Horror fans unite! "The Orphanage" opens today.

Guillermo del Toro is the modern day King Midas - everything he touches turns to gold.

From The Devil's Backbone to Pan's Labyrinth, the guy might be the next Hitchcock.

...but...I'm being optimistic. Remember what genre we're talking about here (Horror? Fantasy-horror? Fantasy-thriller?).

For the sake of being fair, I'm going to allow myself to get hyped up for a minute here. I get the opportunity about once a year to really look forward to a film, and even though it's early 2008, The Orphanage is probably going to be the one I'll be talking about in December.



Ofanato, El (Spanish title) is the bouncing baby of filmmaker/director Juan Antonio Bayona and producer Guillermo del Toro. This is Bayona's first attempt at the American market.


This might be sad, but what's got me most excited is the fact that it's rated "R." Hear me out, though.


For years, starting with M. Night Shyamalan's series of PG-13 "me-too" horror attempts, the fright market has been so scared of losing money that they hold back, going against everything the genre was founded on, in order to get more butts in seats.

Is it not a perfect definition of irony? Horror writers are too scared to write real horror movies.

I'm not a sadist or masochist. I don't need Saw-like violence to get my jollies from a horror flick. I am, however, put off by directors/filmmakers that refuse to push the limits because of profit margins.

The only salvagable PG-13 horror movies out, right now, are The Sixth Sense and The Ring. (I pity those who went to see One Missed Call this past weekend. I'm really, truly sorry.)

Putting an "R" rating on a film removes the kiddy filter. Not that all movies need to be rated-R, but man, imagine if directors never had to cut a scene because it was too "mature" for the 16-year-olds. Dang, with an "R" rating, Ghostrider might've been decent. (Nah.)

At any rate, check out the TRAILER and OFFICIAL WEBSITE.

Limited attention span warning: This movie is in Spanish with English subtitles. Then again, the people with short attention spans probably already clicked "back" by now.

Agree? Disagree? Let me know.

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