MovieChat Forums > El orfanato (2008) Discussion > Ending question [Spoilers Within] Fate o...

Ending question [Spoilers Within] Fate of Simon

posted 14 years ago by The_Xtreme_Game
9 replies | jump to latest

I just finished watching this movie for the first time about 10 minutes ago. I thought this movie was great, and glad I bought it. My issue is this, Simon's corpse was in the basement for 1 year and nobody knew it. Granted basements aren't the place you hang out in, but to not enter one for a year is kinda far fetched. I really liked this movie, that was the only thing that kinda bothered me.

You forgot the number 1 rule about remakes: don't **** with the original!

[–] slimjimpui 14 years ago

The point is that nobody in the present day actually knew there even was a basement as it had been covered up for the purposes of hiding Tomas back in the 70's. The entrance to the basement was papered over to look like it was a dead end so no one would know that Tomas was being locked up in there against his will. Also, you might want to change the title of this thread as it gives the ending away for people who haven't seen the movie

[–] The_Xtreme_Game 14 years ago

Thanks for the response, I must have missed the part showing that the basement was wallpapered off. I am gonna have to go watch it again, and thats not a bad thing. I am beginning to think that foreign films have much better stories than some of the stuff that comes out of Hollywood.

You forgot the number 1 rule about remakes: don't **** with the original!

[–] slimjimpui 14 years ago

No worries. The wallpaper just overlaps the edge of the door, so that the only clue there is a door there at all is the small round hole where the door handle slots in. Laura was supposed to find the door handle on the day of the party but she didn't discover the 2nd treasure hunt that Simon had laid out for her until 9 months after the fact.

Some people have also argued that the smell of a rotting body should have alerted Laura and Carlos long before the 9 months it took to discover him. However, when she finally finds Simon; we see that his body has naturally mummified which means there would be little or no odour. This is a rare phenomenon but possible when a dead body is kept in a dry, cold, sealed enviroment and very little decomposition occurs so the body stays well preserved and practically odourless.

[–] MrBelette 13 years ago

"I am beginning to think that foreign films have much better stories than some of the stuff that comes out of Hollywood. "

Hey you may be on something right here !

[–] king_of_bob 13 years ago

I thought this movie was great, and glad I bought it. My issue is this, Simon's corpse was in the basement for 1 year and nobody knew it.

How would they even know? Keep in mind that Laura lived in this place when she was a kid yet she had no idea a basement even existed through that closet. How would anyone think to look in a place that nobody knows exists?

Prof. Farnsworth: Oh. A lesson in not changing history from Mr. I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!

[–] JiS87 12 years ago

What you do mean Laura could in no way have known about the cellar? She KNEW just like every else in the house including all the children back then, that Thomas was kept from the outside world (and for the other children but that's naive thinking) in the cellar, for him being misformed. The reason Thomas was killed WAS by the so-called game the other cildren played with him, at the cave on the beach, which proves undeniable the other kids knew Thomas and thus also the cellar...

And about the cellar, we all were young and we all remember the small en 'secret' places in the houses we grew up in, I could not imagine a small kid not knowing about it, including Laura...even more that if Simon could have find it even with the door been covered up, all the children back then sure did.
So the only thing I can't understand is how Laura could forget that cellar, that 'place where Thomas lived', even more when she bought and moved back in the very same house/orphanage! I'd love to know too at what certain time and age she first left the orphanage when she was young, I've probably missed that...

This, and with the ridiculous mounth-mounth from Carlos to dead Benigna with her entire jaw been drivin' off (LOL!), are the only 2 thoughts I have for a furthermore flawless, and yes, even BRILLIANT movie. I expected a random scary-house movie like "The Others" (which was decent too), but it goes sooo much further.

I want to believe, I really do, that this was all about the imagination and hallucinations from Laura rather than that the director wanted to show a ghost story. Yet, the perfect example that it ís about ghosts, is when the window spontaneously decided to fall and break down, which makes her to find the hidden dolls. As this happened for a fact, it isn't her imagination. And for sure it can't be coincidence (c'mon). So, it must the 'ghosts'.

Somehow, the twists in this movie reminded me of the same kinda twists in "Luciá y el Sexo", another wonderful Spanish movie also about the lose of a child.

I'll recommend "El Orfanato" for all lovers of scary movies, and Spanish movies! :)

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"Luke, I am your mother!" "Nooooooo!" (Star Wars)

[–] king_of_bob 12 years ago

What you do mean Laura could in no way have known about the cellar? She KNEW just like every else in the house including all the children back then, that Thomas was kept from the outside world (and for the other children but that's naive thinking) in the cellar, for him being misformed. The reason Thomas was killed WAS by the so-called game the other cildren played with him, at the cave on the beach, which proves undeniable the other kids knew Thomas and thus also the cellar...

No, neither she nor the other children knew he was kept there. Knowing about Thomas and knowing about the room are two completely different things, anyway. Besides which, Thomas died several weeks after Laura was adopted, so she wasn't even aware of that event until she discovers it in the movie.

And about the cellar, we all were young and we all remember the small en 'secret' places in the houses we grew up in, I could not imagine a small kid not knowing about it, including Laura...even more that if Simon could have find it even with the door been covered up, all the children back then sure did.

Simon was led to the door just like Laura was. He was told about the room by Thomas... Did you even watch the movie? Whether you can imagine it or not, it's true. Laura did not know about it. Evidenced by the fact that she doesn't even THINK to look there until the ghosts of the other orphans lead her there.

So the only thing I can't understand is how Laura could forget that cellar, that 'place where Thomas lived', even more when she bought and moved back in the very same house/orphanage! I'd love to know too at what certain time and age she first left the orphanage when she was young, I've probably missed that...

Once again, she didn't "forget." She simply never knew it existed.

And she was adopted a few weeks before Thomas was killed in the flooded cave.

I want to believe, I really do, that this was all about the imagination and hallucinations from Laura rather than that the director wanted to show a ghost story. Yet, the perfect example that it ís about ghosts, is when the window spontaneously decided to fall and break down, which makes her to find the hidden dolls. As this happened for a fact, it isn't her imagination. And for sure it can't be coincidence (c'mon). So, it must the 'ghosts'.

It was absolutely ghosts. There's no two ways about it. How could she hallucinate about things she isn't aware of, like where and how Thomas died?

Prof. Farnsworth: Oh. A lesson in not changing history from Mr. I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!

[–] ChelseaGrin 12 years ago

Sometimes I wonder if I watched the same movie as others. LOL It's almost like they didn't REALLY watch it all the way through or got a totally different version of the movie than me.

Dont laugh. I have actually gone back and rewatched some films because of this kind of thing.ROFL

[–] chilone 12 years ago

This, and with the ridiculous mounth-mounth from Carlos to dead Benigna with her entire jaw been drivin' off (LOL!

Good catch lol!! Although he only gave her MOUTH to MOUTH for a minute, not a mounth :o]

I don't love her.. She kicked me in the face!!