Let’s see what makes a good slasher flick:
- A nasty protagonist who turns out to be the antagonist.
- A cute as a button hit list, out of which some actually end up dying.
- A hard as nails main character who comes up trumps finally, one way or the other.
Now lets check what the “Orphan’ has for itself:
- A nasty protagonist who turns out to the antagonist – Check
- A cute as a button hit list, out of which some actually end up dying – Check
- A hard as nails main character who comes up trumps finally, one way or the other – Check.
Seriously speaking, when it comes to slasher or horror flicks, the perfect ten cannot be farther for The Orphan. It may be the movie that actually brings about some storyline aspects into the entire realm of Slasher an Horror flicks. And with the great acting by the main cast as well as the supporting one, this movie seriously had something for the hardcore slasher fan.
Plot:
The movie speaks about a couple that has recently lost their third child, because of which the mother goes into a kind of depression, which makes her prone to drinking and she even loses her job back at Yale. After a while, the couple decide to adopt a child, so that they do not miss their unborn child as much as they actually are. This brings into their life Esther, singularly the most sick character ever that has come into mainstream media, and more so when she does hasn’t been ‘taken by a ghost’, or has ‘bad things been done to her’.
Esther is bad news since the very beginning, though everyone puts her quirky behavior to what she has ‘gone through’ as a child and the basic fact that she is from Russia. However, things take a bad turn when the orphanage from where she has been adopted start to smell a rat about sending a girl they do not know anything about to a house that is essentially a happy, complete household.
Review:
The movie surprises you with the level of brutality that is prevalent all about. Of course, the direction is stark and dark, and what plays a greater role in the movie is the background music, which has the correct tempo and thump that’d be required by a horror/slasher genre movie.
What interested me is the unwavering synopsis of the child’s mind that is shown all through the movie, right from where Esther manipulates the little girl, to where the boy tries to find out whether the girl that has come into the house is actually as evil as he thinks that she really is.
Another important aspect that works in making this movie an intelligent one is the reason that Esther goes through all the trouble to kill a nun, to hurt the small girl and to threaten the little kid with a knife – the husband. It is only logical that a grown woman who has lived as a teenager for different reasons would not find it very difficult to get love and affection, and yes, even basic physical intercourse.
The final clink in the movie may seem to be quite unreal to many people, but as a avid follower of crime and punishment, the reviewer would like to inform that the movie is in fact based on a true story, where a thirty year old woman actually lived as a teenager with many houses, finally disappearing into nothing one fine day.