Two Hours' Worth of Scared

Rating: 10/10 (2 August 2009)

Always looking for the next wave of "how will you scare me?," "Orphan" came through, seven stars worth. Not the typical indie I'd expect to see Peter Sarsgaard or Vera Farmiga engage in, their performances helped hold up the never-ending downward spiral and some of the cheaper chills of the film. I kept flashing back to Farmiga's "Joshua" flick from 2007—similar in that it's a kid-gone bad movie, but Orphan takes the cake.
The film's twist fairly well pays off the orphan's (Esther) uncanny, KGB-like foresight and handling of the matters at hand, and the other two child actors perform admirably.
I kept waiting for things to get better, for an intervention by SOMEONE who would believe Farmiga's Kate, but things just got...worse and worse. And the final confrontation(s) followed horror's standard, "fool me twice"...
A great view for horror/thriller fans, and all done without a supernatural back story. I'll watch it again on DVD.