CUT Above The Rest

Rating: 7/10 (24 July 2009)

ORPHAN is very well made - well-directed and full of strong acting - especially by Fuhrman who plays the "little girl" Esther - you don't have a movie without her performance and it IS amazing. I am a big fan of THE BAD SEED and again - that is from a different time and rather dated but still chilling and fun and with a great evil kid. What I appreciated about ORPHAN was that it took time with the characters - especially the parents - so that when things start to snowball badly for them - you actually care. ****SPOILERS******* Now poor Saarsgaard has the thankless role of the non-believer - and this people are always irritating in horror movies - the last somewhat reasonable and logical person to finally open their eyes and "see" - and of course at the end of the movie he does some incredibly stupid things - yes, I know they have him drink a whole bottle of wine so he's "drunk" but even if I was smashed I would still go upstairs and grab my young daughter to protect her once I realized the adopted girl was dressed like a twenty dollar whore. But look - these movies are always a house of cards and you always need scares and drama and disbelief and for a 21st Century horror film - ORPHAN pretty much delivers. It's funny that Vera Farminga (sp??) also starred in a creepy bad kid movie a few years back with Sam Rockwell as her husband in JOSHUA - I like that film very much too but it is slower and truly NOT a horror film but a psychological drama about a disturbed kid and sibling envy and postpartum depression.