It's hard to say you're a fan of horror movies these days without people looking at you like you're some drooling feeb in need of institutional help. The genre is so degraded and depraved, it's hard to say what's worse: the numbing repetition of the slasher franchises, or the sick sadism of "Saw" et al., which want you to enjoy the torturer's thrills.
So let's forget about "horror" and just say we like films that scare us. Yes, these do exist, and the absolute best in recent years is Juan Antonio Bayona's debut, "The Orphanage" (titled "Eien no Kodomotachi" in Japan). If this flick doesn't scare the living shizzbit out of you, check your pulse.
"The Orphanage" was the biggest hit in Spain since 2001's "The Others," and it actually resembles that film a bit: There's a mother who moves with her sick child into an eerie old house that seems to be haunted. Yet while "The Others" never managed to be more than slightly spooky, "The Orphanage" conjures up a spell of pure terror.
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