So, when I saw the commercials and trailers for ORPHAN, I was pretty much already writing it off as another predictable “cute kid is evil” kind of thing. I mean really—how many different ways can movieland show us kids that start off all nicey-nice but, as time moves on, they start killing off pets, siblings, and nannies until they’re revealed to be evil (either Satan evil or regular evil … either way). ORPHAN is actually not quite what it seems, though, and turns out to be, convention and all, one of the best mainstream scary movies I’ve seen from America in a while.
It’s the classic story of parents, in this case, Kate and John Coleman (Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard), who have suffered a miscarriage and would like to go the adoption route. Instead of bringing an infant into the home they share with their two children, however, the Colemans decide to take in an older child who’s been a little more difficult to place. That’s where Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) comes in. Sure she’s a little quirky, with her old fashioned dresses, her funny Russian accent, and a few mysterious habits, but she seems to be making herself at home. Then people begin to hurt … some even end up dead … and though Kate starts to grow suspicious of her new “daughter,” Esther isn’t about to let her new family unravel … or lose her new daddy.
Going in, there’s no secret that this girl is going to be trouble, and again, this is just one in a long line of evil kid films (THE BAD SEED, THE OMEN, THE GOOD SON). For my money, though, Isabelle Fuhrman is possibly the best actor to come from any of those. She is able to take a movie that could’ve been just an OK horror film and make it must-see all the way through. And the twist, without revealing too much, is pretty original—even though I had already been spoiled going in, I don’t think I would’ve caught on—and again, Fuhrman carries it superbly. The rest of the cast is exceptional as well, with Farmiga bringing out the helplessness and frustration of a woman who is fighting for her family’s survival and for their trust, Sarsgaard bringing an understated confusion and exasperation to a role that’s a little more complex than it seems at first glance, and newcomer Aryana Engineer almost stealing the unstealable show from Fuhrman as the Coleman’s deaf daughter Max.
As for the scary, it’s real. Not necessarily jump out “BOO!” scary, but a fear that comes from a building up of the unknown—we may know Esther’s getting more evil by the minute, but seeing what she’s capable of doing, there’s never a moment of safety, and the characters that we actually come to care about are all in actual danger. There are also some very original touches to some tried and true plot elements (it’s no surprise that Esther has an unnatural attraction to her adopted dad, but the “reveal” of her paintings is chilling). I gotta hand it to director Jaume Collet-Serra—he’s come a long way since HOUSE OF WAX!
Overall, it may be familiar territory in a lot of ways, but ORPHAN excels because it manages to throw in some original twists, some actual disturbing and scary moments, and a few of the best child actors to come along in a while.
– Amber Goddard
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
