‘The Orphanage’

A shivery, plangent ghost story from Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona, “The Orphanage” stars Belen Rueda as a woman who returns to the orphanage where she was raised as its new proprietor with her husband and young son Simon (Roger Princep). Laura (Rueda) plans to open a school for disabled children, but when Simon disappears on the day of their welcome reception, all plans are put aside as she begins a frantic search. Expertly adopting the conventions of the genre, “The Orphanage” also transcends it, becoming a beautifully atmospheric and terrifically acted lament about grief and loss.