A shiver of fear runs right through Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona's (A Monster Calls) debut - a gothic frightener about a long-abandoned orphanage with a particularly troubling past, that plays brilliantly on our profound yet unacknowledged fear of children.

Laura (Belen Rueda) has fond memories of the orphanage she grew up in. Well cared for by the staff, she loved her fellow orphans like they were her own flesh and blood. Thirty years later, accompanied by her husband Carlos (Fernando Cayo) and her 7-year-old son Simon (Roger Princep), she returns to her childhood home with a dream of restoring the now abandoned orphanage and reopening it as a home for disabled youngsters. However, it's not long before Simon starts communicating with an invisible new friend and telling strange stories. Carlos, sceptical of his son, thinks that he is just seeking attention. Then Simon disappears without trace...

A good old-fashioned horror in the best possible way, this beautifully told, terrifying ghost story lingers with you long after the shivers have stopped.

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