NICO MONETTI | staff writer

Spanish films, like The Orphange, are gaining popularity in Hollywood.

Directed by an up-and-coming Spanish director and staring Spanish actors, The Orphanage is part of a growing trend in filmmaking.

“In a country like Mexico, low budget films are really low budget. I think the new trend is due to access to technology,” professional actor Nick Richie said. “With a country as close to us as Mexico, it’s only a matter of time before their films have more widespread success here in the U.S.”

Guillermo del Torro has shown that a director can gain popularity wihout the support of Hollywood. studios. Being the driving force behind Academy Award-winning films like Pan’s Labyrinth, del Toro has made his mark in Hollywood. His most recent film, The Orphanage, has made a modest dent in the American box office and has received several raving reviews, including this one.

In the tradition of The Sixth Sense, the movie relies on a well-developing mysterious story while adding dashes of unexpected chilling visual effects.

The methodically creepy film centers around caring middle-aged Laura, played by Belen Rueda, her loving yet cynical physician husband Carlos, played by Fernando Caya, and their innocent and curious adopted son Simon, played by Roger Princep. While Simon spends his days playing with a group of imaginary friends, his parents dismiss his behavior as a way of dealing with leaving his friends and civilization. Coincidently, Simon and his family live in a large, abandoned mansion that, at one time, served as the orphanage where his mother was raised.

When a mysterious old woman, who holds her true identity as tightly as she holds her gray hair in a bun, appears claiming to be a social worker, Simon’s imaginary friends start to play games that render Simon missing.

After months of searching, Laura and Carlos turn to less-conventional means to find their presumably kidnapped son. Through the help of ghost hunters, Laura soon learns her son’s “friends” are far more than imaginary.

The Orphanage is the latest addition to a wave of foreign films written, directed and produced by Mexican filmmakers. The Mexican film, Babel, which featured Brad Pitt, caused a stir when it took home one of seven Oscar nominations last year.

“[Babel] expresses all the different cultures and struggles within the different traditions,” junior psychology major Everson Marsh said. “What the movie went around saying is that people are of differing cultures, but across the board there’s a difficulty in assimilating cultures.”

In addition to deep, preachy films, Mexican writers and directors have also contributed captivatingly imaginative and visually driven films like El Laberinto del Fauno, better known in America as Pan’s Labyrinth. The film, fitted for U.S. audiences with subtitles, has, to date, grossed almost $40 million in the States alone and received three Oscars in the six categories it was nominated.

“I really enjoyed [Pan’s Labyrinth] for its artistic value...and the fact that they came from the bilingual aspect,” sophomore global studies major Megan Sheehan said. “I believe [a bilingual environment] is something the American culture needs now. I appreciate that that’s something these directors are doing now.”

The numbers and trophies show that Mexican-made films are as welcome in American movie theatres as overpriced Milk Duds.