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Review: Juan Antonio Bayona’s “The Orphanage” is an excellent guide on how to build dread. Unlike the recent crop of American horror movies which rely too heavily on gore and shock, “The Orphanage” understands that what viewers don’t see is far more frightening than what they do. Comparisons have been made to last year’s “Pan’s Labyrinth,” and they’re not entirely off the mark (the fulcrum of both is a child’s hyperactive imagination). “The Orphanage” isn’t as ambitious or innovative as the popular Guillermo Del Toro feature, but nonetheless provides a suspenseful movie-going experience.

Laura (Belén Rueda), now in her mid thirties, returns to the orphanage of her youth with hopes of jumpstarting a home for disabled children. Accompanying her is Carlos, her pragmatic husband, and Simón, her son with an abundant imagination. The first scenes are ominous and set up some unnerving coincidences. Laura soon invites families of handicapped children for an open-house event. In the midst of this party and some creepy events, Simón disappears. The rest of the movie is Laura’s quest to recover her son.

It becomes clear that Laura can only find Simón once she accepts that supernatural forces are at play. Of course, Carlos regards his wife with sympathy, but then those feelings give way to annoyance. He simply wants his wife to leave the orphanage and acknowledge her son’s death. Laura nonetheless becomes more convinced that Simón is alive, and must be found by reliving her childhood memories. This leads to several suspenseful sequences. Two in particular, one involving a séance and the other involving a childhood game, gather an almost-unbearable level of tension. Sound design and camerawork are particularly effective here. The groans and creaks of the old orphanage are far more evocative than any monster the directors could present. Also, the movie looks great. Shots of the orphanage and its surrounding rocky beach are beautiful yet ominous. Like most atmospheric horror, the movie features lots of deep greens and blues.

Some parts of the movie drag. Horror aficionados will recognize the scenes where the husband doubts the ravings of his increasingly unstable wife. There are too many of those scenes. Yet the performances are uniformly strong. By cutting about twenty minutes from the middle section, however, the movie would have been more effective. Despite these misgivings, "The Orphanage" has a satisfying conclusion. And I can’t help but admire the quality of the direction and the movie’s desire to remain an ambiguous. All the bizarre scenes are subjective - no other character sees the ghosts Laura does. Viewers will leave the theater debating whether she was visited by ghosts or she went insane.

“The Orphanage” is a satisfying picture, but not a superlative one. Still, I am always grateful when a movie successfully manipulates me – even if I am keenly aware of the director’s tricks.