Orphan

Review by Sean Lynch

Orphan is not your ordinary horror movie, in fact, unlike most "horror" flicks released these days (Friday The 13th, Prom Night) - this puppy actually gets your guts twisting and turning.

In the good kind of way, of couse...

Better yet, Orphan totally pulls the rug from under you on more than a few occasions.

Beginning with a truly odd and relatively disturbing "birthing" sequence, Orphan sets off innocently (and potentially blandly) enough.

The tragic loss of their unborn child has devastated Kate (Vera Farmiga) and John (Peter Sarsgaard, aka "John Malcovich V 2.0"), and it's taking it's toll on both their marriage and Kate's fragile psyche.

It seems she is more than just a little plagued by nightmares and haunted by demons from her past.

Struggling to regain normalcy in their lives, the couple decides to adopt another child. At the local orphanage, both John and Kate find themselves strangely drawn to a young girl named Esther.

It's at this point Orphan heads off into the complete opposite direction to what trailers suggest - because there isn't a speck of supernatural or "Why dear... Esther's been dead for 100 years" to be seen - despite what the trailers seem to insinuate.

Anyhew - almost as soon as they welcome Esther into their home, an alarming series of events begins to unfold, leading Kate to believe that there's something wrong with Esther.

Apparently this seemingly angelic little girl is not what she appears to be.

What follows is a fun and surprisingly (if not somewhat refreshingly) intense mind-games inspired thriller in which family members are turned against family members - and Esther becomes a creepier and more disturbing little girl by the minute.

Anyone who attended the same Grade 5 Sleep-Over party as me back in the mid-90s will notice a good majority of Orphan is eerily similar to the much forgotten 1992 horror flick Mikey.

That said, the similarities don't pose too much of a problem... because no matter how often to you encounter it, nothing is more disturbing and unnerving than watching an innocent child with a calculating and phycotic ability to kill.

4 out of 5

Orphan
Australian release: 13th August, 2009
Official Site: Orphan
Cast: Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman, CCH Pounder
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra