Happy Goat Horror

As we come into spooky season, and I turn my attention all things ghost story, I find myself thinking about my favourite examples. And often when we’re asked the question ‘what’s your favourite film’, our responses may vary from one time to the next. It might be partly what we’ve seen recently, or what our mood is that day, or even who’s doing the asking and in what environment. You might even feel it’s impossible to list just one, because there are doubtless many movies that you absolutely love and a single choice feels like being asked to pick our your favourite child.

But for me, ever since I saw it the first time, my favourite movie has always been The Orphanage. I’ve always loved international horror movies, and the way that they’re able to bring different takes on terror that we don’t tend to see in UK and US horror. I knew very little about The Orphanage coming into it, but when it was all finished I needed a bit of time to truly process what I’d just seen – and years on I think it’s the best ghost story committed to film. That might sound a big statement, and of course there are any number of brilliant entries in that field, but for me personally The Orphanage sits top of the list.

The movie comes to us from director JA Bayona, who go on to direct A Monster Calls, Society of the Snow and – a little randomly – Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. The feature was his directorial debut, and was produced by Guillermo Del Toro – one of the most acclaimed directors of the spooky and weird – and while he needs little introduction I wanted to give a special word to his superb Spanish ghost story The Devil’s Backbone. The film stars Belen Rueda, who gives a superb central performance here and has become a mainstay of Spanish cinema, particularly on the darker side – readers may recognise her from features such as Julia’s Eyes and The Body, which achieved some degree of success outside of her native Spain. She deservedly won multiple best actor awards for her part in The Orphanage.

I’m determined not to get too spoilery here, so I’ll explain a bit of the set-up and then get into what makes The Orphanage so effective. Our story centres on Laura, who grew up in an orphanage and returns there to a run-down version, determined to open it again and offer a happy home to orphaned children herself. Her husband Carlos and adopted son Simon come with her, and Simon begins to act strangely, drawing pictures of other children and expressing an interest in playing with them. When Laura and Simon have a falling out, Simon goes missing – and thus begins a determined and desperate search for her son, leading us down supernatural avenues to find Simon’s apparent friends.

Ghost stories, for me, are at their best when combine senses of dread and unease with other powerful emotional elements. The fear is a key component, of course, that softer sensation that MR James described as ‘a pleasing terror’. But The Orphanage thrives on the depth of emotion in the movie – from the fallout between Laura and Carlos as they disagree on what to do about Simon’s disappearance through to Laura’s utter insistence that she has to find Simon, driven on by the love for her adopted son. Her own upbringing in the orphanage she now lives in provides a strong backstory, and gives her a connection to the place that turns out to play a big role in the story itself. Every time I come back to The Orphanage it stirs that emotional response in just the same way – for me, repeat viewing enhances that rather than diminishing it as I pick up fresh details and nuances.

Setting is also another important factor in the ghost story, and The Orphanage is a wonderful location, a suitably spooky building that we know from the very opening scenes of the movies has an interesting and sometimes troubled history. Add that to the nearby beach and cave system and you have a heady mix of unsettling visuals to be found both inside and out. The movie was primarily filmed in Asturias in Spain, and every time I watch it a little bit of me wants to put together a trip there to check it out.

As for the rest? Well, you’ll just have to watch it for yourself. But The Orphanage overall feels like a movie that pays homage and respects plenty of what has come before in ghost stories of the past, while also having something unexpected and new to add into the mix. And if you’re going to go seeking it out, just make sure you’re getting the real deal in El Orfanato – as you can probably imagine, this is anything but the only horror movie called The Orphanage…

And if you are a lover of ghost stories and the Gothic, then might I squeeze in one more recommendation? I’ll be running the WINTER HAUNTS event once again this year, taking place on the 15^th November and serving up a day of online panels, workshops and interviews. On the day we’ll be joined by authors including Michelle Paver, CJ Cooke, Emilia Hart, Jess Kidd, Lucy Rose and many more, and you can pick up tickets for the full event, or grab a space for our workshop thread or our interview/panel thread to suit you best! For more info and tickets, check out https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/winter-haunts-2025-tickets-1123454706269