I love this movie so much

Powerful

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is an artsy flick made in a typical French – that is, sluggish – style. If you are in for anything resembling a horror movie, or simply a structured and reasonable movie, you'll hate this crap from the depths of your soul. However, if you are interested in modern arts – that is, mental masturbation – you might be gripped by the beautiful cinematography, the suggestive music, the hazy symbolism and the plot's patent absurdity.After some effort at piecing the puzzle, you'll unveil the dull, repulsive humanist ideology conveyed by the director in the form of a condemnation of both Nazi human experimenting and French vilification of the bastard children fathered by German occupants after the second world war.

I don't like it when a film is incoherent. I don't like it when a film drags. I don't like waiting for something to happen in the film and nothing happens. I do have to give some credit for atmosphere and photography, and in spite of what some other reviewers have said the acting is fairly good. Unfortunately the script runs out of interesting material very fast, and as the film dragged on I started to detect some extremely tiresome and derivative plot elements that are simply annoying. i suspect in an attempt to be mysterious with a bizarre back story and a surprise ending, the screenwriter was smoking something and could not avoid going completely off the rails. Sadly, what could have been good, wasn't.

I think that this movie was very good, a little confusing at times, but overall well done. I enjoy a orphanage haunting and this one sat me down, and made my mind wander. The main character made me love her in a peculiar way, mysterious, yet beautiful. Her willingness to find the truth instead of cower and run sank me deeper and deeper. I say give it a go, and be willing to venture into a dark place full of odd discoveries. Don't compare it to The Others, or The Orphanage. It is its own film, with a neat kind of scary journey. The structure of the house is done really well and just made me want to venture in and get lost. I think the director did an amazing job, well enough for me to come on here and write a review.

I just finished watching this and after reading some of the brutal reviews and message board comments, I felt that I really should write a 'brief' review.First off, when all was said and done I didn't really find the film ultimately that satisfying; but, I think I am objective enough to say that mainly it is due to my personal taste and NOT because it is a bad film. I really wish people would be a little more fair when writing about these movies and separate the fact that THEY did not like it with whether or not it indeed was a bad film.Overall I truly felt that the director worked his @$$ off in this film and put his heart and soul into it. Also, THIS WAS HIS VERY FIRST MOVIE! So, c'mon, compared to the mountain of drivel that passes for Horror these days, graded fairly and comparatively, it was very well made. Very nice cinematography and direction as far as planning out every move meticulously and blending the lighting, sound, stormy atmosphere, etc. He also elicited competent performances from his actors too. BUT... for me personally anyway, here is the clincher... The pacing was WAAAAAAAAY off and the buildup WAY to long and the truly effective bits and visuals WAY too spare and subtle. If he had tightened up the pacing just a little and (I KNOW this next bit is gonna sound REAL Hollywood) livened up the visual scares a little, and would have given us much more visceral Gothic imagery and / or more startling clues (I mean COME ON, just one vague file folder and just about NOTHING else!???) Basically I feel that to make the film FAR more effective he needed to add some SUBSTANTIAL elements to drive it a bit more. I DON'T mean shallow jump scares, etc. (although a few more would have helped a little) Just look at THE master of this kind of film, Guillermo Del Torro. Now, that guy is very subtle too, BUT, and it is a VERY BIG BUT like Mariah Carrey's, he knows how to pace a film and ratchet up TRUE suspense and eerie atmosphere. I honestly think this director here has some excellent insight and quality to his film making, BUT I think he dwelt WAY too much on the drama between the ladies instead of building a better story. It was so melodramatic at so many points I was really thinking that a woman had directed it (NOT meaning at all to be unkind to women directors, etc., but merely that women directors USUALLY tell stories from a much more emotional and dramatic perspective then men do) So, the bottom line is, IF you have the time to kill and you are very, Very, VERY patient, you will see some very good technical film making; but, don't expect TOO much of a punch from the story itself. BTW, I really liked the ending; now THAT is exactly the kind of thing he needed much more of! He just needed a bit more in the way of disturbing imagery, subtle but more evocative of the atmosphere a film like this should have.