The Orphanage

Laura returns with her husband and young son to the seaside house where she grew up, which once served as an orphanage. She intends to restore the place and reopen it as a home for children in need. Her son, Simón, soon begins talking about new playmates, and the games he describes grow increasingly troubling. As Laura becomes convinced that something in the house is threatening her family, memories of her own childhood there resurface and push her to confront what she has long kept buried.

The Orphanage is a Spanish drama, horror and thriller directed by J. A. Bayona, marking the first feature in his filmography ahead of The Impossible, A Monster Calls, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Society of the Snow. Sergio G. Sánchez wrote the screenplay, and Belén Rueda leads the cast as Laura, with Fernando Cayo as Carlos, Roger Príncep as Simón, and supporting turns from Mabel Rivera, Montserrat Carulla and Andrés Gertrúdix.

Made for about 3 million dollars, the film took roughly 79 million dollars worldwide, a return that far outstrips its production cost. On IMDb it holds 7.4/10 from around 170,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.2/10 from a much smaller base of 3,208. A critics' rating of 7.5/10 from 180 reviews sits close to those audience figures, indicating broad agreement among professional and general viewers.