Orphan: First Kill

Esther is back! The prequel obviously falls short of the cult-classic original and was a losing battle beforehand, but I still have to admit that as a psychothriller it works relatively well. William Brent Bell has made his second best film after The Boy, and the effort certainly can't be denied. We follow Leena Klammer, who escapes from an asylum (a pretty decent massacre right off the bat) and cleverly infiltrates another family posing as their missing daughter. Visually it looks B-ish, but it didn't bother me that much. The acting is passable, and the family is pretty twisted, which I liked (some of the dialogue is unexpectedly quite sharp). The main twist that comes in the first half is cleverly contrived and the whole film immediately takes on a different tone, with the psycho atmosphere building up nicely. The film is spoiled a bit by the fact that it's a prequel, so we know nothing can happen to Esther. The gore could have been more nutritious, but that's not really the point. I had fun, there were elements I liked a lot, some things could have been better, but in the end, satisfaction prevails. Slightly above average. 65%. (09/10/2022)

For how relatively pointless this prequel seemed from the first announcement, and how I couldn't even imagine that it could be functional plot-wise, it was ultimately watchable with moderate expectations. The quality drop from the first one is considerable, like Child's Play and Child's Play 2, which also didn't come up with anything particularly new, but it was fun. The screenplay at least comes up with a rather entertaining twist halfway through, which, although it already reaches into very B-movie and silly realms, makes the film work all the more as a black comedy, where it's fun to watch the main characters tiptoeing together. It just needed more black humour, as it ended up somewhere in the middle. It’s not great, but it’s not awful. (08/08/2022)

Already after the first 20 minutes, where the "little girl" beats up the burly guard without any problems, and where the father doesn't recognize his missing daughter and without noticing any differences takes a 30-year-old killer with a different accent and appearance and wrinkles into the house and considers her to be his Esther, I wanted to turn the film off without any hesitation - I haven't seen such a logical shitfest in a long time. Unfortunately for me, I didn't and bravely watched the film to the end. On the one hand, the twist explains some of the original logical holes, on the other hand, unfortunately not all of them, and there's still a bunch of nonsense. Hand on heart, casting a 25 year old actress in the role of a 10 year old kid is a flub in itself, Esther overacts, everyone acts like morons, logic goes completely by the wayside and it's clear that this is just a forced sequel trying to cash in on the nostalgia of the first film. I saw the twist coming 20 minutes ahead, it's just as nonsensical as the rest of the film and as a result it's actually a completely different thing to the original Orphan. A strange and pointless film, devoid of ideas and atmosphere, and although it can been forced through, I think I could have skipped it entirely in good conscience. (08/21/2022)