Belen Rueda during a scene from "The Orphanage." (AP Photo/Picturehouse)

Floors creak. Doors slam. Hidden passages lead to secret compartments. Ratty old dolls show up out of nowhere.

Are these playful signs from the children who lived in "The Orphanage" long ago, or a harbinger of something more sinister? That's the mystery in this well-crafted if familiar haunted-house story, the first feature from young Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona.

Guillermo del Toro serves as one of the film's producers, and Bayona, working from a script by Sergio Sanchez, seems to be aiming for the same mix of the real and the supernatural that del Toro himself achieved last year with his excellent "Pan's Labyrinth." It's a tough balance to strike, and it's even tougher to live up to comparisons to such a cinematic original. ("The Orphanage" is actually more reminiscent of Alejandro Amenabar's super-creepy "The Others," starring Nicole Kidman.)

Nevertheless, Bayona sucks us in with subtle scares, surprising understatement and naturally dramatic light. (Oscar Faura is the cinematographer.) And except for one jolting scene, there's practically zero bloodshed -- just good, old-fashioned suspense.

Belen Rueda is wiry and intense as Laura, a former ward of the orphanage who returns to the house 30 years later with her doctor husband, Carlos (Fernando Cayo), and their adopted son, Simon (Roger Princep). In the movie's prologue, we see a young Laura happily playing tag on the lawn with the other orphans; now, she and her husband have plans to turn the rambling home on the Spanish coast into a place for kids with special needs.

Simon doesn't know he's adopted, nor does he know he has a serious illness. Despite his big brown eyes and cherubic curls, there's something eerie about him and his propensity for playing with imaginary friends. Mom and Dad just figure it's a phase and they humor him, hoping it will end soon.

Then on the day Laura and Carlos have planned a garden party for the children who are going to move in -- a party where everyone wears slightly off-kilter masks, adding to the unsettling vibe -- Simon goes missing. Six months pass. Everyone assumes the boy must be dead, and that Laura must be crazy for sensing he's still alive. Her feelings of grief and guilt are palpable.

A police psychologist (Mabel Rivera) searches for clues in vain. But a paranormal (Geraldine Chaplin) who goes into a trance and tours the house like something out of "Poltergeist" comes closer to determining what happened to Simon, and how it may be connected to the harrowing fate of orphans who lived there decades ago.

"Your pain gives you strength. It will guide you," she tells Laura. "But only you know how far you are willing to go."

"The Orphanage" may take a couple of twists too many toward the end, but where it goes is effectively frightening.

The Orphanage
Cast: Fernando Cayo, Roger Princep, Mabel Rivera, Geraldine Chaplin.
Running time: 100 minutes.
Rating: R; some disturbing content.

-- By Christy Lemire / Associated Press