Produced by Guillermo del Toro (PAN’S LABYRINTH), Bayona’s arresting gothic tale is an intelligent, engrossing and hugely atmospheric frightener about a long-abandoned orphanage with a particularly troubled past. Laura (Rueda) spent her formative years at the orphanage. Now, 30 years later, she returns to the dilapidated institution with her husband and their son, Simon, to re-open it as a facility for disabled children. But something ominous haunts the darkened hallways of the manor. When Simon’s behaviour increasingly grows bizarre, it’s not long before Laura finds her repressed memories flooding back in a terrifying torrent. Reminiscent of THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE and THE OTHERS, the THE ORPHANAGE is this year’s Spanish entry for Best Foreign-Language Film at the Academy Awards.
Winner of the Critics Week Prize at Cannes in 1993 CRONOS is an original, stylish and sophisticated reworking of the vampire themes of dread and desire. More than four centuries after it was created by an alchemist in search of eternal life, an antiques dealer in Mexico City discovers the Cronos Device inside an statue. Intrigued yet horrified he finds himself literally in the grip of the device which grants the user eternal life in exchange for an unquenchable thirst for blood. At the same time a dying American millionaire discovers the existence of the device and becomes obsessed with finding it and in doing so guaranteeing himself eternal life. The film displays a high style while revelling in it’s own many mysteries, CRONOS finds its originality through clever ambiguities and unexpected grace.