Welcome to 31 Days of Halloween Horror, Day Two!
Today we’re covering…
Orphan: First Kill!
Movie Details:
- Release Date: 2022
- “Run”time: 1 hour 39 minutes
- Where to watch it: Streaming
- Directed by: William Brent Bell
- Written by: David Coggeshall
- Starring:
- Isabelle Fuhrman
- Julia Stiles
- Rossif Sutherland
- Hiro Kanagawa
- Matthew Finlan
Synopsis: The origins of Esther, the orphan with a penchant for death.
Open Stab Wounds (out of 10): 6
Review: Like Brandon, I’ll start this one off with an admission as well; I wasn’t a massive fan of Orphan. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either. Perhaps it is that I am a parent and the thought of a small adult is not as frightening as a psychotic child. I do acknowledge that I am looking at this from a viewer’s perspective, knowing that the “child” in question is actually an adult, but to me, the thought of an evil child is much more scary.
I’m going to leave much of my description vague, as this is a recent film and I don’t want to spoil everything. This film is a prequel to 2009’s Orphan, in which the antagonist Esther gets adopted by a couple who recently lost their baby. It turns out that she is not as innocent as she first appeared and puts the couple through hell. Orphan: First Kill tells the story of Esther’s origins and how she came to end up in America.
Opening on a psychiatric facility in Estonia we are quickly introduced to Leena, a 31 year old woman who has a rare genetic disease that keeps her looking like a child. She’d used her appearance to infiltrate families, steal from them, and then leave before too much suspicion was on her. It is quickly established that she is the most dangerous patient in the facility and she uses her intelligence and experience to be an incredible con-artist who can easily manipulate those around her. Leena uses these skills to escape the facility, leaving a trail of bodies in her wake.
Leena assumes the identity of a child, Esther, who had gone missing four years earlier and is shipped back home to her “family” in America. Tricia and Allen Albright (Julia Stiles and
Rossif Sutherland), a wealthy family in Darien, Connecticut, are contacted by Detective Donnan (Hiro Kanagawa) and notified that their little girl has been found and is home. Tricia seems suspicious from the start, but the joy that Allen shows keeps her from taking action.
With Esther’s lies building up, it gets more difficult for her to maintain her identity and she has to start taking actions. I don’t want to spoil the entire film, so I will say that there are turns I did not expect and characters I was upset to see die.
Overall, most of the characters were not very likable. The ones who I did like, were not in the film long enough, and I couldn’t relate to the majority of the Albright family. None of the kills were very original, after one turn I didn’t expect the remaining film was rather predictable and did not provide many surprises. Much like the first film, I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it.
Brandon’s Quick Thoughts!
I loved the original. It threw me off the scent and had some really clever uses of sound (which people talking in my theater did their best to ruin). When this film was announced, I rolled my eyes a little… but it wasn’t bad. Kevin’s right about the unexpected turn there in the middle; I completely dug that… though it did take some of the wind out of the films’ sails ultimately.
Open Stab Wounds (out of 10): 6
Thanks for reading and watching along with us! Be sure to keep up with all 31 days of our Halloween Horror Film coverage!
Oh, and make sure to follow Brandon on Twitter @BarnyardCruz and Kevin @Solucid!