ABSTRACT
Many horror movies fall apart in the climactic moments of Act Three; one that doesn’t is the carefully structured ghost story, The Orphanage (2007). Its screenwriter, Sergio Sanchez, went through many drafts; the one thing he says never changed was the ending. And in fact it’s crucial to have a clear sense of where and how you want to conclude your story, so that Acts One and Two can set up a finale that’s both surprising and inevitable.
In The Orphanage, the protagonist Laura wants to re-open the orphanage where she was raised, as a haven for children with special needs; but beyond that desire is another more primal one – to protect her adopted son, who’s healthy (on meds) but HIV-positive. When Simon disappears, at the end of Act One, Laura has to confront her darkest fear – that death is the end, that there’s nothing beyond, and she’s somehow lost Simon forever. Facing that fear in Act Two, Laura starts to change her beliefs in the possibility of an afterlife. And in the film’s third act, she actively searches for ghosts that could hold the key to Simon’s whereabouts. What she discovers is finally tragic – but provides a satisfying emotional pay-off to everything that’s come before.
