Orphan

Orphan

The blurb on the UK DVD release of Orphan boasts that The Times declared it 'Horror Film of the Year' (a thumbs-up from a UK newspaper is second only to a favourable review by Paul Ross when it comes to making you think twice about viewing). It is also has the dubious honour of being a Dark Castle co-production - these are the fiends who went and brought us Ghost Ship (2002) and - spare us - Gothika (2003). But how does it stand up? I'm pleased to say that this is a rewarding modern horror with a particularly inspired performance by lead actress Isabelle Fuhrmann as Esther. Yes, in many ways it retreads old 'kids gone bad' ground and certainly doesn't outshine the classics of the subgenre. But as the blurb also reads, 'You'll Never Guess Her Secret': perhaps you will, perhaps you won't, but the filmmakers are very proud of their twist-in-the-tale and to be fair, there is one, it is a surprise, and it does work - though only just, and thanks to some low-key but effective makeup/visual hints and some decent performances from the cast.

After a traumatic miscarriage, Kate and John Coleman finally feel ready to put the past behind them, and to add to their existing family by doing the right thing - adopting a child who needs a home. After passing all the requisite tests, Kate and John visit a local orphanage and are struck by a sensitive, artistic nine year old girl called Esther. Esther's background is a tragic one: after being brought to the US from Russia by another family, she was orphaned again when she lost them to a house fire (you'd think at this stage alarm bells might be ringing, but this is Filmland and hey, there's no accounting for charm). The Colemans decide to give it a go. Esther joins the family, and throws herself into fitting in: learning piano with Kate, learning sign language so she can communicate with the family's hearing-impaired daughter Max, and painting members of the family. But, as you might expect, little by little, Kate in particular becomes suspicious of her new daughter. Esther is clever and manipulative. Soon the family are fragmenting along old fault lines and no one can or will believe that it is due to the influence of a little girl. And it gets worse…

Despite the overuse of horror staples (the film relies heavily on the old 'they're behind you' motif, with Esther frequently lurking behind doors and walls) the film does manage to ratchet up the tension quite nicely throughout. It does subtlety rather well, using drama to convey the horror. (That isn't to say that it skimps on the gore, however: for a reasonably high-budget mainstream horror, it is at times very grisly). There are some tender moments between the family members which make you care about what happens to them - something missing from a lot of modern horror - and the seething problems beneath the surface of family life are revealed slowly, often by the conniving intelligence of Esther. Kate (played by Vera Farmiga, who's had to put up with this sort of thing before in the Australian 'bad kid' film Joshua) is believable and perhaps more importantly here, sympathetic as a mother who is forced to choose between the adopted daughter she wanted so much, and what she soon has to come to consider as her real family. And here we have one of the more controversial themes that the film touches upon: what it means to belong to a family and what happens when a technical 'outsider' both belongs to, and doesn't belong to, that unit.

There are some problems with the film though - my first gripe is with the performance of the father of the family, played by Peter Sarsgaard. I'm not familiar with his other work, but he seems to have been miscast in this role - smirking his way soporifically through every scene be it banal, sexual, tense or scary. And then, as a minor irritation we have Esther's Russian (or actually, Estonian) descent: not only does this reinforce the old cinematic stereotype of people from the other side of the Atlantic being inherently dodgy but she has an accent which seems to grow more pronounced when she's behaving at her worst!

But what Orphan does successfully, and bravely, is to throw something else entirely different into the mix here, and that is sexuality. It examines the destructive power of unfulfilled sexuality and the other channels it might take - this is something I really didn't expect, and not something which has been meshed so devastatingly into a horror of this type before. The twist therefore does add something to the quality of the film, in that it makes you retrospectively see a little more in the plot, and so it would merit a re-watch on those grounds. This is a decent film, with flaws but also with considerable merits and a lot of promise: you could certainly do worse than to add this one to your 'bad seed' viewing library.

The film is presented with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio with the aspect ration 1.78:1 and extras include Deleted scenes/alternate ending, Documentary: Mama's Little Devils: Bad Seeds and Evil Children and interviews with cast and crew.

Review by Keri O'Shea


 
Released by Optimum Home Entertainment
Region 2 - PAL
Rated 18
Extras :
see main review
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