Directed by:
Jaume Collet-SerraScreenplay:
David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrickCinematography:
Jeff CutterComposer:
John OttmanCast:
Isabelle Fuhrman, Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Karel Roden, Aryana Engineer, CCH Pounder, Jimmy Bennett, Margo Martindale, Rosemary Dunsmore (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
An outwardly angelic little girl displays an unforeseen devilish streak upon moving into the home of her new adoptive parents in this shocker starring Peter Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga. In the aftermath of a miscarriage, prospective parents Kate (Farmiga) and John (Sarsgaard) find their lives turned upside down; their marriage is falling apart, and the demons of Kate's past begin manifesting themselves in a series of horrifying nightmares. Deciding that the best means of achieving some semblance of normalcy is to simply adopt, the dejected couple visits a local orphanage. There, they are both drawn to a nine-year-old girl named Esther. But Esther isn't as sweet as first impressions suggest, and almost immediately after welcoming the young child into their home, Kate and John suspect that something is terribly wrong with their adoptive daughter. Kate can see right through Esther's seraphic charm, though her attempts to convince everyone else of the truth go unheeded by her skeptical family and friends. By the time anyone bothers to take Kate seriously, it may be too late to prevent a devastating tragedy from unfolding. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (10)
Jaume Collet-Serra, the loser responsible for the desperately routine House of Wax, is supposed to coach the evil kid, one of those who are now (theoretically) supposed to be popular? I have no idea if he’s been talked out of it since then, or kept sedated in Hollywood, but please keep on making films just like this in the future! Considering the subject matter, the film goes quite outside the established horror practices of recent years, and so we get to watch two hours of PRECISE psychological games that confirm the holy truth that horror is all about the characters. It takes courage today to make the viewer tense by having characters more or less just having a dialogue with each other, but if it gets a little rough every now and then, the scriptwriter is supported by perfect actors. The adults are flawless, and the kids too, but twelve-year-old Isabelle Fuhrman gives me the chills (although according to the photos on IMDb, she’s actually a cute girl). It’s too bad that in the end, Serra didn't have the balls to get rid of the traditional genre vice, the clichéd ending. Whether or not DiCaprio and Silver were properly aware of what they were putting out into the world, I say again: just like this!
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I do not deny the craftsmanship of Orphan, as it is a well-cast, acted, and directed horror thriller, but which unfortunately is also unbearably predictable, clichéd, and characterized by the behavior of the characters that indicates at least a complete loss of self-preservation instinct, but more so premature dementia. I don't like movies where I am constantly two steps ahead of the director. A thriller should create tension, while a horror should provoke fear. Neither of these happened, and this film simply did not work for me. Overall impression: 25%.
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My goodness, that was quite nerve-wrecking! And it starts so easygoing (if we don’t count the first scene, that is), an idyll with smart little Esther and her likeable parents and siblings; I almost didn’t want to believe anything could go wrong. And it does! In the course of half an hour, Esther turns from a cute girl into the kind of bitch you want to murder with a pickaxe between the eyes, and the psycho-terror begins. Among other things, I liked how the film builds tension – there are several times when the director gives the impression that there’s a about to be jump-scare, a chilling scene or a twist, but he rarely delivers them, which does great service to keeping and increasing the attention of the viewer. For someone like Jaume Collet-Serra, who’s made the average House of Wax, this kind of mature psychological horror is a massive surprise and a great promise for the future.
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Orphan is a very good film that certainly doesn't do its genre, the thriller, any disgrace. In the beginning, it's a kind of introduction to the characters that moves through a gradually escalating plot to a shocking conclusion. There really is something wrong with Esther, and I'm not at all surprised that the main antagonist looks a lot like the "good girl" from Case 39. It's just a shame that, due to certain circumstances, I was familiar with the twist before seeing the film and therefore followed all the clues that led to the surprising ending. In short, an above-average film that excels technically, in terms of acting (Vera Farmiga, Isabelle Fuhrman) and screenwriting.
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Such a good idea for a punchline certainly deserves better than this family (non)idyll with a stupidly behaving herd of adults and zero atmosphere. Or if not better, in any case shorter. While the first hour still works great, it gradually starts limping during the last half hour from one dumb cliché to another, in the last ten minutes becoming a parody of all of the worst genre clichés known to man. An unintentional parody, I should add. P.S.: It’s crying out for a Czech remake, we even have a perfect main protagonist (!SPOILER!) already.
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