MovieChat Forums > El orfanato (2008) Discussion > Did anyone even pay attention? *Spoilers...

Did anyone even pay attention? *Spoilers*


I'm reading so many threads about people being confused to the most explainable things that happened in this movie.

Yes, there is a blurred line between supernatural occurrences and whether Laura is going crazy, but there are instances in this film that are shown in front of our faces that people aren't understanding, claiming "plot holes".

Let me clear this all up.

Yes, the children were murdered. Yes, they were poisoned and once again, yes, it was by Benigna. It was shown in the flashback that she fed the remaining five children (after Tomas died and after Laura was adopted) a blackberry/raspberry pie that was poisoned. That should have clued in with everyone when the medium came to the house and saw the children in their bedroom all very sick and dying.

Yes, Benigna was a caregiver at the orphanage long ago. It was explained that when Laura was still a young child and before she was adopted, that Benigna started working there, but not for a long time. She had a son (Tomas) who was almost completely hidden from the other children so they wouldn't make him feel inferior due to his deformity. She was approximately at the time in her mid-late twenties (guessing), but most likely around that span. Laura was only seven or so.
When Benigna came to visit, she was clearly in her 60's or 70's and Laura is 37. The age difference isn't odd or anything of that sort. It's perfectly plausible.

Yes, that was most likely Simon in the mask when Laura was attacked in the bathroom. He was wearing the mask that belonged to Tomas and wanted to scare his mother. He was playing a game and was making weird noises to freak her out. She started to lift his mask and he didn't want to be seen or she wouldn't be scared and the game would be over. He pushed her, she got hurt, he ran away and hid.
She opened the closet (where Simon was hiding) and closed it, the metal bars barricaded the secret door closed and Simon was trapped in the basement.

I think it's pretty certain that the ghosts of the children still lingered in the house and that Tomas and the other children were wandering spirits. They made weird noises at night, talked to Simon and even played the "Knock Game" with Laura at the end.

I believe that Laura really did see Tomas' ghost in the cave at the beach and I do think that other things were him and the orphans, like crawling into bed with her, etc. Even the medium saw the children in their bedroom sick and poisoned and dying, which definitely aids the fact that they were still wandering around the house.

However, if people want to believe that Laura was going crazy, that's completely plausible too. Just my view on a more supernatural setting.

But come on people, pay attention!

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I agree with you on most everything, but the ghosts. Guillermo's (and his noob director protege) made this movie to explore human insanity, not hauntings :)
All the weirdness in the film is human imaginings. There were several deleted scenes which made this much more obvious, but for the purposes of cinematic entertainment, they were cut from the final product... just to give people a bit of a scare... but not too much... :)

***So I've seen 4 movies/wk in theatre for a 1/4 century, call me crazy?**

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"Guillermo's (and his noob director protege)"

From the interviews I heard, Del Toro gave very little creative input towards this movie. Bayona and Sanchez(the director and writer respectively)only used four minor suggestions that Guillermo had: the girl slamming the door on Laura was one of his. Otherwise, his main involvement was to secure financial support as he expressed a willingness to not interfere with the director's vision. If this was Del Toro's movie, I suspect it would have taken a less ambiguous approach with regards to its supernatural leanings

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Well, I'm just passing on the content of the DVD interview with both of them.

***So I've seen 4 movies/wk in theatre for a 1/4 century, call me crazy?**

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Adding that these are pretty much confirmed just by watching the movie. Even now, the entire first page of threads is full of people asking these same questions. The amount of posts ending with "?"s is staggering.

There's little evidence that she's actually going crazy, other than her seeing a regular basement when she goes down there at first. There might have been a few other small ones, but not enough to tilt the scale in that direction unless you're actively looking for excuses why there can't be ghosts.

Most of the posts arguing your points jump through some pretty tricky hoops just to make their ends meet.

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excellent breakdown, thank you.

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