THE DEADBOLT: Do you think the film has a happy ending?

BAYONA: No. What I think is that we give you two different endings and you can think for yourself. In fact, there is a final sequence where a door opens to the audience. It's an invitation to let you interpret the story on your own. That's what I really like about the script. That was one of the problems with the workshop with the people from Sundance. All these people were telling him that it was an impossible thing to do. But that's one of the things I really liked and made the movie so unique.

THE DEADBOLT: They were telling you an open ending was wrong?

SANCHEZ: Basically, anything that's unique about this film, they didn't like. There's all these people who write books like Syd Field or Robert McKee who will tell you there's this box you have to fit into. "Act one must finish on page 29." All that stuff. They said it's a mixture of genres and that's impossible. They said horror and drama are like oil and water. You can not mix them. You have to pick one. "There's no bad guy." I said fear is the villain and that it's fear that drives it. Being unable to deal with fear in a healthy way. They wanted us to keep [character excised for spoiler reasons] alive until the very end so that they could have like a big fight scene. Why? It was not just one comment. Most production companies in Spain said no to the script. And now it's made big money.

THE DEADBOLT: So, how do you fight against that? You just stick to your convictions?

SANCHEZ: Yeah. I just stuck there. I gave up a bit because I was going to direct but I handed it to Juan Antonio and said if you can do anything with it you're welcome to have it. And now the film is the highest grossing film of the year in Spain and it's probably going to become the highest grossing film ever in the Spanish language there. So, now it's funny that all these production companies said no.

THE DEADBOLT: Do you believe in ghosts?

SANCHEZ: There's one character in the movie who says, "Seeing is not believing, it's the other way around." I want to believe, therefore, I think I've seen things. But I'm not sure any of those are real.

BAYONA: No, I don't believe in them, but I'm afraid of them.

THE DEADBOLT:We've spoken a lot about Polanski and older films. Are there any current directors you admire?

SANCHEZ: A very obvious answer but I'm still in awe of Steven Spielberg. I think he's going through his second golden age right now. A.I., for example, is a film we discussed a lot during the making of The Orphanage. Especially the mother stuff and it was very hard for us to come to an agreement on what the ending should be like. It's there on the page but a lot depends on how you shoot that. It could have gone in many directions. I love the ending of A.I. I thought it was really sad and devastating and I could not get why everybody was saying, "Oh, the ending was too sweet." I was saying "What the hell? This is so hard. The boy wants to die so he can become human and you're saying it's too sweet?"

BAYONA: Also, the ending - the needing of someone who's not real.

SANCHEZ: Putting your faith in something that you know doesn't exist.

THE DEADBOLT: Can you tell us about the script you're working on for Guillermo?

SANCHEZ: It's called 3993 and it's supposed to close a trilogy with Pan's Labyrinth and The Devil's Backbone about the Spanish Civil War. It's about a woman who goes back to this mining town and she wants to open a coal mine that's been closed for years. So, she gets this team of miners and they go down the mineshaft. There's a common grave there were 39 bodies were dumped from the Civil War. And they go in there and they start running into trouble. And then there's a major twist that they would not allow me to tell you about. It might be his next film after Hellboy II but there might be another project in there first. Guillermo is like announcing a new project every other week.

BAYONA: I'm working on a wonderful story and will work together with Sergio again. And it's also very beautiful and devastating.

SANCHEZ: It's a sci-fi love story with hardly any sci-fi in it. [They both laugh.]