MovieChat Forums > El orfanato (2008) Discussion > A few questions I have...

A few questions I have...

posted 13 years ago by bts1984
7 replies | jump to latest

There you go:

1) Did Benigna really kill those 5 children? If so, why? Was it as a revenge because they accidently caused Tomás's death? And what was the method she used to kill them?

2) What was the cause of Laura's death? Was it Simón's wish at the ending?

3) When Laura finally finds Simón in the basement, she finds him alive. But then she finds his mortal remains. How come she found him alive before she found him death? Perhaps what she saw before was his ghost?

4) When Carlos sees a door opening to him at the end, he smiles. Do you suppose it was the ghosts of Laura and Simón invisible sending him regards?

5) How did Simón found out that he was adopted and has HIV positive? Did he overhear when Benigna dropped by the orphanage and Laura said he didn't know he was adopted and that he had a disease.

«I was on the fire escape! I saw ya!»

[–] lilseena 13 years ago

1) We don't know that for sure. If she did it, it's probably as a revenge because of the death of her son. That psychic was talking about poison. So I assume thos children were poisoned.

2) In the end Laura takes all those pills in, so she commited suicide.

3) As you know Laura's mental state is quite unstable after Simon was missing. I think it was some kind of hallucination.

4) Well, that's the big question. :)

5) It's that or Tomas told him. It depends on how you want to interpret the movie. With this I mean, do you want to believe that all those ghosts are real or do you want to believe they are hallucinations of Laura.

That's how I think it is.

[–] bts1984 13 years ago

Also, I wonder if Benigna wanted to kill Simón. That could be the reason why she went to the orphanage that night when Laura found her and she ran away. I also wonder if when she said she the file that gave access to Simón's illness it was a strategy so that she could kill him...

When exactly did Laura took the pills? The more I see this great movie (which I love by the way) I get to understand little things I missed at first. But I still haven't got all the details.

One more thing: if Simón found out he was ill and adopted when Benigna first showed up, then why didn't he tell sooner that he knew already, why waiting that long until getting mad?

«I was on the fire escape! I saw ya!»

[–] FrannyFine 13 years ago

3) Laura initially saw Simon alive in the basement because (as stated in the film) people who are nearing death are able to see the dead. That's how Simon could see Thomas, because Simon was dying from HIV. When Laura found Simon in the basement (alive) she had already taken the pills to kill herself, so therefore she was nearing death. She also saw the dead chilren while playing 1,2,3 knock on the wall.

Beninga poisoned the children for revenge for Thomas. She probably put something in their food.

Laura took the pills right after she had re-arranged the rooms back to their old style with the old beds. She then sat at the kitchen table asking the children to appear, saying that she doesn't have much time.

[–] the lioness 12 years ago

Thank you for clarifying that Hissy Fit! That explains why Laura was moving as if she were tired. I thought it was from the physical strain of all that work she was doing. Remember in the scene when she went to pick the blueberries, she nearly passed out under a tree. Now I also under what she meant by not having much time. I thought she meant until Carlos returned.

[–] DCompton86 13 years ago

"1) Did Benigna really kill those 5 children? If so, why? Was it as a revenge because they accidently caused Tomás's death? And what was the method she used to kill them?"

Yes. Tomas was her son and she blamed the other children for his death. The psychic mentions they were poisoned - I would figure it was put in their food and they got sick in the night. I figure the door was locked so they couldn't get out and try to run away for help since the psychic also mentions the door to their room was locked.

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"2) What was the cause of Laura's death? Was it Simón's wish at the ending?"

When she's back in the old room where the orphans slept with Simon when she's wishing for him back, she's taking handfuls of pills. She committed suicide.

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"3) When Laura finally finds Simón in the basement, she finds him alive. But then she finds his mortal remains. How come she found him alive before she found him death? Perhaps what she saw before was his ghost?"

You can go with either his ghost or her hallucinating, depends on how you want to take the movie.

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"4) When Carlos sees a door opening to him at the end, he smiles. Do you suppose it was the ghosts of Laura and Simón invisible sending him regards?"

Not sure...my best guess was maybe he saw them for a second.

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"5) How did Simón found out that he was adopted and has HIV positive? Did he overhear when Benigna dropped by the orphanage and Laura said he didn't know he was adopted and that he had a disease.:

Tomas told him or maybe he read the paperwork.

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"It's better to be hated for who you are than be loved for who you aren't."

[–] Sage_Beckett 10 years ago

Your sig quote is one of my favorites. I used to have it on a bumper sticker, as well as all sorts of peace signs and many other funky stickers, mostly about acceptance and equality...

Until my mother scraped them all off of my car when I came home from college to visit!

Anyway, that is something I tend to tell myself when I feel lonely. Right now there are a lot of people that haven't treated me well that I met in college. I graduated 5 years ago. For most of this time I have treated them as friends, but I developed a chronic illness and I found out who my real friends were. There aren't many, let me tell you.

Before I got sick, I had nearly 400 friends on Facebook. I considered most of them my friends.

Now I have 3- and I don't think they're very good friends.

Sometimes I go through periods that are worse than others. Sometimes I'm sick and I'm bed for up to a year and sometimes I am able to go out in the world. It's tempting to call the people I missed that have screwed me over just to have company and say "I'm not sick right now. Come back!" But knowing they cannot accept or support me during the lows leaves me repeating your signature In My head.

I know it's cheesy but damn. I sure hope there are some people out there in my future that will be kind to me. :)

[–] mastholte 10 years ago

Regarding Question 3, I think the point lies in Laura's belief. As the medium prompted her, she had to believe in order to see. So Laura up and believed, so to say, and had it her way, just until the moment she began to wish to return to reality and told Simon to forget about the ghost children and all that happened, think about the future, etc. I think it was then that she did her best to UNbelieve, and that's how she lost Simon. She wanted to get back to reality, and got there, but Simon there was dead. When, later, she died, she finally rejected all reality as she claimed Simon back, and was given him as she was on the other side, too (both were dead).