DVDs of the week

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The Orphanage: as scary as The Shining?

Owen Wilson: perfectly cast as a high-school bodyguard

Screamer: Teen slasher flick at its best

Drama: Del Toro and Berry put in fine performances

From the writer of The Squid and the Whale: well acted and brutally honest

DVD OF THE WEEK
The Orphanage
Optimum Home Entertainment, 15, £19.99
*****
Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy) may only 'present' here but his fingerprints are all over this supernatural Gothic thriller. Possibly the scariest movie since The Shining, this absorbing story sees 37-year-old Laura (Belén Rueda) return to her former orphanage, a spooky old Spanish pile, intending to reopen it as a home for handicapped children. When her adopted son Simón, a seven-year-old infected with HIV, mysteriously vanishes, too late does a frantic Laura recall his fanciful burblings about 'imaginary' playmates.

Young debut Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona masterfully orchestrates a jangling sense of unease. The pacing is perfect, the cinematography rich and painterly. The bonus being that, as well as scares, this boasts a maturely realised subtext about parental fears. Original as it is, like The Others, the utter creepiness of the melodrama prickles up on you like a game of grandmother's footsteps. I dare you to watch it in the dark alone...

Extras: This two-disc edition includes making-of featurette, deleted scenes, casting and rehearsals, director's Q&A, storyboards and interviews with Bayona and Del Toro.
Larushka Ivan-Zadeh

Drillbit Taylor
Paramount, 12, £19.99
***
The first day of high school is tough for Wade, Ryan and Emmit: they want popularity, girls and cool nicknames; instead, a minor fashion disaster and some foolish smart-mouthing means the dorky trio are routinely duffed up by the school bullies and routinely thwacked into lockers.

Their solution? To hire a bodyguard - but their pennies can only stretch to Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson), a deadbeat of dubious morals who insists he was dropped from special ops for 'unauthorised heroism'. Laid-back charmer Wilson is perfectly cast as the older brother figure who guides the scared lads to their predictable, high-five, coming-of-age ending.

As you'd expect from the makers of Superbad, there's much warmth and fuzziness surrounding its similarly likeable triumvirate of shorts-wearing protagonists. But if you were a fan of that earlier Judd Apatow hit, you'll find this junior version slightly short-changes you.

Extras: Commentary, writer interviews, deleted and extended scenes, Line-O-Rama, gag reel.
Sharon Lougher

All The Boys Love Mandy Lane
Optimum, 18, £17.99
****
On its theatrical release, some nitwits criticised the thoroughly enjoyable All The Boys Love Mandy Lane for being too formulaic. Nincompoops! Surely that's the most enjoyable aspect of the teen slasher flick? This is perfect in its adherence to the slasher rules and ideal for party viewing. Neck a shot as the teens arrive at a remote ranch house. Have another when the mysterious stranger pops up. Down them as the teens are picked off one by one in a range of grisly ways (hint: it's best to avoid having oral sex with your boyfriend in a spooky barn when a psycho is roaming the grounds). It's a recipe for alcohol poisoning but Mandy Lane is a nifty little paean to the golden age of the teen horror flick.

The opening sequence alone is an inspired critique of adolescent social mores as new girl at school, the shapely but hapless Mandy, is pestered by her meathead classmates - with hilariously bloody results. If you want highbrow buy something foreign with subtitles - but Mandy Lane does exactly what its genre demands. And Amber Heard (Mandy) is an excellent screamer!

Extras: Interview with Amber Heard.
Andrew Williams

Things We Lost In The Fire
Paramount, 15, £19.99
***
The title is a mouthful and the plot is contrived but, somehow, Things We Lost In The Fire hits the spot, providing solid drama centred on two fine performances.

Halle Berry sheds a good chunk of her itchy Catwoman fur by sinking her teeth into the role of a widow coming to terms with the violent death of her husband. As part of the grieving process, she takes his troubled friend, played by Benicio del Toro, into her home. The premise does the duo no favours - a mother of two young children is unlikely to host a recovering heroin addict she barely knows - but they keep the film from sliding into sentimental mush.

Del Toro does his usual trick of making a character both likeable and dangerous, while Berry also impresses - a scene where she shouts at her children will jolt anyone who's ever had a scolding.

Some of the action doesn't quite ring true but the two leads just about rescue the material from the dreaded descent into melodrama.
Extras: Featurette, deleted scenes and trailer.
Ross McGuinness

Margot At The Wedding
Paramount, 15, £19.99
****
Pity the characters in a Noah Baumbach film; they're all messy accidents waiting to happen. Having picked up an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for divorce drama The Squid And The Whale, the writer-director brings the same sensitive eye to a Long Island household in Margot At The Wedding. Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is about to tie the knot with slovenly artist Malcolm (Jack Black) but it's the presence of the rebarbative Margot (Nicole Kidman) that strikes sparks during the wedding preparations.

A minefield of explosive information about other people's flaws, Margot's sisterly advice cuts like hot shrapnel into those around her, including her own son Claude (Zane Pais). A low-key drama about highly-strung folk, Margot At The Wedding is often shrill and neurotic but it's well acted and brutally honest, masterfully building to a resonant, haunting coda that deftly alters the focus of everything that's gone before.

Extras: A short, grandly titled A Conversation Between Noah Baumbach And Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Eddie Harrison

 

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