The best straight horror film in quite a while

Rating: 8/10 (12 August 2009)

When I was younger, I was a scaredy-cat when it came to a great many movies. I saw Peter Jackson's The Frighteners at a young age which left me with a solid week worth of sleepless nights, I was terrified of the evil vines in Jumanji and I even had a fear of serial snipers after watching Dirty Harry. However as I grew, I became braver and less haunted even by horror films until I finally became numb to almost everything. Certainly the odd scene of a fright flick would give me a start and perhaps even a bad dream, but few films have been able to recapture the restless nights of my youth. Until I saw Orphan.
While perhaps not as great a compliment as it once was with Hollywood's iron grip on the horror industry, Orphan is the downright creepiest and most frightening pure horror film in a many, many years. The Orphanage (similar name a coincidence, I assure you) from last year gave me some haunted evenings but is more of a dramatic thriller. Countless films have capitalized on the evil child angle as a platform for the scares, in fact with the now even more relatively awful The Unborn coming out this very year. But those who have crafted such a film intelligently and to a genuinely disturbing end are sparse and in between. In the case of Orphan a much of this success is due to young Isabelle Furhman, who gives an incredibly intense and disturbingly authentic portrayal as Esther, the Russian orphan. Complimenting that role are four other outstanding performances by Aryana Engineer and Jimmy Bennett as Esther's now sister and brother, and Vera Farmiga and Peter Starsgaard as the adopting parents. If there have been better performances in a horror film I haven't been privy.
Finally recovering after the devastating loss of their unborn child, Kate and John Coleman (Farmiga and Starsgaard) feel it is time to welcome some new life into their home and settle on the different but charming and incredible gifted 10 year old Esther. Things could not be better for this broken family, Esther bonds immediately with young Max who is a mute, and fits wonderfully in with her two loving parents. But then, strange occurrences begin to arise, and Esther always seems to be there and soon Kate begins to think, as the movie's tagline of the film implies, there's something wrong with her.
In almost every horror film ever made, we have a central protagonist who is scoffed at by everyone and their mother at their wild claims of a killer, an alien, strange occurrences etc. In Orphan it is Kate who is the sole voice of desperation, but what makes this film work besides the wonderful acting job by Farmiga is the back-story of loss and her former alcoholism which sheds doubts on her suspicions. This coupled with Esther's seemingly endless cunning and manipulation of Kate's children makes for a frustratingly disturbing series of events. Director Juan Collet-Serra, who helmed 2005's House of Wax, chooses to keep the gore restrained, tension high and focus on some equally tragic human elements about a broken marriage and what broke it apart. Collet-Serra holds no punches, and is unafraid to go all the way into truly disturbing territory and includes many elements of the anti-Hollywood horror film and is fairly light on the clichés. The final twist is shocking (if you say you knew it you're lying) and brilliantly explains all the former questions the audience demands. Be warned, just because Orphan is not as bloody as some makes it no less disturbing and I applaud its ability to give me an uneasy sleep and a shot of much needed nostalgia.
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