BY GLENN WHIPP > FILM CRITIC

"The Orphanage" comes courtesy of a "presented by" credit for Guillermo del Toro, and the name, combined with the movie's late-December release date, is designed to remind you of the cold shiver that ran down your spine last year when you saw del Toro's great horror fantasy "Pan's Labyrinth."

There are similarities -- a heaping of creepy atmospherics, an overt reference to a classic children's story (this time it's "Peter Pan") -- but the differences between the two movies are greater. Chief among them: Unlike del Toro, "Orphanage" director Juan Antonio Bayona is unable to find much in the way of spiritual meaning from Sergio Sanchez's paper-thin screenplay.

From the evidence, however, Bayona is decidedly more interested in making you jump than think. And for a good hour, "The Orphanage" giddily jumps from shock to shock, cribbing from "The Innocents" and "The Others," Argento and Amenabar and (naturally) the film's presenter himself.

But when it's time to put up or shut up, the filmmakers try to stuff a giant lump of grief and guilt down our throats, despite the fact that nothing presented even remotely coheres with what we've already seen. Talk about the horror!

The movie revolves around a woman named Laura (Belen Rueda) returning to the orphanage where she was raised. Laura and her husband (Fernando Cayo) plan to refurbish the home and turn it into a refuge for kids with special needs. Turns out their own child, little Simon (Roger Princep), might need their attention more after his jaunts with his imaginary friends become more intense and protracted.

You don't have to possess a sixth sense to know the nature of Simon's sidekicks. But he's not the only one keeping secrets. In short order, we meet a freaky social worker (Montserrat Carulla) and discover that Bayona can effectively scare the bejesus out of you whether he's using a burlap sack mask or a routine walk across the street.

Can camera tricks and production design compensate for a strangely sentimental ending and a disappointing lack of story logic? Can Rueda's expressive acting and a nifty ghost-busting turn by Geraldine Chaplin make up for a movie whose best ideas were stolen from other, better films?

"Believe and you will see," says one of Simon's invisible pals. If you swear by ghost stories, you'll probably have little problem swallowing the otherworldly scenarios contained in "The Orphanage."

Skeptics might want to check out "Sweeney Todd" next door.

Glenn Whipp, (818) 713-3672

THE ORPHANAGE


R: some disturbing content.
Starring: Belen Rueda.
Director: Juan Antonio Bayona.
Running time: 1 hr. 45 min.
Playing: AMC Burbank 16; Arclight in Hollywood; The Landmark in West Los Angeles.
In a nutshell: Spanish ghost story goes for shock over substance. Some of the shocks are pretty good, though. In Spanish with English subtitles.