In theaters/On DVD

PROM NIGHT

THE ORPHANAGE

Currently, audiences can choose between two horror movies new to the market. One was Spain’s official entry for this year’s Academy Awards. The other is Sony’s unofficial entry for next year’s Razzie Awards, where it almost certainly will be nominated for the revered Golden Raspberry.

Let’s make quick work of the latter movie, Nelson McCormick’s “Prom Night,” which is now bloodying its crown in theaters, and then get on with the horror movie you should see, Juan Antonio Bayona’s “The Orphanage,” otherwise known as “El Orfanato,” which is just out on DVD and Blu-ray disc.

“Prom Night” is a remake of the R-rated, 1980 horror movie of the same name, which starred Jamie Lee Curtis when she was busy making a career out of avoiding butcher knives by any number of madmen. McCormick’s version comes with a more violence-friendly PG-13 rating, which would have been just fine had the movie amped up the tension with good writing and a solid undercurrent of suspense.

It doesn’t. Instead, we get a silly movie in which a hive of young adults are slaughtered and gutted on what should be one of the happiest nights of their lives. Who’s wielding the knife? That would be Richard Fenton (Johnathon Schaech), a deranged former high school teacher who once caused cute Donna (Brittany Snow) a groundswell of grief when he murdered her family. Bummer!

Now, on the very night Donna has pulled herself together to shine on prom night, Fenton is on the loose from a maximum security prison and determined to knock her off, as well as all of her friends. So, yes, Fenton is something of a joy kill. And like this rote movie of no surprises – the whole thing is an assembly line of slasher movie cliches – he’s a dull one at that.

There is nothing dull about Bayona’s “The Orphanage,” which didn’t open in the Bangor market because it features the sort of bump-in-the-night frights some local movie houses fear – subtitles and quality.

Set in a large manor house that once was an orphanage for a host of poisoned tots, this expertly conceived ghost story unfolds with unusual reservoirs of grace and menace. Unlike “Prom Night,” there isn’t a cheap jolt in the movie. Instead, Bayona offers a slow build up of dread through the powerful vehicle of paranormal suggestion.

For almost the entire movie, we never really know what’s going on inside the orphanage in question (or what occurred there years ago to make it haunted now), and that’s where the film’s suspense is allowed to mount – in the realm of the unknown.

The film stars Belen Rueda as Laura, who years ago lived in the orphanage before she was adopted. Now, she has returned with her husband, Carlos (Fernando Cayo), and their ailing son, Simon (Roger Princep), to run the place.

Trouble is, before they can do so, Simon starts talking to imaginary friends that turn out to be not so imaginary at all. And when he suddenly disappears after an argument he has with Laura, Laura and Carlos are plunged into two very different nightmares. The first is almost tangible in that it deals with the potential loss of their son, who goes missing for months. The second exists along the gray edges of a parallel state, which Laura is able to tap into. The fact that Carlos can’t causes its share of friction between the two.

What ensues is everything you could hope for from a good ghost story – moody cinematography, mysterious figures appearing, dead children lurking, psychics tapping into a world nobody wants to face, and a complex puzzle of unearthed secrets that eventually lead to one massive plot twist. That the film was produced by Guillermo del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth,” “Hellboy II: The Golden Army”) only bolsters the production. His influence is clear throughout, but in key scenes, so is Hitchcock’s.

Grades: “Prom Night” – D; “The Orphanage” – A-

On DVD

THE SAVAGES, written and directed by Tamara Jenkins, 105 minutes, rated R.

Tamara Jenkins’ “The Savages” is about a fractured family standing at the intersection of death and dementia. It’s a film about unresolved relationships trying to resolve themselves before death’s clock rings.

Billed as a dark comedy, the film stars Laura Linney as Wendy Savage, a difficult, struggling playwright living in New York City. She has a cat and a ficus tree that she loves, and a mate (Peter Friedman) 13 years older than she who is physically available to her, though not emotionally – he’s married. As such, Wendy resents him and she loves him. Or at least she thinks she loves him. For Wendy, who was abandoned by her mother as a child and then saddled with an abusive, distant father in Lenny (Philip Bosco), you suspect that love always has pushed away from her, increasingly by her own hand.

Meanwhile, her brother, Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman), is a frazzled theater professor living in Buffalo, N.Y. He has his own problems – his fiercely competitive relationship with his sister being one of them, and his unwillingness to wed his girlfriend (Cara Seymour) of three years being another.

In this film about two people who lack the tools to love, the focus eventually narrows on Lenny, whose own girlfriend of 20 years has just dropped dead and who now needs his two estranged children to travel across country to tend to his needs. Since he’s suffering from dementia and his health is failing, those needs are significant, and they work to turn this shattered family inside out with guilt, rage and grief over the course of the ensuing weeks.

Excellent performances mark “The Savages,” with Linney and Hoffman each navigating characters who could have become unlikable had they not been shaded with nuance. Throughout, there are glimpses of how Wendy and Jon might have emerged as human beings had life not been so rough with them during their formative growing-up years. They’re damaged people, yes, but they are only savages by name.

Grade: B+

WeekinRewind.com is the site for Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s blog, video podcasts, iTunes portal and archive of hundreds of movie reviews. Smith’s reviews appear Mondays, Fridays and weekends in Lifestyle, as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.

New to DVD

Renting a DVD? BDN film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases. Those in bold print are new to stores this week.

Across the Universe – C+

American Dad, Vol. 3 – B

American Gangster – B

Balls of Fury – D+

Bee Movie – C

Beowulf – C-

The Brave One – C

Charlie Wilson’s War – B+

Cloverfield – B

Daddy Day Camp – F

Dan in Real Life – B

David Attenborough: Wildlife Specials – A

Dragon Wars – D+

Eastern Promises – A-

Elizabeth: The Golden Age – C

Enchanted – A-

Evan Almighty – C

Gone Baby Gone – B+

I Am Legend – B-

In the Valley of Elah – B+

The Jane Austen Book Club – B

Juno – A-

The Kingdom – D+

The Kite Runner – B-

Lars and the Real Girl – B+

Lions for Lambs – C

Love in the Time of Cholera – C

Lust, Caution – C

Melrose Place: Fourth Season – B-

Michael Clayton – A-

The Mist – B+

Mr. Woodcock – C-

No Country for Old Men – A

No Reservations – B-

One Missed Call – D

Ratatouille – A

Rendition – C+

The Savages – B+

The Simpson’s Movie – B+

Shoot ‘Em Up – B

Stardust – B

Sweeney Todd – A

There Will Be Blood – A

3:10 to Yuma – A

The Transformers – B+

30 Days of Night – B-

Water Horse: Legend of the Deep – B