MovieChat Forums > El orfanato (2008) Discussion > ok i didn't understand ANY of this film....

ok i didn't understand ANY of this film....could someone please explain?

posted 14 years ago by OOjoanneOO
8 replies | jump to latest

this film was sooo confusing and i didn't get any of it. Can someone explain it to me? like, the whole storyline..?

[–] PoppyTransfusion 14 years ago

The story is: woman (Laura) returns with husband and adopted child (Simon) to a building that was originally her orphanage. The oprhanage closed after the deaths of the orphans. She and hubbie plan to turn the building into their home as well as a respite centre for children suffering with Down's Syndrome. Mysteriously, during an open day hosting such children and their parents, Laura's adopted child vanishes. He is not found until a year or so later by his mother, during which time she has uncovered the tragic history of the orphans. Upon finding him dead she overdoses and dies too.

There are two variations on the story: one is that the mother is unreliable and suffering a mental breakdown and hallucinates the haunting and ghosts. The other is that the building is haunted by the ghosts of her fellow orphans and a child whose unwitting death they caused. The orphans were poisoned by a former employee who was the mother of the child they caused to drown. Simon and then Laura join them as ghosts following thier respective deaths.

rouge silk,
fierce concentrated joy,
fires the blood

[–] JaseofBass 14 years ago

Unless she imagined the wallpaper over the closet door the ghosts were real. They ran to home depot after he broke his neck.

Tough times don't last. Tough people do.

[–] AshLegend 14 years ago

I believe she imagined the walpaper over the door. She was still "in the game" when she was in the closet so her eyes were seeing what she thought was real.

[–] aquariusgirl279 14 years ago

She DID imagine the wallpaper over the closet door. Do you remember when she went down the stairs and they were completely in tact? I'm sure you remember when she picked up Simon's body and he was alive. After she begs Simon to make the ghosts go away, she realizes that he's not in the blanket, his dead body is laying on the floor AND the stairs are broken from when Simon fell. This leads us to assume that the wallpaper had been ripped already as well, but she imagined it in tact just like she imagined the stairs were fixed and Simon was alive.

[–] Amazon_Bass 13 years ago

She doesn't have to imagine that. The wallpaper did not seal the door. It only prevented the recognition of the wall as a door. If it had been sealed AFTER Simon's death, there would be no need to have a hole for the handle to fit it.

[–] gmoxie 9 years ago

Yes, the wallpaper did not seal the door. It did not cover the small hole that the door knob is inserted into. This wallpaper was just a way to conceal the door at the back of the closet but not to prevent it functioning like a door.

Laura ripping the wallpaper was more symbolic of revealing a mystery or discovering a secret that lies underneath.

[–] Amazon_Bass 9 years ago

Agreed. You nailed it!

[–] gmoxie 9 years ago

The other poster's explanation was pretty accurate. However, I didn't remember the orphanage closing after the deaths of the five children. I remember a reference to Benigna not staying long and I think she likely left right after the five children died. However, there was probably some kind of cover-up so the orphanage stayed open presumably for many more years. I don't remember a reference to how long the building had been sitting unused before it went on the market. Laura seemed totally unaware that anything had happened to her childhood friends and probably assumed they had all been adopted and she would never find out where they went.