The Orphanage

The Orphanage (El orfanato, 2007) is a Spanish horror film you can watch online on iFILM. It marks the directorial debut of Juan Antonio Bayona, made under the wing of producer Guillermo del Toro. Laura (Belén Rueda) returns with her husband and seven-year-old son to the seaside house where she once grew up as an orphan.

Her plan is to reopen the place as a home for children with special needs. Then the boy starts talking to an invisible friend, and the old walls fill with sounds no one can explain. When her son vanishes, Laura is left alone against a house that keeps other people's secrets. Fernando Cayo plays her husband; Geraldine Chaplin, daughter of Charlie Chaplin, appears as a frail medium.

Bayona builds dread out of silence, creaking floors and a child's voice behind the wall rather than cheap jump cuts. The film took seven Goya Awards and became one of the decade's defining European horrors. At its core it is a story about a mother's love, and that turns out scarier than any ghost. Stream The Orphanage (2007) online on iFILM.