https://vo.rs/tags/j-a-bayona/Latest from the J a Bayona desk at vo.rs.Hugo -- gohugo.ioenThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.Tue, 03 Sep 2024 08:00:00 +0000https://vo.rs/screen/the-orphanage-the-ghost-story-as-grief-therapy/<p>Most haunted-house films are about a family that should leave and won&rsquo;t. <em>The Orphanage</em> is about a woman who cannot leave, because leaving would mean admitting her son is dead, and the film understands that this refusal is the engine of every ghost story ever told. Juan Antonio Bayona&rsquo;s 2007 debut — Spanish-language, produced by Guillermo del Toro, written by Sergio G. Sánchez — takes the oldest furniture in the genre, a big draughty house full of children&rsquo;s voices, and rebuilds it into something close to a case study of grief. It is one of the most emotionally devastating horror films of its decade, and it earns every tear by playing the old-fashioned game with total conviction.</p>Tue, 03 Sep 2024 08:00:00 +0000