Scary Movies Minus the Gore: The Orphanage

The other day, one of my friends was complaining that she rented a movie that was supposed to be so scary, but that she hated it because all the bloody, gory images disturbed her. "Does 'scary movie' mean 'gory' these days?" she whined. My opinion? Mostly, yes. But there are some good scary movies out there that do not have any gore. But these movies are probably better characterized as "suspenseful thrillers" or "psychological thrillers." But some of these movies are more than suspenseful. Some of these are the types of movies I cannot watch alone. Some of these are just downright scary.



The first of these movies is a Spanish film (pictured above, photo from smartcine.com) made in 2007 called The Orphanage. I don't recall most of the plot because it was one of those movies that I had to forget about as soon as possible just in order to get a good night's sleep. I do remember the ending, though, because it provided some explanation that made the movie less scary. I suppose that is because the director did not want to leave anyone with nightmares. Anyways, the plot, according to Netflix is (and I should point out that this is movie can be played instantly online if you have a Netflix account):

"Fueled by fond memories from her childhood, Laura (Belén Rueda)

persuades her husband (Fernando Cayo) to help her revamp a seaside

orphanage into a facility for disabled children. But soon after the couple

moves in, their son, Simón (Roger Príncep), begins exhibiting disturbing

behavior. As Laura tries to understand Simón's increasingly

malevolent actions, she becomes drawn into the house's terrifying

secrets in this unnerving chiller."

This movie was incredibly scary to me. It was good, and I gave it the five stars on Netflix, but man, it was scary. I highly recommend seeing this if you want a good scary movie without gore. And if subtitle bother you, I promise that with watching this, you'll soon forget you're reading subtitles because you'll be so enthralled by your fear.

I think now is a good time for me to address what makes a good scary movie: the unknown. Steven Spielberg knew this when he made Jaws. The monster is scary until you see him. The music made Jaws scary. When you heard the telltale tune played, you knew the shark was near, but you didn't know where. And you never knew how big he was because the movie never shows the entire shark. You're scared of what you're imagining the shark to be. That's the unknown. And the unknown is what makes movies scary.

This entry is the first installment in many to come where I feature a scary movie that lacks gore. Because gore just sucks. If I wanted to see all that bloody stuff, I would have gone to med school.