Stars:
****
Rating: R for violence,
some bloodshed and mature themes
Run
Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes. In Spanish
with English subtitles
Saturated
in anxiety and dripping with dread, this contemporary chiller is the real deal.
In a neat
twist of turnaround adult orphan Laura (Belén Rueda) has purchased the
cavernous mansion where she spent her childhood, planning on turning it into a
home for disabled youngsters.
It doesn’t
take long before her precocious son Simón (Roger Príncep) is chattering on
about an imaginary playmate named Tomás and his clever games, some of which
strike Laura as dangerously insidious.
Eerie
moments mount up – a visit from a deranged social worker who knows too much for
her own good, a treasure hunt gone sorely awry and, after an angry exchange in
which Simón discovers he is an adopted child with a terminal illness, his
complete disappearance.
Laura will
not accept the loss of her son and determines to locate him by delving into the
realm of the supernatural, much to the consternation of her anxious husband
(Fernando Cayo) who’s convinced she’s losing her mind.
The living
co-exist with the dead with spine-tingling synchronization as Laura straddles
both worlds in an effort to save Simón and unravel the decades old mystery
buried deep within the walls of her old home. Through the efforts of a police
psychologist (Mabel Rivera) and a creepy medium (Geraldine Chaplin) treacherous
secrets are revealed.
Guillermo
del Toro disciple Juan Antonio Bayona makes menacing magic with his chewy,
old-fashioned ghost story. Traditional elements are well represented -- doors
on squeaky hinges, things that go bump in the night and dead children come out
to play -- shaped in crisp and elegant style.
Moody shadows
of “The Shining” and “The Sixth Sense” cloak smart, original storytelling and agonizing
undertones of sorrow, remorse and rejection as Laura reconciles her unhappy
past and present with the subtle tick of Peter Pan and the Lost Boys echoing
throughout.
Brilliant
and bracing cinema.