Orphan

I love the concept of killer kids. I’m a huge fan of the original Omen and am fairly certain that I will never be able to comfortably watch a child innocently playing with her doll or swinging on a swing and singing softly without it causing me to get an axe. However, I wasn’t expecting much from this movie. Partially because it had a wide spread hype and I tend to not believe the opinions of others because other people are unintelligent and easily amused.

After the stillbirth of their third child, a family tries to move forward with their plans of family extension by visiting an orphanage; this is usually a bad idea, if we choose to believe precedent – all stillbirths in horror movies lead to something even worse. A little Russian girl makes an instant connection with the parents-to-be; after they learn of her tragic past, the deal is sealed and she becomes the third and final child.

While the starring couple have their obvious problems based around the stillbirth of their child (alcoholism, extramarital affairs) they seem to be getting along fairly well and Esther seems perfectly normal for a child with such a tragic past. We quickly see that she’s a little more monstrous than we first anticipated.

Isabelle Fuhrman (Esther) is an amazing little actress and backed by Vera Farmiga, the emotions in this movie are entirely believable. They carry the movie in such a way that I felt it difficult to critique the other actors; basically they were good by association.

The body count is low and I wasn’t overly impressed with the style or timing of the kills. However, the evil acts Esther commits in order to make herself look pitiful (breaking her own arm) more than compensate. This coupled with the performance she gives to pit the parents against one another, single-out the already weak mother and attempt at paternal seduction make the movie worth a watch, despite the lack of abundant gore.

The twist at the end of the film makes this movie completely different from others of its kind. There’s no astonishingly demonic spirit or curse that is making Esther this way. It’s just who she is. And who she is isn’t anything like anyone else has ever been.