Would-be chiller with a pint-sized Bela Lugosi

Rating: 4/10 (8 August 2011)

Another 'evil kid' horror film that's content to repeat the same old plot elements and tricks from earlier, better films like THE OMEN. I admit I was looking forward to ORPHAN, as it had been a while since I'd sat down with a traditional horror film and I was looking forward to being scared. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be.
The film does have a couple of things going in its favour. Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra (who made his name with the lamentable HOUSE OF WAX remake) crafts a good-looking film with a stylishness it doesn't really deserve. Isabelle Fuhrman, as the sinister girl at the heart of the story, is excellent in the role and would be effective if given more taxing characters (Anne Frank, for instance).
Unfortunately, that's where the good stuff ends. The characters of the parents are particularly irritating, with Peter Sarsgaard playing an oblivious bore and Vera Farmiga a thoroughly annoying mother. Farmiga, so good in a supporting role in THE DEPARTED, also gives a bad performance that displays none of the talent she showed in the Scorsese film. Only old hand CCH Pounder is any good, and she's virtually wasted.
The rest of the movie plays out by rote, with the expected deaths, manipulation and betrayal, before the script throws in a ludicrous twist ending which is so laughable as to be unbelievable. It's a shame, because on occasion ORPHAN comes close to being a decent film, but in the end it just doesn't cut the mustard.