Thirty years ago, Laura (Belen Rueda) spent some years at the Good Shepherd Orphanage, which closed shortly after she was adopted. Now, she's returned with her husband Carlos (Fernando Cayo) and their 7-year-old son, Simon (Roger Princep), planning to turn the building into a small group home for children with special needs. (One wonders what kind of childhood Laura had that left her nostalgic above all for her orphanage...)
Laura and Carlos haven't yet told Simon that he himself is adopted, nor that he is HIV-positive; he accidentally discovers both after a disturbing visit from an elderly social worker (Montserrat Carulla), who Laura later finds wandering around the grounds in the middle of the night. This only adds to Simon's discomfort with his new home, and before long, he's talking to a whole group of new imaginary friends, and playing convoluted games with them, involving the hiding and disappearance of household objects.
And then Simon himself disappears. There are hints as to what might have happened, but they only make sense if you're willing -- as Laura increasingly is -- to accept that Simon's imaginary friends might not be so imaginary after all.
This is a very creepy movie, which gets its chills not from gore or monsters, but from old-fashioned storytelling, beautifully edited and impeccably paced. There are almost no noticable special effects shots in the movie; the one that does come to mind is the movie's most violent moment, and it is very brief. (It is also, as it happens, just about the least supernatural event in the movie.)
Belen Rueda is very often on screen alone in this movie, and she's riveting; her increasing desperation to find her son, and her willingness to turn to more extreme measures, are painful to watch. There's also a lovely cameo from Geraldine Chaplin as a medium who is brought in to give her impressions of the house; we watch her wander through the corridors in creepy green night-vision.
Great fun, and marvelously thrilling.
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