Orphan

***Orphan*** is a 2009 psychological horror film.

## Synopsis

A husband and wife who recently lost their baby adopt a 9 year-old girl who is not nearly as innocent as she claims to be.

## Plot

Kate and John Coleman's marriage is strained after their third child was stillborn. The loss is particularly hard on Kate, who is also recovering from alcoholism. They decide to adopt a 9-year-old Russian girl, Esther, from the local orphanage. While Kate and John's deaf-mute daughter Maxine "Max" embraces Esther almost immediately, their 12-year-old son Daniel is less welcoming.

Kate becomes suspicious when Esther expresses far more knowledge of sex than expected of a child her age. When Esther seriously injures another girl at a local park, Kate initially believes that the event was an accident but becomes alarmed when Sister Abigail, the head of the orphanage, visits with the warning that bad things frequently happen in Esther's vicinity. Esther overhears this and uses Max as a distraction so that she can kill Sister Abigail with a hammer, which she hides in the children's treehouse. Kate is convinced that something is wrong with Esther but John does not believe her. After a spat with John, Kate buys wine, but she refrains from drinking. The next day Esther causes Kate's car to roll into on coming traffic with Max inside. Esther points out the wine to John, who tells Kate to go to rehab or he will leave with the kids. Kate finds Esther's hidden Bible and discovers that it came from the Saarne Institute in Estonia, which she eventually learns is a mental hospital. She e-mails a picture and asks for more information.

When Daniel learns about Sister Abigail's death from Max, he plans to retrieve the hammer and prove Esther's guilt. Esther overhears their conversation and confronts Daniel as he searches the treehouse, setting it on fire and locking Daniel inside. Daniel falls to the ground trying to escape and is knocked unconscious with a major neck injury. Esther attempts to kill him with a rock but Max stops her. While Daniel is hospitalized, Esther slips into his room and smothers him with a pillow but doctors quickly revive him. Kate realizes what Esther did to Daniel and attacks Esther but orderlies help John to restrain her. As John takes Esther and Max home, doctors sedate Kate.

That night, Esther tries to seduce a drunken John, who finally believes Kate was right and threatens to send Esther back to the orphanage. Meanwhile, as Kate is coming out of sedation, she receives a call from Doctor Värava at the Saarne Institute, who reveals that Esther is actually a 33-year-old woman named Leena Klammer. She has hypopituitarism, a condition that stunted her physical growth, and has spent most of her life posing as a little girl. Värava tells Kate that Leena is extremely violent and has murdered at least seven people, including a family who adopted her in Estonia, whom she killed because the father rejected her sexual advances.

Leena flies into a rage after being spurned by John and ransacks her room. She removes the makeup, false teeth, and body wrappings that helped her to look like a nine-year-old child and stabs John to death. Max witnesses this and hides. Kate cannot reach John on the phone, so she calls the police and rushes home to find him dead. Leena gets a gun from John's safe and shoots Kate in the arm, then goes searching for Max, finding her in the greenhouse. While Leena shoots at Max, Kate crawls onto the greenhouse roof, breaks through the glass above Leena, and lands on her, knocking her out. Kate takes the gun and leaves the greenhouse with Max.

Leena regains consciousness and finds Kate and Max outside near a frozen pond. Leena lunges at Kate, knocking the gun out of Kate's hand and hurling them both onto the ice. Max watches from a hill above, picks up the gun and tries to shoot Leena, but shatters the ice instead, causing Kate and Leena to drop into the water. After a brief struggle, Kate climbs partially out of the pond with Leena clinging to her legs. Leena, hiding a knife behind her back and reverting to her little-girl persona, begs Kate not to let her die, calling her "mommy." Kate angrily responds that she is not her mother and kicks Leena in the face, breaking her neck and sending her back into the pond. Max and Kate are met by the police moments after.