A Rundown of the 13 Best, Most Recent Horror Movies I’ve Seen
[7 of 13]
EL ORFANATO (THE ORPHANAGE)
(May 2007)


… it’s a comforting surprise that El Orfanato is the feature debut for both [writer Sergio] Sánchez and [director Juan Antonio] Bayona. The certitude and confidence that clearly informs the film seems to have come from practiced, veteran hands. The fact that it stems from two newcomers not only makes the film even more astounding, it also effectively underscores the importance of El Orfanato as a magnificent harbinger of better, brighter things to come from the pair.

Read the entire review here.

(El Orfanato OS courtesy of aintitcool.com.)

AFTERTHOUGHTS (103)
SCREAM, BABY, SCREAM 2008

The nominees for this year’s Scream Awards have just been announced, and those that have got me jazzed are:


30 Days of Night
Best Horror Movie
Best Comic Book Movie


Battlestar Galactica
Best TV Show
Best Actor in a Science Fiction Movie or TV Show (Edward James Olmos)
Best Actress in a Science Fiction Movie or TV Show (Tricia Helfer)
Best Scream To Comic Adaptation


Cloverfield
The Ultimate Scream
Best Science Fiction Movie
Best Screamplay (Drew Goddard)
Best Actress in a Science Fiction Movie or TV Show (Odette Yustman)
Breakout Performance (Jessica Lucas)
Breakout Performance (T.J. Miller)
Breakout Performance (Odette Yustman)
The Holy Sh!t Scene of the Year (The Statue of Liberty/Empire State Building Attack)
Best F/X


The Dark Knight
The Ultimate Scream
Best Fantasy Movie
Best Sequel
Best Comic Book Movie
Best Director (Christopher Nolan)
Best Screamplay (Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan, & David S. Goyer)
Best Superhero (Christian Bale as Batman)
Best Villain (Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent/Two-Face)
Best Villain (Heath Ledger as The Joker)
Best Actor in a Fantasy Movie or TV Show (Christian Bale)
Best Actor in a Fantasy Movie or TV Show (Heath Ledger)
Best Actress in a Fantasy Movie or TV Show (Maggie Gyllenhaal)
Best Supporting Performance (Michael Caine)
Best Supporting Performance (Gary Oldman)
The Holy Sh!t Scene of the Year (The Batmobile/Batpod Chase)
The Holy Sh!t Scene of the Year (The Big Rig Flips Over)
Most Memorable Mutilation (The Pencil Trick)
Best F/X
Best Line (“I believe whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stranger.”: The Joker)
Best Line (“I will now make this pencil disappear.”: The Joker)
Best Line (“Why so serious?”: The Joker)


Dexter
Best TV Show
Best Actor in a Horror Movie or TV Show (Michael C. Hall)
Best Actress in a Horror Movie or TV Show (Julie Benz)


Funny Games US
Best Remake
Best Actress in a Horror Movie or TV Show (Naomi Watts)


Hancock
Best Fantasy Movie
Best Superhero (Will Smith as John Hancock)
Best Actress in a Fantasy Movie or TV Show (Charlize Theron)
Best Supporting Performance (Jason Bateman)


Hellboy II: The Golden Army
The Ultimate Scream
Best Fantasy Movie
Best Sequel
Best Director (Guillermo del Toro)
Best Superhero (Ron Perlman as Hellboy)
Best Actor in a Fantasy Movie or TV Show (Ron Perlman)
Best Actress in a Fantasy Movie or TV Show (Selma Blair)
Best Supporting Performance (Doug Jones)
Breakout Performance (Anna Walton)
Most Memorable Mutilation (Attacked By The Flesh-Eating Tooth Fairies)
Best F/X
Best Line (“I’m not a baby… I’m a tumor.”: The Tumor)


Heroes
Best TV Show
Best Superhero (Masi Oka as Hiro Nakamura)
Best Villain (Zachary Quinto as Sylar)
Best Actress in a Fantasy Movie or TV Show (Hayden Panettiere)


