The Orphanage

Horror may go for the jugular in America, but in Spain the ghost story is still a vital genre. Belén Rueda plays an adoptive mother who takes over the orphanage where she was raised to open a foster home for special-needs kids. The spookiness begins immediately, with imaginary friends and apparitions and a creepy social worker who snoops around with an ulterior motive. But when her son disappears and mysterious clues lead her on a treasure hunt with an unexpected payoff, the haunting takes a turn from seeming malevolence into something much more sad and, in a strange way, heartbreakingly beautiful. Directed by J.A. Bayona and produced by Guillermo del Toro, the film revels in spooky scares and goose-pimply eeriness but is grounded in a human drama of loss and sacrifice. Includes the featurettes "When Laura Grew Up: Constructing The Orphanage," "Horror in the Unknown: Make-Up," and "Tomas' Secret Room" (about the filmmakers), plus rehearsal footage and stills galleries. Also available in Blu-ray format.