The kid's got issues...

Rating: 7/10 (8 January 2015)

FILM POSTER: 'There's something wrong with Esther'.
There certainly is. This seemingly lovable 9 year old Russian girl who's just been adopted by your atypical suburban family squashes a pigeon with a rock, pushes a girl off a jungle gym breaking her ankle in the process and spies on her new parents making LURVE. And that's just for starters. Wait till she finds the hammer and gun. And whatever you do, DON'T let her near the matches...
Orphan is a compulsively tense, nerve wracking horror with a remarkable performance by Isabelle Fuhrman as the little sociopath herself, and superb atmosphere due in no small part to the surrounding snowy conditions which sum up the bleak, depressing tone of the material. Here, we have a marriage on the brink, a rebellious pre-teen son, a daughter made a deaf-mute due to a fall through the ice and a baby just lost because of a miscarriage. Adopting a child was meant to save this family... It doesn't QUITE work as planned.
One for those long winter evenings... When your children are out of the room. Not because they'll get especially frightened (ARE YOU KIDDING ME? THIS GENERATION?!) but while it's on, you might glance over at them and get some unfounded ideas about their 'true' nature... 7/10