Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman

A husband and wife who recently lost their baby adopt a 9-year-old girl who is not nearly as innocent as she claims to be.

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65% liked it

830,958 ratings

Critics

55% liked it

133 critics

R, 2 hrs. 3 min.

Directed by: Jaume Collet-Serra

Release Date: July 24, 2009

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DVD Release Date: October 27, 2009

Stats: 23,680 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (23,680)


  • December 1, 2009
    Esther: I like it when it's just the two of us. You don't know how long I've waited for a daddy just like you.
    John Coleman: Mommy too, right?
    Esther: I don't think Mommy likes me very much.

    While watching this film, I couldn't help but exclaim out loud, "I want this 9-yea...( read more)r-old cunt to die a horrible death." That little cunt is well played at being one, in a creepy kid movie that is effective for the most part, despite relying on jump scares and some overly stylish direction.

    Vera Farmiga, who between this film, Joshua, and Running Scared, is pretty much a veteran of movies with creepy kid related situations, stars as Kate, who has recently had a miscarriage. She and her husband John, played by Peter Sarsgaard, already have two kids, one a boy entering his tweens and the other a young girl who is deaf. Still, Kate longs to deliver the love she had for her unborn child on another kid, so she and John adopt a 9-year-old girl named Esther.

    True to creepy kid movie form, Esther of course seems normal, charming, and talented at first, only to reveal a hint of sinister motives, and finally unleash blatant cruelty towards those in her ways. True to another creepy kid movie trope, only one person seems to truly understand the evil, while everyone else, for one reason or another, is in disbelief. This is where Kate stands, as her husband blindly goes with the benefit of the doubt for all the accidents that seem to keep happening around Esther.

    Creepy kid movies always seem to get to me. Half of it comes from being irritated by all the characters that don't believe the one person who is right. The other comes from a general sense of dread I have for one little kid secretly roaming around and possibly putting innocent people in harm's way. Because these elements came together in this film, I once again found myself enjoying the film in an uncomfortable way.

    The parts are well acted. Farmiga is very good, even if she makes some strange choices towards the end. Sarsgaard is very good as the happless husband role, who can hopefully get his shit together before its too late. And then you have Isabelle Fuhrman as Esther, who does a good job at pissing me off.

    Beyond the fact that this flick is two hours long, what really got to me was the overly stylish direction of the film. It was at first kind of neat, but eventually just became distracting, watching the film take a familiar premise and try to make it more interesting by showing us how cool it could look. Granted, there are effective sequences that showcase some stylish directorial choices, but its continued use, along with some weak CG got to me.

    Overall, its a good enough edition to the creepy kid movie genre, although I did figure out the twist pretty early on. Still, effective enough.

    Daniel Coleman: [watching Esther neatly cut up her food] Can you eat normal?
    Esther: I am eating normal.
    Daniel Coleman: Yeah, maybe in Transylvania or whatever country you're from.
    Esther: Incidentally, I'm from Russia. Transylvania isn't even a country. It's a part of Romania.
    Daniel Coleman: You're such a freak.
    Kate Coleman: Hey.
    John Coleman: Hey, Danny... I don't want any more talk like that, all right?
    Daniel Coleman: But why does she have to act like that? All my friends make fun of me because of her.
    John Coleman: Maybe you need some different friends.
    Daniel Coleman: Maybe you should send her back to the retard camp where she belongs.
    Kate Coleman: Daniel.
    John Coleman: Daniel! Apologize to your sister.
    Daniel Coleman: She's not my fucking sister.
  • November 8, 2009
    A cool movie about an evil little girl. I liked it more than The Omen. Reminiscent of "The Good Son", eh??? The burning treehouse scene is a new classic! The frozen pond scene works well too. The girl's secrets are a shocker. Quite well done and well acted too.
  • November 3, 2009
    Orphan is a strange movie. It is riddled with bad kid horror cliches, true, but it takes just as many audacious chances and they almost always work out. The gallery of absurd events that unfold could have turned the movie into a campy howler, but the acting is strong enough to an...( read more)chor it into actual drama and the more unusual tidbits come across more like intentional black comedy. It isn't really an intelligent movie, and the above-average dialogue still hosts a few groaners ("I'M NOT YOUR FUCKING MOMMY", lifted from The Ring 2 of all places), but dubious material was placed in front of Jaume Collet-Serra and he did a pretty damn decent job pulling it together into something watchably trashy. Your reaction to Orphan will probably be heavily influenced by the circumstances of your viewing: are you with friends? Are they not easily scared? Do you have alcohol, or at least the intent to watch a bad horror movie? More likely than not, this will end up acting as your group's late-night MST3K fodder.

