Harkening back to a day when atmosphere took precedence over story, The Orphanage manages to be both intriguing and spooky enough to present itself as one of the best horror/drama films in quite some time.

I've said this out loud, but never printed it - I'm calling Mexico as the next "horror country." The 70's and 80's saw Italy as the country to go to for horror flicks, late 90's/early 2000's was Japan, and now I believe Mexico is primed to be the next country to take over. Yes, this movie was filmed in Spain, but the backing was Mexican. Either way you get my drift.

While the Italians had the gore, and the Japanese had the "spooky ghost with long hair invades [blank]," the Mexican invasion seems like it will be a torrent of thought-provoking movies with lots of imagination.

As I mentioned before, The Orphanage feels like an older movie, like Carnival of Souls or "The Innocents," one where atmosphere has taken over for an in-depth storyline. Not to say there isn't a story here...I won't give anything else away, for fear of lessening the impact of certain scenes...but the mood, the feel of the house and Laura's predicament takes over. There's just enough going on that I was intrigued the whole film.

Performances are great, especially Miss Rueda as Laura. The poor woman goes through the wringer and a lesser actress would've seemed phony, which would've killed the movie - Laura is who we follow the entire time. Everyone else does just fine as well...little Símon seems just like an authentic kid.

There are a handful of incredibly creepy set pieces going on, too. One shot later in the movie (through a one-take, which seems to be the big rage right now) had all of us going - very effective. It manages to be spooky without any big jump scares, which is always a big plus in my book!

If there's anything negative I'd have to say the score became a bit over-melodramatic at points - definitely took me out of the movie temporarily. Also a few times the film seemed to drag, and I'm not too sure the film would be as effective the second time through, but I'll get back to you on that, cause I'm sure I'll see it again!

Go check it out! Since it's a foreign film with subtitles and is really, really good, we all know it'll make like 4 dollars in the theaters, so go help this little flick out for all of our sakes.

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