'If films are the dreams of mass culture... horror films are the nightmares.' (Stephen King, Danse Macarbre) The horror film genre has been designed for many different purposes; it is generally about causing terror and creating a rush of adrenaline in the audience, as well as presenting a fear of death by opening up the dark side of life, without the audience being harmed. (Freeman, 2010) The two films that will be critically analyzed are Sinister, directed by Scott Derrickson (2012) and the original Spanish film, "El Orfanato", (The Orphan) directed by JABayona. (2007) The main characteristics of a horror film include a focus on themes such as good versus evil, death, mental problems, and the supernatural. Horror film settings are usually located in places that make the protagonist vulnerable. For example, popular locations include isolated and dark areas, haunted houses, old churches, orphanages, and hospitals. Both films attempt to cover these themes. The selected sequence in The Orphanage was the "toilet sequence", which focuses on the protagonist Laura, played by Belen Rueda. In this sequence, sound plays a fairly important role. Without sound, there would be no suspense or fear in the film. With all the elements of the film and the added sound, it creates terror among the audience. In the sequence, diegetic and non-diegetic sounds are illustrated. At the beginning of the scene, children are laughing, but when Laura enters, the laughter begins to echo and the music begins to fade. This embodies the idea of ​​the spirits awakening in the house, as it begins to become quiet and every time the house is quiet the ghosts begin to appear. In this sequence, the sound also contrasts with the light...... middle of paper ...... ng masks in the sequence, thus creating a mystery for who might be a ghost, whereas in Sinister it is much more It is clear who the ghosts are, as shown by the scars and facial expressions of the dead. The mental states of the two protagonists are illustrated quite differently in the scene, Laura seems to be hallucinating the child, but Ellison cannot see anything but can only sense the presence of the supernatural. Overall, in Sinister and The Orphanage, they used many common features of a horror genre, where they created scenes of fear, terror and freezing in the viewers. Sinister explored themes of desire for too much power, the supernatural, good versus evil, and hysteria through the use of iconography. While The Orphanage emphasized themes of mental problems, the supernatural, and the power of home versus family..