HOUSE OF ORPHANS

The film opens with a group of young adults checking out a remote house late one night. When Rick (Martyn McNicholas) enters the house much to his friend Susan's (Rie Jul) dismay, her trepidation proves to be justified seconds later when he re-emerges with his eyes gouged out.

Then we meet troubled teenager Amanda (Evelina Nilsson). She hates her stepfather Bruce and suffers from recurring nightmares. Furthermore, she misses her real Dad and fears that her imminent move to a new house with her mother Karen (Lolio B Eriksson) and Bruce (Michel Abou Rjeili) will widen the distance she feels from him. Still, at least her stepfather's similarly-aged daughter Denise (Johanna Annersand) offers an ally.

The following morning, the family move to their new home. Promise not to gasp, but their remote new dwelling is the same one we witnessed harbouring deadly powers in the film's opening.

After a scare from creepy neighbour Jackson (Roger Bylund), Amanda's family unpack and begin to settle into their new home. While checking out their large, empty premises, the family learn that the house was once an orphanage. Bruce tells them that it closed in the late part of the 19th Century, but claims to have no idea who has inhabited it since then.

But then the girls stumble across the house's basement, and a diary revealing that it was used as a prison where kids in the orphanage were once punished.

A little more stealthy exploration of the building's darker crannies and a bit of spooky synth score later, and the atmosphere begins to intensify as odd things start to happen: doors slam open and shut; Amanda suffers from fainting spells; Denise spies a boyish figure with glowing eyes lurking in the basement.

As the tension mounts and gore runs, can the family pacify the building's ghosts? Can Jackson help unravel the mystery of what atrocities happened within its walls?

HOUSE OF ORPHANS is not a bad little film. It holds a decent storyline and writer-director Daniel Lehmussaari manages to elicit some pretty tense passages during the film's first two thirds. Professional editing, tight framing and stylish lighting conspire to aid the film in its dramatic impact, and the early attempts at subtle ghost story-style horrors are at times extremely proficient. I particularly enjoyed the sepia-tainted flashbacks to the orphanage too.

Where the film suffers is in it's final third when a compulsion to become more graphic reveals the limitations of the low budget and events take a turn for the silly.

The other major drawback is the acting. While the notion of an all-Swedish cast performing their dialogue in English sounds like a savvy bid to appeal to an International audience, the simple fact is that the result is a lot of laughably wooden deliveries - especially Bylund - and some unintentionally risible dialogue.

It's a shame because otherwise the film is fluent, good-looking and well lit. It's also blessed with a great, effective score throughout and moments of true atmosphere. Although echoing the likes of SAINT ANGE and THE OPRHANAGE, not to mention THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, it also has to be said that HOUSE OF ORPHANS manage to retain a semblance of distinction too.

With a bigger budget and a cast speaking in their native tongue (really, no-one objects to subtitled films nowadays - do they?), Lehmussaari could prove to be a name to watch.

This maiden release from new Swedish distributor Sick Films offers HOUSE OF ORPHANS in a nice, colourful and crisp anamorphic 2.35:1 presentation. While minor ghosting can be evidenced on occasion, the overall result is an impressively sharp and clean picture.

English audio is provided in a sharp, well-balanced 5.1 mix. Optional subtitles are provided in Swedish and Finnish.

A static main menu page leads into an animated scene-selection menu allowing access to the main feature via 12 chapters. The menus are all presented in English text.

A welcome array of special features begin with "Making Of House Of Orphans". This 25-minute documentary offers lots of intriguing fly-on-the-wall-style footage on location, revealing a light atmosphere during the shoot.

Six minutes of windowboxed bloopers consist largely of cast members laughing at each other. They offer a decent watch that further suggests the shoot was an amiable, relaxed one.

Four deleted scenes follow, each given their own heading - 'The Attic', 'Gas Station', 'Dog' and 'Restaurant'. They're interesting to have if you're a fan of the film but they don't add anything to the end product.

A gallery of 11 stills, including poster artwork, follows. This runs over the course of 30 seconds and is accompanied by some bad dialogue from the film.

"Audio" offers four audio clips presented with plenty more colour stills. We get two minutes of ghostly whispering, a fifteen-second "bitch scream", a terrible Euro-rock song called "You Better Behave", and some indeterminable bumps in the night.

Finally, a trailer for a film called THE GRIEF looks cheap but vaguely ambitious, and plays out at just under 90 seconds in length. Again, it appears to be a Swedish production with English dialogue.

An Easter Egg on the main menu page, if you can call it that, takes you to a static advertisement/weblink for a forthcoming film entitled DRAGONETTI THE RUTHLESS CONTRACT KILLER.

The keepcase packaging benefits from an attractive outer slipcasing.

So, Sick Films have provided a decent DVD release for Lehmussaari's 2008 film. The film has it's problems but may appeal to the more curious gorehound, and those already familiar with the director's work (DEATH ACADEMY; I VADURENS SKUGGA) may be interested to note that this disc touts itself as being part of a "Daniel Lehmussaari Collection" ...

Oh, and as the cover suggests, this DVD is a Limited Edition ...

For more info, check out DarkDisc - the Swedish cult DVD store behind Sick Films (and a very good store to boot).

Review by Stuart Willis