The film stars Belén Rueda as Laura, Fernando Cayo as her husband, Carlos, and Roger Príncep as their adopted son Simón.

It received domestic critical acclaim in Spain, and won seven Goya awards, including Original Screenplay and New Director.

30 years later, adult Laura returns to the closed orphanage, accompanied by her husband, Carlos Sánchez Rivera, and their seven-year-old son, Simón.

Simón claims to have befriended a boy named Tomás, and draws pictures of him as a child wearing a sack mask.

A few weeks after Laura was adopted, the orphans stole the mask that Tomás wore to conceal his deformed face and damaged eye.

Embarrassed, Tomás refused to leave his hiding place in a nearby sea cave, and the rising tide drowned him.

Benigna poisoned their meals and killed them for having caused Tomás's death and hid their remains in the orphanage's coal shed.

Laura makes the orphanage look as it did thirty years prior and attempts to contact the children's spirits by playing one of their old games.

"[9] Sánchez revealed the literary influences underlying his writing of the script, such as The Turn of the Screw and Peter Pan.

[10] While Sánchez was working on the short film 7337 in 2004, he met with director Juan Antonio Bayona and offered him the script to direct.

[12] Bayona cut parts of the script, including the outcome of the other orphanage children, because he wanted to focus on the character of Laura and what happens to her.

[14] Bayona stated that he wanted the film to have "the mood of 70s Spanish cinema and Geraldine starred in one of the best movies of that decade, Carlos Saura's The Secret of Anna, as the ghost of the mother.

[14] This location was chosen due to the area's diverse natural settings that include beaches, caves, cliffs, forests, a small village, and the Partarríu Manor where the orphanage scenes take place.

[32] Fessenden later announced that he would not be involved with directing the remake, stating "Working on the script with Guillermo was a very exciting experience, but then I got into a casting miasma and that's where the thing is; I think they're gonna do it another way, actually.

[34] On August 5, 2011, Guillermo del Toro stated that the remake would reflect his original vision for the film, and that it had been planned even when the first version was in production.

"We have Mark Pellington attached as director – I'm a big fan of his The Mothman Prophecies and his video work – and we are out to actors, so we're hoping to get things going soon.

"[35] On August 30, 2011, it was reported that American actress Amy Adams was in talks to star as Laura, the main character, who was played by Belén Rueda in the original film.

It was also stated that the current incarnation of the remake screenplay had been written by Larry Fessenden and Sergio G. Sánchez, the sole writer of the original film.

[36] On August 27, 2021, in an exclusive interview with Bloody Disgusting's Jason Jenkins, Fessenden said that once he left, the project was shelved indefinitely.

The critical consensus reads, "Deeply unnerving and surprisingly poignant, The Orphanage is an atmospheric, beautifully crafted haunted house horror film that earns scares with a minimum of blood.

[40] Bill Goodykoontz of the Arizona Republic echoed this statement noting, "Bayona never lets The Orphanage descend into cheap horror.

[41] Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune shared this opinion saying, "Rueda has a great pair of peepers for this assignment.

"[44] A negative review came from Lacey of The Globe and Mail, who felt that at "[the film's] core, it seems intended as a sympathetic drama of a bereaved mother, who may have slipped into madness.

What's even more disquieting is the persistent undercurrent of exploitation – the mixture of grief and jarring shock effects and the pitiless use of a disfigured child as a source of horror.

"[44] A. O. Scott of The New York Times claimed the film to be a "diverting, overwrought ghost story" and that it "relies on basic and durable horror movie techniques".

[45] Jack Matthews of New York Daily News found the ending of the film to be one of the worst of the season, but praised the acting of Belén Rueda.

[46] The Orphanage listed as one of the top 10 best films of 2007 by several critics, including Lawrence Toppman of the Charlotte Observer, Marc Doyle of Metacritic and Tasha Robinson of The A.V.

[49] In 2007, the film score was composed by Fernando Velázquez and released on compact disc by Rhino Records in Spain.