    If you choose to experience Orphan as a serious film, well, you'll probably still be having a few chuckles. But Vera Farmiga is bizarrely effective here, effortlessly communicating the horror that creeps into her life with Esther's advent. It seems inappropriate to compare this movie to Rosemary's Baby, but her performance is just as effective as Mia Farrow's, no joke. This is an especially impressive feat considering that the material she has in front of her is a lot more bizarre than the former film's. The scene stealer here, obviously, is Isabelle Fuhrman. Her Esther is such a delightful horror confection; menacing, morbidly amusing, threateningly violent and wholly physical, Fuhrman leaves Patti McCormack and Macaulay Culkin in the dust. The character's psychology is pretty crude, but for a 12-year old to get so thoroughly entrenched in it is nothing short of fantastic. Also of note is Aryana Engineer, who I'm guessing is no older than 6 but is the cutest little girl you'll see in a movie all year. The only disappointment here, surprisingly, is Peter Sarsgaard. This obviously read out as a paycheck gig to him, and a lazy and confused performance ensues. Is John a dick, or is he just swallowed up by stress? He communicates, without much of a good reason, the former.

    Anyway, I'm fairly sure this was a flop: the budget seemed high, the marketing push was hard and it didn't make all that much money. I think that shows what a sad place R-rated horror is in right now - not to call Orphan a paragon of the subset, but if this is the only thing the studios thought would get asses in seats, then I guess this movie's failure means we're going to have to be looking toward straight-to-DVD releases for a while. I, for one, am glad that an anomaly like Orphan got such a wide release. It's conventional while still being unabashedly weird, lovingly crafted, character-oriented, and if you're into that sort of thing it has a really wicked final-act twist. It's a little overlong, and the climax could have used some tightening, but Orphan goes down smoothly and is sure to entertain in any capacity.
  • November 3, 2009
    SO creepy! The ending is a shocker. The girl who played Esther did a very good acting job.
  • November 1, 2009
    "There's something wrong with Esther"

    A husband and wife who recently lost their baby adopt a 9-year-old girl who is not nearly as innocent as she claims to be.

    REVIEW

    Like "Joshua" in estrogen...( read more), "Orphan" not only shares its similarity with George Ratliff's thriller via featuring a precociously villainous juvenile, but also because it stars Vera Farmiga as a mother at the receiving end of her child's diabolical manipulations. Jaume Collet-Serra crafts a mildly diverting hybrid of "The Omen" and "Swimfan" though the proneness of David Leslie Johnson's script to adhere to cheap horror conventions undercuts whatever interesting psychological thriller about a gradually imploding family that stirs underneath.

    Played with vicious adequacy by Isabelle Fuhrman, Esther is blissfully welcomed into the Coleman household in a snowy middle-of-nowhere house. Kate (Farmiga), a former alcoholic still reeling from the death of their unborn third child, and John (Peter Sarsgaard), a husband with loyalty issues regarding his wife, nevertheless wholeheartedly accepts Esther as part of their family. Their adopted daughter is gleefully cordial, paints cheery images, eager to learn the piano, and -- for a nine-year old Russian who has just spent a year in the US -- speaks very good English. The mantra "too good to be true," however is slowly evidenced, as the titular daughter starts to react violently to school bullies and casually drops the F-bomb as if it were a customary lexicon for people her age.

    Embodied by John's imperious refusal to see something is wrong with the things around him to the point of being laughable, "Orphan" ultimately plays on overly familiar genre tunes that rely too much on foreseeable shock moments and questionable logic of its characters to deliver most of its scares. Collet-Serra, despite the obvious lack of faith that the material would provide the spooks without resorting so much to shock tactics, at least capably maintains an ominous aura that accompanies his villain's innocence largely through Fuhrman's calm, faux-Manichaean scowls and Oedipus cajolery, and Farmiga's gameness to provide her character with more depth than what it's actually called for. Yet despite being ultimately entertaining and having a potential to be more intelligent, it frustratingly pursues a well-trodden path with such earnestness. "There's nothing wrong with being different," remarks Esther early on. Strange, though, that "Orphan" doesn't share the same belief.
  • December 6, 2009
    Where this starts off just like all those bad seed (kid born evil) movies...it still entertains...but then this VERY well written story takes a turn and then another. Well crafted and suspense that kept us on the end of our seat till the end ...highly entertaining - and more sus...( read more)pense film than horror. (which is smart) One of those I wish I had read as it would have been even better - but I must say this one took me by surprise in more ways than one.
  • December 6, 2009
    Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman

