Posted by Sarah

The fifth film in the Gulbenkian  Cinema’s Gothic Season – J.A. Bayona’s The Orphanage (2007) – screens on Tuesday 4th of March  at 9.30pm. It will be preceded by a panel discussion which will include contributions from the Melodrama Research Group’s Dr Tamar Jeffers McDonald, as well as Dr Cecilia Sayad and Professor Nuria Triana-Toribio.

The Gulbenkian Cinema’s description of the film:

J. A. Bayona | Spain | 2007 | 106mins | Belén  Rueda, Fernando Cayo, Roger Príncep

This terrific Spanish horror film, the debut of J. A.  Bayona and produced by Guillermo del Toro, director of Pan’s Labyrinth, received great acclaim on its release in 2007.

After thirty years, Laura returns to orphanage where she  grew up, accompanied by her husband Carlos and their 7-year-old son Simón, with  a dream of restoring and reopening the long-abandoned mansion as a home for  disabled children. The place awakens Simón’s imagination, and he soon begins  playing not-so-innocent games.

As events take a sinister turn, Laura slowly becomes  convinced that something long-hidden and terrible is lurking in the old house,  something waiting to emerge and inflict appalling damage on her family, in this  cleverly made, utterly terrifying film.

“A shiver of fear  runs right through Juan Antonio Bayona’s pungent and scary film” Peter Bradshaw, The  Guardian, 4 stars

“A good old-fashioned  horror in the best possible way, this is a beautifully told, terrifying ghost  story that lingers with you long after the shivers have stopped” Olly Richards, Empire  Magazine

Spanish  w/Eng ST

For more information and to book your ticket please go to: http://www.thegulbenkian.co.uk/events/cinema/2014/March/2014-03-the-orphanage.html