← Back to Reviews
in
Orphan
Directed By: Jauma Collet-Serra
Directed By: Jauma Collet-Serra
The Story
Ive never really been a horror movie fan. Don't get me wrong i love all the old school classics like Halloween, Jason, and Freddy, but what i dont like is the junk that they throw around today. Pointless remakes, pointless sequels, and endless bloody Saw movies hit are screens every year and none of them have any oringinality at all. Anyway, over the weekend me and my girlfriend decided to check The Orphan out and i must admit i was actually very surprised. The story was actually quite frightening, the horror was a little disturbing and the story was very interesting. The ending was very clever, and the movie its self was a pretty good horror movie, well compared to what around these days anyway.
Movie Trivia: The subtle uneasiness of the film's poster is due to the image of Esther's face: it's perfectly symmetrical. Half of her face has been mirrored to form a whole face (notice the identical twists of hair on each side).
Esther was originally written as having fair skin, delicate features, and platinum blonde hair. Isabelle Fuhrman doesn't fit this description. However, the filmmakers were so impressed with her auditions that they cast her anyway.
Isabelle Fuhrman auditioned for the part of Esther while wearing an old-fashioned dress and ribbons around her wrists and neck.
Isabelle Fuhrman won the 2009 Fright Meter Award for Best Actress for her performance.
Warner Bros. edited the movie's trailer to remove Esther's line "It must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your own" after receiving numerous complaints from adoptive parents and foster care organizations. The line remains in the movie itself.
Esther was originally written as having fair skin, delicate features, and platinum blonde hair. Isabelle Fuhrman doesn't fit this description. However, the filmmakers were so impressed with her auditions that they cast her anyway.
Isabelle Fuhrman auditioned for the part of Esther while wearing an old-fashioned dress and ribbons around her wrists and neck.
Isabelle Fuhrman won the 2009 Fright Meter Award for Best Actress for her performance.
Warner Bros. edited the movie's trailer to remove Esther's line "It must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your own" after receiving numerous complaints from adoptive parents and foster care organizations. The line remains in the movie itself.
The Cast
The cast was pretty strong for a horror movie. Now ime not saying there great, but there certainly better than the half naked screaming teenagers that seem to star in modern horror movies around today. The little girl played by Isabelle Fuhrman was fantastic. She's a very disturbing character and a character that really captures the horror of the movie. Everything from her voice to her behaviour is perfect and its a really nice change from other movie serial killers. Movie Highlight
My movie hightlight of The Orphan has to be the ending. Its a very clever twist which i did not see coming. The ending really delivers that shock moment that horror movies need and this movie delivers that perfectley. Things I Like
I think i enjoyed this movie so much because it wernt scared to push the boundarys. There where some moments that i thought where a little disturbing and i thought the movie as a whole was very brave. I also liked the whole setting of the movie. The location, the characters, the look and feel, everything added to the suspense and horror of the story. My Verdict
Overall a very solid horror movie thats certainly better than most horror's around today. Great cast, great story and a very shocking ending. I really enjoyed The Orphan and would recommend it to everyone.