A very dark and effective, but cliché horror film.

Rating: 8/10 (8 August 2009)

Orphan is a horror thriller about a couple who decide to adopt a kid after having a miscarriage, so they decide to adopt Esther, a wonderful, talented and gifted child. After some bad things start to happen they eventually realize that there is probably something wrong with Esther. Telling you what's wrong with Esther would be a spoiler but I have to say it was the best twist I've seen all year and if anyone says that they saw it coming then they're lying. There's no way anyone saw that coming. Yes, the plot is extremely over the top and cliché for a horror film but I happen to think that the cheese factor really helps to keep this movie entertaining.
I'm now going to talk about the performances in Orphan. The movie stars Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard who really are two of the best actors in Hollywood today. For this type of horror movie, you really wouldn't expect such respected actors. However, they really seem to be very into their roles, which is terrific and they were never over the top. It's even produced by Leonardo Di Caprio, so maybe it isn't just going to be a mindless horror film with terrible acting and it really didn't. Esther was played by 12 year old Isabelle Fuhrman. It certainly helps that she isn't a big name child actress, so that she is more believable and terrifying as Esther. Her Russian accent really adds to her creepiness. The things that she did in this movie were insane and hopefully she will be able to become a classic horror villain.
Even though I enjoyed the movie, there were some parts that I laughing at the silliness of it. This is not a perfect movie and it has some major flaws. First of all, almost everything about this movie was extremely cliché and not entirely original. The plot of an evil child and bad seed was been done many times before and it's been done a lot better, such as in The Omen. There's a few scenes in the movie where a woman opens the mirror and no one's there, but when she closes the mirror someone appears and it's supposed to scare us. That cliché has been overdone to the max, to the point that it's not scary anymore. They did the same thing with a refrigerator and even used music. It was a very anti-climatic scare. The movie wasn't that realistic either. I don't actually think that they would have kept Esther for such a long time after all the bad things that kept happening. You have to just go with the movie, even if it's in a realistic world. Not everything is going to make sense and if you keep that mentality then you can enjoy the entertainment. The twist, however, was probably the most original thing about the movie as unrealistic as it may be. I actually knew about the twist before I saw the movie because I didn't think I was going to see it. I definitely regret that, but it didn't ruin the experience at all. If you can, don't find out the twist before you see the movie because you'll have a better time.
Orphan is a very effective and delightfully dark horror movie that you should definitely try to see and it's just an easy way to escape from reality and be entertained for 2 hours. I'm going to give this an 8/10. You should see this.