Iron Man
The Ultimate Scream
Best Science Fiction Movie
Best Comic Book Movie
Best Director (Jon Favreau)
Best Screamplay (Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Arthur Marcum, & Matthew Hollaway)
Best Superhero (Robert Downey, Jr. as Iron Man)
Best Villain (Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane)
Best Actor in a Science Fiction Movie or TV Show (Robert Downey, Jr.)
Best Actress in a Science Fiction Movie or TV Show (Gwyneth Paltrow)
Best Supporting Performance (Terrence Howard)
The Holy Sh!t Scene of the Year (Escape From Ten Rings Hideout)
The Holy Sh!t Scene of the Year (Iron Man’s First Flight)
Best F/X
Best Line (“I am Iron Man!”: Tony Stark)


Lost
The Ultimate Scream
Best TV Show
Best Actor in a Fantasy Movie or TV Show (Terry O’Quinn)


The Mist
The Ultimate Scream
Best Horror Movie
Best Director (Frank Darabont)
Best Screamplay (Frank Darabont)
Best Actor in a Horror Movie or TV Show (Thomas Jane)


El Orfanato (The Orphanage)
Best Horror Movie
Best Screamplay (Sergio G. Sanchez)
Best Actor in a Horror Movie or TV Show (Fernando Cayo)
Best Actress in a Horror Movie or TV Show (Belen Rueda)


Pushing Daisies
Breakout Performance (Anna Friel)


The Ruins
Best Horror Movie
Best Actor in a Horror Movie or TV Show (Jonathan Tucker)
Best Actress in a Horror Movie or TV Show (Jena Malone)
Most Memorable Mutilation (The Leg Amputation)


Saw IV
Best Sequel
Best Villain (Tobin Bell as Jigsaw)
Most Memorable Mutilation (The Autopsy)


Southland Tales
Best Science Fiction Movie
Best Actor in a Science Fiction Movie or TV Show (Dwayne Johnson)


The Strangers
Best Horror Movie
Best Actress in a Horror Movie or TV Show (Liv Tyler)


Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Best Horror Movie
Best Director (Tim Burton)
Best Actor in a Horror Movie or TV Show (Johnny Depp)
Best Actress in a Horror Movie or TV Show (Helena Bonham Carter)
Best Villain (Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin)


Teeth
Most Memorable Mutilation (Bitten By Vagina With Teeth)


Wanted
Best Fantasy Movie
Best Comic Book Movie
Best Actor in a Fantasy Movie or TV Show (James McAvoy)
Best Actress in a Fantasy Movie or TV Show (Angelina Jolie)
The Holy Sh!t Scene of the Year (The Reverse Kill Shot)
Best F/X

Congratulations, one and all.
Reviews of all the above films and television shows can be found in the Archive.

Other nominated films also reviewed here at the Iguana are:
Beowulf (Best Fantasy Movie; Best F/X);
The Eye (Best Remake);
Halloween (Best Remake; Best Director [Rob Zombie]);
I Am Legend (Best Science Fiction Movie; Best Actor in a Science Fiction Movie or TV Show [Will Smith]; Most Memorable Mutilation [Attacked By The Infected]);
The Incredible Hulk (Best Fantasy Movie; Best Comic Book Movie; Best Remake; Best Superhero [Edward Norton as The Hulk]; Best Actor in a Fantasy Movie or TV Show [Edward Norton]; Best Line [“Hulk Smash!”: The Hulk]); and
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Best Science Fiction Movie; Best Sequel; Best Actor in a Science Fiction Movie or TV Show [Harrison Ford]; Best Supporting Performance [Shia LaBeouf]).

Among this year’s board (who advised on categories and determined nominees in each category) are: Wes Craven, Neil Gaiman, Tim Kring, Eli Roth, Guillermo del Toro, Kevin Smith, and Stephen King.
Beginning September 12 (Friday) through October 17, voting will be open at scream.spike.com.
The awards will take place on October 18, Saturday, at The Greek Theater in Los Angeles, CA, and will premiere on Spike TV on October 21, Tuesday (9:00-11:00 PM ET/PT).

(Images courtesy of aintitcool.com, bloody-disgusting.com, empireonline.com, impawards.com, rickbrotherton.com, scifi.com, shocktillyoudrop.com, spike.com, and yahoo.com.)

