I was going in and out of sleep while watching this on TV and I didn't understand, HOW did Simon die? I get that she was just imagining him alive by 'believing' and when she 'returned' to reality she discovered he was dead. But how long had he been dead and how did he die`? Also what was the deal with that wallpaper over the door?
shareI watched this movie yesterday and this is what I got from it..
Major spoilers!!!
Simon's mother is the red head orphan at the beginning of the movie. She got adopted before the killings happened. Apparently a mother used to work at the Orphanage and she had a son "Tomas". He was disfigured and wore a mask. His mother used to keep him away from the other kids, he lived in the basement. I guess because Simon's mother hardly ever saw him, she forgot all about him..
Anyways the other Orphans played a prank on Thomas that resulted in his death. His mother, devastated by the loss, went crazy and killed the 5 kids in the Orphanage. She poisoned them and hid their body's in the shed. She was the lady visiting the mother at the beginner of the movie, pretending to be a social worker. Afraid that the body's might be found, she sneaked in at night trying to remove them. However, she got caught by the mother and gave up.
Simon is seriously ill, it said HIV on the paper. It is later explained that people close to death are more reactive to the supernatural(that is why the mother uses medication to intentionally make herself ill to see them at the end). The imaginary friends Simon keeps talking about are actually the spirits of the other kids killed in the Orphanage. The spirit of Thomas shows Simon his "little house" which is the basement where he was kept. He tries to show it to his mother during the party but they get into an argument. In the later scene, you see a kid dressed like Thomas and wearing his mask. I believe this to be Simon wearing Thomas clothing he found in the basement.
In the scene after, the mother is desperately searching for Simon. However, during one of the scenes when she looks in the closet below the stairs leading to the basement, she accidentally blocks the doorway with the pipes. Simon, trapped in the basement, dies what I think a few days later.
About the wallpaper, I think somewhere during the 30 years it was renovated and they decided to do that.. Or maybe the psycho lady removed the doorknob and put the wallpaper to hide the children their from her collages? I guess they expect us to use our imaginations.
Some details are not explained. for example, when the woman killed the children and hid their body's, how come nobody noticed? Why was their no investigation? What about the other people working there? Why was the old psycho lady walking past a red light with a wheelchair pushing a doll? Was she killed by the ghosts? Who knows, Never answered in the movie oh well :)
hope that helps
"when the woman killed the children and hid their body's, how come nobody noticed? Why was their no investigation? What about the other people working there? Why was the old psycho lady walking past a red light with a wheelchair pushing a doll?"
The super8 movie we see Laura watch seems to be something that Benigna was filming. It shows footage of the other staff members mistreating Tomas and implies that he was segregated from the other children. It also shows that Benigna was unwilling or averse to this situation and it may be true that she was making the film with the intention of taking it to the police. However, it seems that Tomas was killed before she got the chance to and in her rage she poisoned the children responsible. When the other staff held her accountable, she threatened to go to the police with her incriminating film with the intention of accusing the others of maltreating her son and possibly framing them for the deaths of the other children. Either way the fact that the tape actually shows a child being treated roughly does not look good for the accused party.
Benigna's final scene shows that she is trapped in the past, pushing round an effigy of her late son in a pram/baby carriage, unable to deal with what happened to her and the terrible things she did as a result. When Laura calls out to her in the middle of the road, she thinks that the game is up and stays in the path of a speeding ambulance
Well those are assumptions made on basis of very little evidence available. I don't mind them not giving too much details and making us fill in the blanks. However, I hate it when it is illogical. Seriously, 5 children die and disappear from the face of the planet and you are telling me that no institution noticed? Furthermore, the staff is so gutless that no one confesses in 30 years because they feared a skinny middle-aged woman?
She had plenty of motive so accusing the other staff was not feasible. Although, I can understand that it would ruin their image and they would be blamed for not saving the children from her etc.. Still, I don't see how no one would report this cruel deed to the authorities.
Would be more believable if she poisoned everyone, including the staff. She used a poison that works slowly taking up to weeks to kill someone. Naturally once the staff got unwell they stayed at home and died there so she did not need to dispose of their body's. Doctors and families thought it was a illness instead of poison. However, even that scenario leaves too many plot holes. Ah well nothing is perfect :(
Still, this movie is brilliant, the peter pan reference at the end made me weep like a 6 year old girl watching Bambi die. Pan's labyrinth had the same effect on me..
"Seriously, 5 children die and disappear from the face of the planet and you are telling me that no institution noticed?"
You have to bear in mind that spain in the mid seventies was a very different place- you can't judge it by modern standards. The country had just reached the end of decades of fascist rule under Franco's dictatorship: there were no regulators and things could happen in isolated rural communities that went unnoticed by the authorities. In fact it is well documented now that terrible things went on in a great deal of these institutions thoughout Franco's rule that are only just coming to light. These events tended to be swept under the proverbial carpet 30 or so years ago.
"the staff is so gutless that no one confesses in 30 years because they feared a skinny middle-aged woman?"
For a start most of the other staff appear to be in their 60's at the time of the poisoning. Secondly they really are at fault as much as Benigna. She had evidence of them maltreating Tomas. They were responsible for the death of Tomas (because if they hadn't hidden him from the other children, they wouldn't have inadvertently killed him)and indirectly for the deaths of the other children. Therefore they could and should be held accountable just as much as Benigna. They couldn't save the other children if they only found out once the kids had died and they didn't want to go to prison so they moved on.
"Would be more believable if she poisoned everyone, including the staff. She used a poison that works slowly taking up to weeks to kill someone."
Maybe she did kill/poison the other staff- the movie never indicates that she did but it doesn't refute this theory either.But as you say this theory doesn't work as the staff may have families/relatives who would question their disappearance. The orphans however, don't. They were completely cut off from the outside world. The point is that whatever happened back then was a cover up. Records were destroyed, bodies were hidden so the information is supposed to be sparse. Otherwise the movie would feature one of those horrendous exposition scenes where they explain everything and we don't want that.