Orphan Movie Review 101

 

Orphan was directed by Juame Collet-Serra who also directed the terrible House of Wax remake. It stars Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard and Isabelle Fuhrman.

The movie begins with a woman called Kate Coleman(Farmiga) and her husband, John(Sarsgaard) who want to have another child after they lost a child. They decide to adopt and when they see the young Esther(Fuhrman), they like her immediately. She seems a bit strange and she is very different from the other children. She seems more mature. They decide to take her home with them. They introduce Esther to their daughter, Maxine(Aryana Engineer) who is deaf and their son, Daniel(Jimmy Bennett). Daniel is wary of Esther as she is weird and he doesn't want her in the house. When Esther goes to school, she gets teased by some of her classmates because she dresses in old fashioned dresses and she carries around a bible with her. She gets her back on the bully by causing her to have an accident and break her arm. We see that Esther is no normal 9 year old girl. She is evil.

Kate wonders if Esther has some problems and when she talks to the nun at the orphanage, the nun warns them about Esther and her troublesome ways.The nun meets a sticky end when she is murdered by Esther. Maxine witnesses this, but Esther frightens her so much that she is afraid to tell the truth. Daniels sees them and he sees them hiding something and that night he is visited by Esther who threatens him if he says anything. Kate is getting worried now especially since the nun is discovered dead and she tries to look into Esther's background in Russia, her native country. Esther knows this and she uses the fact that Kate was an alcoholic to try and make everyone think that Kate is lapsing back into her drunken ways. She sets up various scenarios that make Kate look mentally unsound.

John is wondering what has happened to his wife. She seems to be losing her grip on her life and he doesn't believe Kate when she tries to tell him about Esther. Daniel  finds out about the murder weapon that Esther hid and he makes Max show him where it is. He hides it in his tree house which Esther sets alight. Daniel jumps to the ground and he is injured, but Esther isn't finished yet. She tries to kill him again. She doesn't succeed. He is taken to the hospital and Kate is sure that Esther had something to do with it and she attacks her. Kate is sedated by the doctors and she is taken into hospital. John goes home with Max and Esther.

That night, Esther puts on her best glad rags and tries to come on to John who reacts with disgust. Esther is furious and she goes mental and kills him. We find out that she is not a child at all, but she has some rare disease which makes her look like a child when she is actually 33 years of age. So, she goes on a rampage and Kate has to stop her....

This movie was very good. I liked it a lot. There were scares and lots of things happening to keep it moving.

I would definitely recommend this. I am going to give it a 9/10.