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The Orphanage (El Orfanato) (15)
IT WOULD be hard to imagine this film not being in anyone's top ten for 2008 come the chimes of Big Ben on New Year's Eve.
Produced by Guillermo Del Torro (director of Pan's Labyrinth), it's an astonishingly-assured debut for director Juan Antonio Bayona.
In a story guaranteed to raise the hairs on your neck better than any film in recent memory, Laura (Belen Rueda) dreams of restoring an abandoned orphanage as a home for disabled children.
But when Laura's long-forgotten memories are reawakened by her seven-year son Simon's imaginary games, she begins to wonder what lies beneath...
Never a film to take the easy option for generation shocks, The Orphanage is an instant classic - the best in class since The Others and The Sixth Sense.
Also available to buy for £19.99 (Blu-ray £24.99) with extras including director and producer interviews as well as deleted scenes and storyboards.
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