free forum make a forum for free message boards free forum hosting free phpbb forum phpbb create free forum
free dating directory free articles mp3 download

Kevin · Posted: Jan Saturday, 2008 4:11 pm Post subject: El Ofernato

Ever since the moment Frank, Noel and myself arrived at The Block, we had not yet decided just what movie we were going to watch. So, we hit up some other places until someone, I forget who, brought up watching The Orphanage-- I think it might've been Frank. Earlier, Frank had suggested we'd watch it, but with the whole R rating, I found it hard to actually watch it. Well, I had firmly wanted to watch something rated PG-13, but unfortunately, there was Juno, National Treasure and all these other movies I'd prefer to watch on DVD. Frank and Noel, on the other hand, did not want to leave without watching The Orphanage.
While the impatient bastards had been paying for their tickets for PG-13 films, I had to go get some candy and catch up to them. I paid for National Treasure and went inside. Frank and Noel had gone in a long-ass time back. I spotted them and we all looked for The Orphanage. We had successfully sneaked into a movie. I wondered though, if instead of watching this, maybe we could've seen Walk Hard or No Country For Old Men...
Now ever since the first scene appeared onto the silver screen, I was instantly creep the hell out. It was basically a girl playing 1, 2, 3 Green Light with these other kids... After that, the opening credits made it further uncomfortable...

Essentially, the plot of this film unravels so quickly, I was a little impressed with how much crap happened in so little time. The film, I guess, would be considered apart of the horror genre, but I think it's less horror and more of a, "WHAT THE F**K?!?!?!?!" kind of film... See, the diffrence between the two types is this: the former is more like of combination of gorey violence and usually a fair share of twists and turns, while the latter equips a calm and peaceful scenario with unusual and down right uncalled for images. Still not getting the picture? Okay, basically, I was expecting a movie in vein of The Excorcist, but instead I got The Excorcism of Emily Rose...
The plot without ruining much, is basically, a woman, Laura, who attended the orphanage as a child grows up and has her family have the orphanage as their home and to other special-needs orphans. She has a husband who is the character with the most agreeable actions. I swear, the wife sometimes acted retarded. Here, crazy, ungodly crap would occur, and she'd still want to find out what's going on. I would've run like hell like the husband wanted to. Then, there's Simón... Their adopted, young son who happens to take medication to prevent the dangers of his HIV. He's the central and most important puzzle piece to the entire plot.
Along the first couple minutes, he comes across some "friends" and... yeah, see? There's the plot for you... Then, a mysterious old lady one day knocks at their front door, stating she's aware of his dilemma and apart of this social worker thing or something, suggests that maybe they should have Simón be a guinea pig for some treatment to help rid of his sickness. Laura disagrees and has the lady leave. He and his mom begin to play their games to find something you cherish. In this case, it's Simón's coins. Eventually, after finding a clue to the next clue, they find the coins in a document involving Simón and how he's adopted and has HIV.
Now, soon after this is where the film goes all-out to show a helluva good time. The film is actually worthy of having it watched much more than once. It's beautiful camera angles make you question whether this a simple camera angle... or the point of view of something sinister and evil. Well-scripted and the actors were not that bad either... Sometimes Laura has no dialogue and merely acts and you're totally aware of her logic... even if she can be a little stupid.
Now there were somethings I have to nitpick. I hated that sometimes the English subtitles are mistranslated. I mean, sure, I could let some things pass, but they incorrectly have cursing word when I heard not a single word in Spanish where they drop the F-bomb nor say shit... That then leads to wonder why then is this rated R? There are three maybe even four scenes that are shocking and horrifying to witness, but I don't see how the MPAA could get this anymore false...
I totally reccomend you watch this movie ASAP. This kept me up all night, just reflecting every single detail shown. It's that good. Oh, and I haven't even mentioned the twist ending that ensues shortly before the credits roll... It's a mindtrip... though as much of a film this one was, I can't help but think I had seen No Country For Old Men, dammit... Rolling Eyes