The 2000s may go down as the time in the horror genre in which little kids were considered scary. In North America, the trend started in 2002 with the release of The Ring, the first Hollywood effort to remake “J-Horror” (horror films from Japan). I found the film very disturbing, as did many. With all the money earned, it seemed natural to introduce some more children killers, be they processed, ghosts, or just plain demented. For me, The Ring wasn’t scary because of the girl. It was scary because the finality of the curse, its ability to make you afraid of two household items (phones and TVs, whereas Psycho only had showers), and disturbing visuals. As you can guess, the formula that has persisted skips over these points.
Orphan centers around Kate Coleman (Vera Farmiga), a mother of two and former Yale professor. Revealed through some clever dialogue, she lost her third child just prior to birth, and this was due to her drinking problem. After taking every opportunity to point this out to the audience, she finally concludes that she needs a third child. Truthfully, the homerun suggestion comes from a touching scene shared with daughter Max (Aryana Engineer) who is deaf and requesting a bedtime story. Despite being the scene stealer of the film, Aryana was under some questionable direction as she giggles joyfully during the reading of a children’s book on the subject of stillbirth.
Enter Esther, an artistic, introvert, orphan. Smitten with her Kate and hubby (Peter Sarsgaard) take her home to join the family. The danger doesn’t appear to kick in till Esther is provoked. However, once the twist is revealed, the level of foreshadowing is strikingly extensive. I’ll say this of the twist; I saw it coming about halfway into the movie, and it was different that my initial conjecture, so I was pleased by it. Other pleasing aspects can be found in the shot composition, which is working around an otherwise bland environment. Most of the characters have some dimension showcased through flaws as well.
Many things failed to engage me. Esther has one prized possession, and it has written on its cover all the clues one would need to bust her. When she starts her homicidal rage, the father of the family is blinded by seemingly nothing. In fact, there is dialogue clearly pointing out how he’s overlooking the obvious. Orphan is rated R for a surprising amount of sexual content, language, and spurts of graphic violence. For a movie geared toward adults, it does play the dumb card. Key information is revealed 3 to 5 times. Sometimes the audience gets the reveal. Then we wait for the characters to catch up, effectively negating suspense. I feel for Daniel (Jimmy Bennett), the son of the family. His only purpose in the film is to die. Unfortunately, Esther has a tough time with him despite appearing to succeed with each attempt. He’s Daffy Duck and the time spent on him only drags the simple story to its two-hour mark. Indeed, this kind of treatment makes things less than thrilling. Don’t adopt this one. **
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