her little boy starts talking about his 5 imaginary friends, shortly before he disappears... It really is excellently spooky and atmospheric, (set in an old house in Asturias, half the time we we saying things like 'ooh nice stained glass windows' and the other half hiding under the covers.) It turned the screws right the way through, until it came to a truly terrible, ironic ending with a commonsense explanation (still leaving it vague enough to give you chills.) One of those films you keep thinking about, teasing out the twists and turns of the story after you've watched it. 5 spine-chills out of 5.

The short review:

Don't go into the cellar!