Shameless, Absurd, and Fun

Rating: 7/10 (25 July 2009)

I have heard people complain that they don't want to see "Orphan" because it looks like a ripoff of "The Omen." I disagree — I don't think "The Omen" has a trademark on the Evil Child Movie, and although there are a few similarities between the two, there are also plenty of differences to make "Orphan" worth seeing for its own merits.
Granted, the script is pretty allusive. Take a generous helping of "The Bad Seed," a whiff of "The Omen," and — dare I say — a sprinkling of "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle," and you have some idea of the shape this movie takes. Yet it is so energetic and shameless that it somehow comes out fresh. For one thing, I'm pleased that the filmmakers have avoided the temptation to make a thriller about supernatural evil. After a handful of movies in which children can make terrible things happen with a flash of their eyes, it's refreshing to see one in which the demon-child simply shoves someone off a slide. This is, I think, one of the key ways that Esther distinguishes herself from Damien: Damien is a vessel, a medium of evil; Esther has her own agenda.
I'm also impressed at how Jaume Collet-Serra handles tone here, especially considering that he directed "House of Wax," which had almost none at all. In movies like this that involve families in danger, filmmakers have to walk a fine line between scares and sentiment. To its credit, "Orphan" practices economy with its pseudo-drama, letting us care about the characters but never becoming waterlogged with tears.
Reviews and trailers have handled the plot already, so I won't rehash it. I will say this about the twist, though: It's ridiculous, and I mean that as a compliment. Again, the film avoids the supernatural, instead opting for the absurd, which is more fun. That the writers would go for it is a final testament to the movie's shamelessness (Another example: The mother, realizing Esther has just tried to kill her son, lunges at her and belts her in the mouth. "You bitch!" she shrieks. That, along with a few other moments, got applause from the audience). I did get tired of seeing children singing and drawing scary pictures — "The Ring" was the last straw for me, and I have no patience for those tropes anymore. But the movie is thrilling and somehow, in a way, "original" — a good summer horror movie that, I have no doubt, we will be reminded of when Halloween comes. And just because I haven't said it yet: as Esther, Isabelle Fuhrman is very, very creepy.