Hellboy 2:The Golden Army

I have to be honest, and start off by saying that I ha never read the Hellboy comics before the first movie came out, and I was not a huge fan of the first one. It just didn't capture me the way I was hoping it would. I have tried viewing it, on occasion, on TV and DVD, hoping that, maybe, my mind would change, but it never does. The new film, though, which marks the return of the original cast and director Guillermo del Torro, was a pleasant surprise.

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army picks up a little while after the last film left off, and introduces us (through a REALLY cool computer animated/stop motion sequence) to a world of mythical creatures that have learned to hide in the human world after a long and bloody war lead to a truce between them and the humans. When an exiled prince returns, though, to awaken an unstoppable army, in an attempt to defeat the humans and solidify his reign, Hellboy and the Bureau of Paranormal Affairs has to step in and stop him.

There's not much to say here, as far as performances or directing goes. They're all top notch. Watching Hellboy 2, you feel like you are in familiar territory, and there really isn't any aspect of the film that lets you down. del Torro's mind is a fantasy land, and he lays out everything in front of you, drawing you in, and allowing you to enjoy his world for a little while. I really enjoyed the little bit of back story on Hellboy that we get, and hope that, if there is a third installment, that del Torro will include even more. The new character, Johann Krauss (oddly enough, voiced by Seth McFarlane of Family Guy), is a good edition that allows for a couple of more funny moments in the film.

Even though I was not a big fan of the first one, The Golden Army definitely leaves me with a taste for another one. Here's hoping del Torro has it in him.

The Orphanage

The Orphanage is a Spanish language horror film, helmed by Juan Antonio Bayona, and produced by Guillermo Del Torro, who everyone is fawning over since the success of Pan's Labyrinth. In fact, the film is being advertised as, literally, as "This year's Pan's Labyrinth". Before we get into anything else, I'd first like to say that that tag line is completely false, and will probably be a blatant slap in the face to anyone who is expecting a film like Pan's. The Orphanage is a straight up thriller. It knows exactly what it is, from start to finish, unlike  Pan's, which, in my opinion, never could seem to decide what it was. Was it a historical drama? Was it a fantasy thriller? Why couldn't it pick one or the other, and just be that thing.

But I digress. As you can tell, I was not impressed by Pan's Labyrinth, but The Orphanage does impress. And yes, all of those comparisons to Del Torro's earlier film, The Devil's Backbone, are absolutely right. I will say, though, that I enjoyed Orphanage a heck of a lot more than I enjoyed Backbone. Maybe I'm Del Torro hater, and I don't even know it...

Anyway, the story concerns Laura and her husband Carlos, and son Simon, who move into the house that was once Laura's orphanage. Laura was adopted as a little girl, and has now come back to revive the orphanage after it has been closed for decades. She hopes to open the house to children with mental and physical handicaps, and wants to fill her house with the same kind of love she felt while she was at the orphanage. Her son, though, is having problems adjusting, and his roster of invisible friends suddenly spikes, leaving Laura and Carlos worried about his mental condition.

On opening day of the orphanage, Simon disappears, causing Laura to freak out trying to find him, and causing the parents of the new attendees to pull them out. While trying to find Simon, she comes across the apparition of a child wearing a strange sack-cloth mask, who becomes all too real, when she is attacked by him. Days, weeks, and months go by, with no sign of Simon, when, suddenly Laura realizes that Simon's new invisible friends are ready to play a game with her. The prize? Simon.

The Orphanage offers a lot of atmosphere, something that is often times either lacking, or is poured on WAY to thick in American films. Although there are times in the film that I found myself saying "I get the point! It's spooky!", there were other times that, by the creak of a floor, or the sound of the wind, I found myself genuinely tensing up. Bayona delivers a well thought out thriller, one that could be compared to Amenabar's The Others, though, I think that Bayona was able to pull of the creepiness of the house and grounds considerably better than Amenabar was.

I can't really comment on the acting, because, often times, I found myself paying so much attention to the subtitles, that I wasn't paying full attention to the acting. It did keep me engrossed, though, and speaking of gross, if you are not a fan of blood and gore, I will tell you that there will be a few parts that might make you feel a little sick to your stomach. There is also at least one part that had me jumping out of my chair, and I haven't done that in quite some time.

The Orphanage was a surprise. It was lean, to the point, and unrelenting. It also would swing between horror and sentimentality in a way that was not bad, but would always knock you off guard. A great film for all you horror/thriller fans.

If that ain't creepy, I don't know what is...