    The tragic loss of their unborn child has devastated Kate and John, taking a toll on both their marriage and Kate?s fragile psyche as she is plagued by nightmares and haunted by demons from her past. Struggling to regain some sem...( read more)blance of 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. Almost as soon as they welcome Esther into their home, however, an alarming series of events begins to unfold, leading Kate to believe that there?s something wrong with Esther?this seemingly angelic little girl is not what she appears to be.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Really didn't know if I wanted to see this movie and have had it for awhile. But my sister told me if I was to watch it I wouldn't be disappointed as she had already seen it and loved it. So I watched it and to my surprise it wasn't bad at all. I thought all the hype it was getting was a little over the top, and those movies always end up being a flop. But it was good, wouldn't call it horror flick. A thriller yes, but not horror. The young actress playing Esther was really good. Very believable. The back ground story of Esther was really interesting and I liked that it actually showed the young girl doing the horrific things, then just having the camera turning away like they do in most films with kids. Good evil kid flick that won't disappoint. The only down point in this movie for me is the length. It's a little over the 2hr mark, and it was just a bit long for me.
  • December 6, 2009
    So Scary. Isabelle is a very good Actress, she plays Esther ,well:)
  • December 6, 2009
    I think I tend to take modern horror movies for granted in a big bad way, even with it being my genre of choice. I was expecting nothing from this movie and was blown away by how enjoyable this flick actually is. It's riveting and tense, beautifully shot and arranged and smart en...( read more)ough to impress me. I really was amazed at how much fun I had in this movie, and I definitely recommend it to genre fans and non-genre fans alike.
  • December 6, 2009
    i choose this for my media violence assignment for the final exam...hope it will bring me some luck :-) i think the story quite interesting...maybe you could watch it first...

Critic Reviews


August 7, 2009
Nigel Andrews, The Financial Times

That director Jaume Collet-Serra made House of Wax, the Paris Hilton remake, does not bode well. But stars Vera Farmiga and Peter Saarsgard, as mum and dad, find a few frail pegs of humanity to hang t... full review

July 24, 2009
Kyle Smith, New York Post

Although reasonably, cheesily suspenseful, the movie takes a long time to get going. Its tagline, 'There's something wrong with Esther,' turns out to be a masterpiece of understatement. full review

July 24, 2009
Pete Hammond, Boxoffice Magazine

Has enough kinky Grand Guignol moments and scenes of sheer terror to make a quick killing at the box office--even though it borrows from just about every other Bad Seed flick Hollywood has ever unleas... full review

July 24, 2009
Claudia Puig, USA Today

It's a cut above most spooky-kid movies, with a twist that sets it apart. full review

July 24, 2009
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

So sloppy, so lowdown, so shameless and so entertaining, Orphan provides everything you might expect in a psycho-child thriller, but with such excess and exuberance that it still has the power to surp... full review

July 23, 2009
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times

Overlong and overwrought, Orphan stays faithful to every cliché of the genre. full review

July 23, 2009
Ty Burr, Boston Globe

Director Jaume Collet-Serra moves Orphan along efficiently, doling out a 'boo!' shot every few minutes with mechanical professionalism. full review

July 23, 2009
Nick Schager, Slant Magazine

Despite director Jaume Collet-Serra's apt use of running children's laughter for jolt scares, the suspense generated from Esther's early lunatic behavior is of a mild, amusing variety. full review

July 23, 2009
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Here is a shamelessly effective horror film based on the most diabolical of movie malefactors, a child. full review

View more Orphan reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments


  • Muktidaya
    November 10, 2009
    Very good movie, I like it!!
  • HeadlessChook16
    November 3, 2009
    Yeah it was pretty good.
    Some of the thrilling bits got me annoyed.
    Typical plot, although twists make it a little more unique.
    A few bad acting moments apart from that an alright movie.
    It got my sister scared :]
  • billyvinson81
    November 3, 2009
    Interesting
  • jlovesmovies
    August 18, 2009
    does anyone know the name of the deaf girl actress? the little girl
  • VOS410
    August 9, 2009
    Phenomenal
  • liliecv1
    August 3, 2009
    very nice.
  • wonderwoman711
    July 25, 2009
    I'll give it 3 stars up. Reason: I saw the movie at the local AMC 8, either there was not much editing in the movie or the theatre received an unedited version. Reminded me of several of the Euro "B" horror films that are in my collection. In the beginning of the movie the frames bounced around and throughout the movie you could see the overhead microphones; found that to be a bit distracting. Were it not for the background music, I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much. Kept me on the edge of my seat though, I was constantly waiting from something to happen whenever someone would open the refrigerator door. Or whenever Kate was popping a pill in front of the medicine cabinet. The music assisted with the suspense. Storyline was great. Gotta love Ester!!! Love horror movies and I will be adding this one to my collection.

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

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