The OrphanageMovie Reviews

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Avg. Critic Score: 74 out of 100 Generally favorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
13 Iffy for 13+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 88
    New York Post | Lou Lumenick

    The acting is uniformly superb, the camera work and set design are haunting, and The Orphanage delivers well-earned tears at its beautiful conclusion. Go see it already. Read full review

  • 88
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    Deliberately aimed at viewers with developed attention spans. It lingers to create atmosphere, a sense of place, a sympathy with the characters, instead of rushing into cheap thrills. Read full review

  • 75
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    Though the movie has a handful of shots that are downright gross to witness, what makes The Orphanage scary is not what it threatens to show but what it suggests about life. Read full review

  • 75
    Philadelphia Inquirer | Steven Rea

    Bayona's moves are deft, the atmosphere oozes with anxiety and grief, but the big payoff - like the big payoff in The Sixth Sense, another film The Orphanage has more than a bit in common with - never comes. Read full review

  • 75
    Boston Globe | Ty Burr

    The Orphanage gets by on mood and a mournfulness that's not easily soothed. Sadness and loss, it says, are the threads connecting the spirit world and our own, and women, who bring life into the world, understand that far better than men ever will. Read full review

  • 75
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum

    You're either in the mood to go along with the puzzle pieces or you're not. I'm not usually a puzzle-piece fan myself, not when it's clear that the filmmaker rigs the moves. But I couldn't help but fall for the repurposed real estate, and cheer for the lady strong enough to break through walls when she senses a child is waiting. Read full review

  • 75
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    In a season filled with dark-themed films, it stands out as an elegantly mounted, surprisingly humane but terrifying horror thriller well worth seeing. Read full review

  • 70
    The Hollywood Reporter | Richard James Havis

    This Spanish supernatural thriller begins interestingly and finishes intriguingly. But what lies between drags because the film lacks a driving story line. Read full review

  • 60
    Wall Street Journal | Joe Morgenstern

    You may see The Orphanage for what it is, an enjoyable contraption, without believing a bit of it. Read full review

  • 50
    New York Daily News | Jack Mathews

    A combination ghost and shaggy dog story that is so well-made and acted you can nearly overlook its murky, unsatisfying ending. Read full review

View more reviews for The Orphanage on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 13+ Decent old-school ghost story, Spanish-style.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that even though the R-rating is too harsh, brief but grotesque visuals let us know the filmmakers could do worse if they wanted to. Disturbing imagery includes a mutilated victim of a car collision and a deformed kid with a skull-like face. A suicide attempt figures in the ending. There is a theme of infanticide and dead children. Nothing is shown, but we get news of children causing a playmate's death, then being killed (by poison) themselves. An HIV-positive character is part of the plot, and it's pretty much given as a death sentence.
  • Families can talk about what parts of the movie are scariest, and does the (generally) non-gore approach work? Do you agree with Laura's choice at the end? How does this film stack up to other favorite movie ghost tales?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Even the lonely ghosts turn out not to be "evil" (though they seem to be vengeful, and capable of causing harm). One, who is hideously deformed, turns out to be not as monstrous as his appearance. There is a sense of motherly heroics and parental sacrifice in the leading lady -- despite the mortal danger. Simon's maintenance troubles and restlessness as an adopted child might not set a positive tone in some foster households.
What to watch for
  • violence false5 Violence: An old woman fatally mutilated after being struck by a car (tearing her jaws open grotesquely). A character's fingers caught in a slamming door, causing a fingernail to come off. A bloody leg injury. There is a theme of infanticide and dead children. Nothing is shown, but we get news of children causing a playmate's death, then being killed (by poison) themselves.
  • sex false0 Sexy stuff: Not an issue
  • language false3 Language: The F-word uttered once (in the Spanish-language, English-subtitled version).
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: An intentional drug overdose (not for recreational purposes).
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Dave White

3.5

Dave White Profile See Dave White's Profile

… a sort of mournful whodunit that you won't hate yourself for watching. Read full review See Dave White's on MOVIENAME on Movies.com

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