Orphan
Words: Ceri Padley (Sprout Editorial Group)
Orphan (2009)
Rating: 15
Release Date: August 9, 2009
3½/5
Fresh from the crop of newly-released Film Festival treats comes this new suspense thriller. Having lost their third baby at birth, Kate and John Coleman are looking to adopt an older child into their growing family. They meet and fall in love with Esther, a 9-year-old orphan from Russia with an extraordinary English vocabulary and talent for the arts. Though it is clear that Esther is ‘different’ from the other children, Kate and John decide to bring her into their family and create a home for her. After a few unusual incidents at the house, however, Kate begins to suspect that Esther isn’t quite what she seems.
If this sounds like your typical scary movie plot, you wouldn’t be far off. We’ve all seen the spooky story about mysterious people with thick foreign accents not quite able to fit into society but when it comes to this film, somehow, it works. Rather than follow Kate (Vera Farmiga) on her quest to find out whether her new daughter is really who she says she is, this film does what many thrillers don’t – shows us what the characters don’t know. We’re right next to Esther through every gruesome detail of her ‘accidents’ and are there to witness the lies she continues to unfold to her unsuspecting father and wary mother. We know from the first half hour that Esther is dangerous and that is why this film succeeds at creating the tension and atmosphere all good thrillers are made of. There’s only one thing scarier than a suspected psychopath, and that’s a proven psychopath. Esther’s power over her new brother and sister (who are also witnesses to her psychotic tendencies) is spine-chilling. She holds them – and us - prisoners in their own house, taking away their free will and ability to tell the ‘grown-ups’ what’s really going on.
Unfortunately, what begins as a strong story, pulling the audience in to the ambience of every scene, fails at an equally-potent climax. The ‘twist’ feels too last-minute thought-up, and what could have been an original piece of cinema is rushed and tainted with silliness and fight scenes that have been recreated over and over before.
In spite of this, the performances from the actors are strong. Twelve-year-old Isabelle Fuhrman has found her breakout role as Esther, adopting a Russian accent and numerous guises to tempt, tease, and terrify the audience into never forgetting her. She shines at drawing us in with her soft-spoken voice and excels at creating the best jolts of fear.
King of the character actors, Peter Sarsgaard (Jarhead, Flight Plan) makes the most out of a one-dimensional father role, and Farmiga (The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas) shows enough heart and courage to make us forget that her character’s ‘demons’ are nothing new.
Those who love a good scare will get everything they want out of Orphan, though it’s best to be warned that scenes can get quite gruesome and gory at times. Director, Jaume Collet-Serra, has made sure to hold nothing back.
2 Comments – Post a comment
dirty
Commented 30 months ago - 21st August 2009 - 17:43pm
It looks like you beat me to writing this, but here's my review:
Dark Castle Entertainment has never been known to produce shoddy horror films with a string of impressive releases under their belt including Gothika and Ghost Ship. This, mixed with Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra most famous for his 'House of Wax, this seemed a horror film union that couldn't be missed for horror fans.
A tragic stillborn birth followed by many other skeletons haunts the Coleman family when the parents decide to adopt a Russian orphan in an attempt to 'start over'. Things go smoothly at first, but as the film's trailer suggests, there's a hidden depth to this Russian nine year-old orphan that goes unnoticed for quite some time.
Revealing an intricate and complex story, the twists and turns during this film may seem cliched and almost funny at times, a lot more could have been done. Stars include Peter Saarsgad (the Skeleton Key)as the father, Verga Farminga (the Boy in Striped Pyjamas) but unarguably the best performance came from the spectacular twelve-year old Isabelle Furham who wandered into this movie with just one previous film under her belt to play the psychotic Esther.
Not as scary as the similarly named 'The Orphanage', but scary nonetheless, it's one of the more decent horror movies that's come out so far this year. 'Orphan' didn't win any awards, a shame considering some of the performances in the film.
A medicore plot, plenty of gore and a whackload of psychologically horror, a somewhat impressive second movie for Collet-Serra, good, but it could have been better. It follows in the tradition of the Saw series, shock-horror and many bloody scenes will leave many hard-core horror fans dissapointed.
7 stars out of ten.
megan9428
Commented 28 months ago - 22nd October 2009 - 06:30am
i didn't like this film at all!
i thourght it was very strange :P