The adoptive parents of a young boy with AIDS (Belén Rueda) buys the wife’s childhood home in this psychological horror film from Spain. It’s not the sort of movie where heads are getting sliced off, but rather the kind where something mysterious is going on. The boy’s imaginary friends, already a source of concern, begin to occupy much of his time, and the elaborate games they play unnerve his mother. His drawings of them seem uncannily particular, and when he disappears in a cave one day there are other footsteps besides his. Is this a ghost story, or one of madness, and how does it connect to the house’s days as a home for orphans?
This reminded me of The Others and older movies in feel. It has a couple of genuinely scary moments but more often maintains a creepy sense of foreboding. The use of a lighthouse and other visual motifs is effective. There is very little dependence on special effects; the story builds with subtlety, though in terms or horror it flags somewhat in the middle. The ending doesn’t pack quite the same shock as The Others, or The Sixth Sense, but fits the movie, which in any case works well as a drama.
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