EL ORFANATO

(THE ORPHANAGE)
(Review)

Laura (Mar adentro‘s Belén Rueda) was once a ward of the Good Shepherd Orphanage, and now she’s returned with her husband Carlos (Fernando Cayo) and son Simon (Roger Princep), with the intention of turning the sprawling structure into a home for special needs children.
But Simon makes some new invisible friends (the imaginative tyke already has two when they move in, Watson and Pepe), who may not be imaginary after all, and who’ve been lonely for a very long time…


Produced by Guillermo del Toro, written by Sergio Sánchez and directed by Juan Antonio Bayona, El Orfanato is an exquisitely melancholy ghost story that operates in the same spectral realm as Alejandro Amenabar’s The Others and del Toro’s El Espinazo Del Diablo (The Devil’s Backbone). And depending on one’s particular reading of the film, El Orfanato also shares certain narrative characteristics and themes with del Toro’s El Laberinto Del Fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth).
Given these apparent commonalities, it’s interesting to note that Sánchez points to both J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan and Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw as his main (literary) influences for El Orfanato, while Bayona looked to Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind as his narrative template.
Moreover though, it’s a comforting surprise that El Orfanato is the feature debut for both Sánchez and Bayona. The certitude and confidence that clearly informs the film seems to have come from practiced, veteran hands. The fact that it stems from two newcomers not only makes the film even more astounding, it also effectively underscores the importance of El Orfanato as a magnificent harbinger of better, brighter things to come from the pair.


Sánchez is not only poised to write another script for Bayona (for what he calls a “sci-fi love story”), he’s also writing 3993 for del Toro, which will close the director’s Spanish Civil War trilogy (alongside El Espinazo Del Diablo and El Laberinto Del Fauno), and looking to direct his third feature film screenplay, The Homecoming, which he’s described as “a fantasy film, a horror story about the end of the world.”
Given how fantastic El Orfanato has turned out, all these various projects look very promising indeed.
To return to the matter at hand though, El Orfanato is an expertly crafted and surprisingly moving film that is, perhaps, more creepy than it is outright scary. But then again, this terribly effective exercise in quiet horror isn’t really about the sudden shocks.
It’s about loss, and fear, and perception, and just how far a mother is willing to go to be with her child.
It’s also about the difficulties involved in going home, because in El Orfanato, it isn’t exactly true that you can never go home again, but rather, that though it is possible to return home, the price for that return ticket is an awfully steep one.


Parting shot: Among the numerous honours bestowed upon El Orfanato, were 7 awards (out of a field of 9 nominations) at the Barcelona Film Awards, including Best Film, Best Actress (for Rueda), and Best New Director.
At the Goya Awards, the film took home 7 out of an astounding 14 nominations, including Best New Director and Best Screenplay – Original.


(El Orfanato OS courtesy of impawards.com; images courtesy of twitchfilm.net; DVD cover art courtesy of shocktillyoudrop.com.)

AFTERTHOUGHTS (55)
55.1 THAT’S THE SPIRIT! 2008
Juno took home three awards at Saturday night’s Independent Spirit Awards, winning for Best Feature, Best Female Lead (Ellen Page), and Best First Screenplay (Diablo Cody).
And while that’s certainly good news, the win that really got me jazzed was that Once took Best Foreign Film. Brilliant!
For a complete list of the winners, go here.

55.2 SOUND OFF 2008
Meanwhile, at the 55th Golden Reel Awards (also held last Saturday night), Juan Antonio Bayona‘s El Orfanato (The Orphanage) won Best Sound Editing in Feature Film: Foreign, Lost won Best Sound Editing in Television: Short Form – Sound Effects and Foley, for the episode “Left Behind,” and Superman: Doomsday won Best Sound Editing: Direct to Video (actually a tie with Return to House on Haunted Hill).
Michael Bay was also honoured with the 2008 MPSE Filmmaker’s Award. (Whatever you may think of his films, they do sound good, don’t they?)
For a complete list of the winners, go here.

Congratulations to all the nominees and winners at this year’s Independent Spirit and Golden Reel Awards.

Parting shot: Reviews of Juno, Once, and Superman: Doomsday can be found in the Archive, along with episodic recaps/reactions to Lost.

(OS’s and Lost Season 4 ad courtesy of impawards.com; Superman: Doomsday DVD cover art courtesy of amazon.com.)