MovieChat Forums > El orfanato (2008) Discussion > So many problems with this movie... SPOI...

So many problems with this movie... SPOILERS

posted 11 years ago by RabidBrush
2 replies | jump to latest

So I watched this flick last night... And then I came here. I've read people's posts on this movie being "excellent" and "chilling" and... I do not understand. Most claim to be avid movie-watchers and yet, everyone seems perfectly fine to throw away their common sense and accept the actions of the characters and organizations as if they're completely reasonable and understandable. To people who praise the lighting, atmosphere, etc... Yea. Ok. It was shot quite nicely for a 4mil Spanish movie, but the story.... It's so haphazardly thrown together-- And I'm not talking about ghosts (We all knew what kind of movie we were watching)-- I'm talking about points that the producers, the writer and the director, either didn't think about or figured "Meh.... F^ck it." For instance....

How dumb is Simon? He goes to some secret room, doesn't realize that his mother, his father, even the police are looking for him-- or maybe he does and he's just being a brat-- decides to take a nap or something with some dead kids's mask on, wakes up, figures "I'm hungry and need my HIV medication" or whatever and instead of using his loud, annoying voice, decides that banging will be the best way to get attention. To make things even better, he, wearing this dumbass sack mask, falls off the stairs somehow and breaks his neck. I mean... When I was 7/8ish I did some stupid things, but NOT using my voice to get people's attention would never enter mine, nor anyone else's, mind. Also what was his "banging" technique like? Was he flailing so hard on the door that he pushed himself off the stairs? How does that even happen?

Secondly, the Police. I mean... They search the house and say they don't find the kid. That's fair, he's in a secret room that they used to hide the deformed Tomas. Ok, I'll suspend my disbelief for that plot point. But in most missing children cases EVERYWHERE they will bring dogs to attempt to pick up on the child's scent. This of course is omitted in the film because the movie would end right then and there. A dog takes a whiff of Simon clothes, runs downstairs and starts barking/scratching at the door. Next on the docket for these super cops, is the act of tracking down the crazy old woman, Benigna.... Argh... She gives Laura her real name-- Let me stress this again-- HER REAL NAME, and after the cops do a cursory search of Social Workers in the area, turn up nothing. So then what? They don't do any sort of secondary search on her? The neglect to check the orphanage's history? They don't pick up a phone book? Six months go by and they just happen to spy this woman on the street?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! That's just poor, poor, poor, writing. Thankfully, she was hit by a truck a few moments later and the police where then able to give us all the exposition afterwards (which was just awesome to hear them talk about this old woman and her history like they'd known all along).

Since I've mentioned 6 months going by, let me add this... This kid's dead body just lying there, in this room, for 6 months (and then 9 near the end of the flick). Think about that... A dead body, decaying, in a basement of a house, which is only secured by two thin wooden doors. The smell alone, after one month would be enough to make anyone pause as they walked by that outside door. And for those that might try and nix this point by adding something like "Well maybe they didn't know what a dead body smelled like," let me remind you that Carlos is a doctor. So unless he's a quack who didn't go to medical school, who didn't work with cadavers, he WOULD KNOW that smell.

Now the Medium.... She's talented enough to sense the presence of the five or six kids that were poisoned in the house (more than 30 years ago), then stuffed into bags in the coal shed, but she can in no way sense the kid who just died?

Also how Carlos didn't think his wife was a psychopathic, attention seeking, murderer, after he left, returned, found her OD'd on sleeping pills cradling their dead son's body (and him smiling like he was happy they were together... What the crap was that about?)

Ahhhh.... I feel better... Rant complete....

Yea... This movie sucked.

[–] gmoxie 9 years ago

The railing on the open stairway to the basement was broken. This is an old building and the railing and supports were probably rotted. When Simon leaned on the railing, it broke through and he fell to his death. He may have still been alive and but unable to call out, so he tried to bang on something. Or perhaps Tomas the ghost was banging (as ghosts supposedly do) in order to get Laura's attention so she can find Simon.

Dogs would've been a good idea. Even so, if the dogs went to the closet, it looks like a closet that is wallpapered in the back with a lot of junk inside it, so I could imagine that police would conclude Simon just spent some time hiding in the closet. Then they would continue their search. Simon was all over the house so dogs would pick up his scent all over.

Good point about the smell of a dead body. Somewhat depends on the time of year and weather, for instance through winter months in the cold, there would be less impact than in the southern summer heat. I also don't have a sense for where this closet was located relative to where Laura and Carlos "lived" in the structure, which was huge. I have a much smaller house and it seems like I spend a lot of time in just a few rooms, so I think this is realistic that he may not be close enough to catch a whiff of what is deep in a secret basement room.

If you believe in mediums or any psychic stuff (and a lot of people don't), the psychic might just pick up on one thing but not have control about picking up on something else. For instance, a medium might be asking to contact someone's dead husband but the grandparent may come through instead. It's sometimes more about being open to other energies and communications without having control about which communications come through.

I am just providing my opinion which is that I didn't think what you pointed out were problems.

[–] fakeslashdash6 9 years ago

The psychic says that it takes a violent trauma or something to leave a mark on the world.

Simon's death wasn't that traumatic to be honest. He just fell.
5 poisoned kids on the other hand, are a lot more traumatic.