The Orphanage

Like the ghost-story exports from Asia—Ju-On: The Grudge and Ringu come to mind—this Spanish horror offering builds genuine scares in a way that domestic filmmakers seem to have forgotten in their obsession with torture porn. Doting mom Laura (Belen Rueda) and her doctor husband (Fernando Cayo) live in a large, groaning house, which was Laura's childhood orphanage. When their young son (Roger Princep) disappears, Laura suspects his imaginary friends are behind it. Director Juan Antonio Bayona creates the kind of tangible terror and paranoia that was found in 1965's Bunny Lake is Missing, ratcheted up by haunted house conventions (doors open by themselves, things go bump in the night).

Shelf Talk: Though American audiences won't be familiar with the performers, they have probably heard of producer Guillermo del Toro, who was Oscar-nominated for directing Pan's Labyrinth and has upcoming theatrical Hellboy II: The Golden Army due in July. New Line/Warner will run TV spots in English and Spanish on Chiller TV, Discover Español, MTV Tres, Mun2 and SiTV; cable and radio ad markets include nine major cities; and print ads will run in Fangoria, Entertainment Weekly and Geek . The Orphanage is not particularly graphic, so we're assuming the R rating is for the film's tense situations, of which there are plenty. —B.McC.