After orchestrating a brilliant escape from an Estonian psychiatric facility, Esther travels to America by impersonating the missing daughter of a wealthy family.
In retrospect, critics may have been a bit harsh on Jaume Collet-Serra’s “spooky child” horror flick “Orphan.” Anchored by a chilling central performance by Isabelle Fuhrman and ending on a twist that balanced the fine line between “jaw-dropping” and “ludicrous,” the inventive film’s biggest flaw may have been its somewhat excessive length. Still, some of my peers referred to it as a “depraved, worthless piece of filth,” “silly, overlong,” and “garish and plodding.” Audiences, however, lapped it up; “Orphan” quickly became a cult classic, and now, 13 years after its release, its follow-up, William Brent Bell’s “Orphan: First Kill,” arrives on Blu-ray™ and Paramount+. Shockingly, it may be just as good as its predecessor.
Fuhrman returns as the sinister not-quite-a-child, Esther. After escaping to the US from an Estonian psychiatric ward, she impersonates the missing daughter of the affluent Tricia (Julia Stiles) and Allen (Rossif Sutherland) Albright. Soon enough, bodies start piling up. Just when you think you know exactly where the plot is going, a clever twist halfway through shifts things around, and the killer becomes the victim. I’ll avoid spoiling more — but let’s just say that this time, there’s also something wrong with the Albrights.
Bell doesn’t beat around the bush, his direction as efficient and stylish as it was lackluster in his previous horror outings, like “Brahms: The Boy II” and “The Devil Inside.” This time, he seems to have learned from his mistakes and adds a touch of melancholy to the proceedings, a tangible anxiety, a sense of discomfort that’s way more effective than the butcherings (that’s not to say that the murders aren’t effective). The steely-cold “Orphan: First Kill” almost functions as a weirdly touching/satirical ode to parenthood, which adds a resonant note to the usual hack-and-slash stuff we’ve all seen before.
Fuhrman commands the screen. Shot in a way that makes her look like a small young girl dressed in anachronistic clothing, sporting pig-tails, she effortlessly switches between slightly off-key innocence and deeply frightening, inexplicable evil. Julia Stiles proves yet again that she should be in more films with a perfectly calibrated performance. While her husband seems oblivious to Esther’s derangement, Tricia notices — the ensuing intricate game she plays, the mere fact that the actress makes it believable, is a testament to the actor’s talent.
Sure, Bell’s film stretches credulity to the extreme — it’s one of those “just go with it” flicks with plot holes large enough to [insert pun here]. But at least this time, the director seems to have honed his craft, delivering an experience that’s fun, unpredictable, stupid, scary, bloody, and witty — in other words, a perfect pre-Halloween treat.
Available on Blu-ray™ & DVD October 18th
