Orphan

Orphan

After losing their baby, a married couple adopt 9-year old Esther, who may not be as innocent as she seems.

  • Released: 2009-07-24
  • Runtime: 123 minutes
  • Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thrillers
  • Stars: Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman, CCH Pounder, Jimmy Bennett, Margo Martindale, Karel Roden, Aryana Engineer, Rosemary Dunsmore, Jamie Young, Lorry Ayers, Brendan Wall, Genelle Williams, Mustafa Abdelkarim, Landon Norris, Julien Elia, Leni Parker, Gemma James Smith, Pia Ajango, Matthew Raudsepp, Sugith Varughese, Luis Oliva, Ferelith Young, Andrew Shaver
  • Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
 Comments
  • Stealthy-22960 - 18 March 2024
    Great acting but horrible movie
    This film was a huge disappointment because I was expecting something great with such a high rating of 7.0 on IMDB. I don't even know where to start...

    First, the acting by everyone BUT the dad was phenomenal. The kids were really great, especially the one who plays the psycho adult-child. The deaf child was just oodles of cuteness and believable, as well as the actor who played her brother. He was so good, I wanted to pluck him thru the screen because he played being a jerk a little too good. Lol

    The actor who played the dad... WTH? Umm he had the same basic dumb facial expression with everything... literally every scene. Adult sexy time? Same face. Thinking your wife broke a child's arm? Same face. Being seduced by a "child?" Same face. Being stabbed to death? Same face. And the writers and direction didn't help his weak acting because they literally wrote his character to be dumb as rocks. He's the cheating one, which takes a lot of deception to pull off, but he doesn't believe his wife on any issues, not matter how small or major they are. Literally, some of her major concerns are involving the safety of his own children, after having lost one before birth and almost losing another due to a tragic accident. Not to mention a brutal murder that took place in your backyard. There is no father on earth that would behave like this except for a deadbeat, which this guy clearly wasn't.

    Secondly, the plot holes... good Lord!

    Who the heck doesn't make a child remove her neck and wrist ties that is supposedly not only an orphan but one who came to them from what appears to be a burnt up house. Then to allow a family to adopt said child without any real paperwork or vetting process. Literally the mom was in jailed for child neglect! Lol Speaking of ties, why wouldn't the mom want to see what's under them either? It's like all the adults in this weird universe of a movie have no suspicion or even a healthy concerned level of curiosity for children who relies on them.

    So, a mom can be jailed for negligence over a horrific accident, granted preventable if mom wasn't hitting the bottle, but no one is concerned over a child's broken arm? Even if it's self inflected, the hospital staff doesn't know that and in any normal society would have gotten CPS involved. So, an accidental drowning is cause for jailing, but a broken bone from abuse is a nothing burger? LOL Sure, Jane!

    Wait... there is more!

    The sister from the orphanage goes missing, and no one thinks this is pause to contact HER family the same day she didn't return? Instead they call the mother to ask? Lol No one notices the large pool of blood and blood stained drag marks amongst all that white of snow? Oh and with an abandoned car that is off to the side of the road, which doesn't look normally parked? Then the police finds the obviously brutally murdered body, and the dad is not even in hyper protective mode that some deranged killer is on the loose in his backyard bludgeoning nuns, but rather is instead focusing on committing wife to a AAA facility or threatening to take the children? Yeah sure, that would be a dad's focus. Even the therapist and grandmother are written to be dumb as rocks, although at least they were well acted.

    Then you have this child who can not only decipher how to get to the ICU and finds the right bed, but slips past ALLLL the adults and no one stops and ask her if she needs help or lost or simply to say that she cannot be in that area? It's clearly at night with no visiting hours and the doctor already told them that couldn't see him. Then you have a code, alerting all staff to come to the ICU bed and the mother instantly knows it's her child that is coding and tags along with the staff? Lol Yeah this is not happening in any hospital.

    And yeah the illuminated paintings were a nice cool touch for the audience, but the dad seemed so shocked as if those other paintings actually covered up what was really drawn on the wall? I mean for a mother to be as hyper vigilant and accusatory about the child's conniving ways, she would have at least made more effort to really go thru the room and snoop a little beyond just turning over a few folded clothes. As such, those drawings should not have been a thing. It would have been caught much early on. I mean did they even go into her room with the lights off ever at night? What?! Lol The state of suspicion of the mother, a reasonable person would have peeked in on the child in her room at night.

    I don't even feel like breaking down the additional Swiss cheese moments or the nonsense of a scene where the child hits on the drunken dad. Whomever wrote this ridiculous movie should have paper balls thrown at their heads. This movie had a great concept and could have been really great in more competent hands.

    And who the heck gave this movie a horror rating? Suspenseful, maybe even thriller, but it is NOT a horror movie. SMH

    Anyhow, is the movie a 1? No, but it does NOT deserve a 7. So, I'm doing my part to get this number down to its fair rating, which should be between 4-5. Great acting 10, poor writing 1. You've been warned.
  • HorrorDisasterGuy-90617 - 24 October 2023
    Unsettling & Creepy
    The story is really well done on how it's told and presented in this movie. The opening is really effective on it shown and how it effects the character Kate. I really like the idea of a mysterious orphan girl who has a strange behavior and it's executed really well. Also the movie is really creepy on the psychological horror that is presented here and it's suspenseful throughout. The best character in this movie is Esther. She such a great character in the movie on how you can clear see there's something wrong with her. She have a strange behavior throughout the movie and is a threatening villain. Also Isabelle Fuhrman does a amazing job playing as the character. The twist is really unique and interesting on how it's done. I won't spoiler it, but it is a clever one.
  • astrare - 22 June 2023
    Esther Coleman Rocks!!
    Beware.. for Esther is a savage.

    Ok but for real, this movie is glorious. I love Esther/Leena. She may have been delusional and crazy but still... Esther was really smart she knew what she was doing. She could have probably gotten away with this whole scheme if she didn't seduce John right away or at all, like what did she expect? Did she really think he and her would get down the same night Daniel went to the hospital and when Kate was gone? Idk wild.. Anyway, Daniel suffered the most physically, max suffered the most mentally, Kate suffered the most emotionally, and john suffered eternally. Esther is a lana del rey type of coded girl, she would've loved her.

    Ok but i seriously didn't understand what Kate was doing, at the end of the movie when she got max and was by the lake, the police was driving towards the house like why didn't she go up to them and explain the situation? That could have prevented the altercation between her and Esther on top of the lake and then Esther wouldn't have died.

    BUT LIKE, Kate got hit so many times by Esther like why did she survive. Personally i think Esther should have won because she is a icon and a girlboss. I honestly despised Kate but I love Vera Farmiga sm.

    UGH I LOVE THIS MOVIE SO MUCH, GO LEENA.
  • timothyschembs - 23 October 2022
    This horror movie is very different from others
    This has one of the coolest plot twists ever, the way that the mysteries start to show and you can finally start to connect the dots by the end is insane. A few things I disliked about the movie were that the whole dead baby thing really drags in relevance only being used as a reason to want to adopt another daughter, also the weird Esther being in love with the dad thing is weird and at the scene we're she is wearing the dress and hitting on the dad made me feel really uncomfortable. Otherwise this movie is very dark, mysterious, crazy, dramatic, and a very underrated movie that I think solidifies itself a place in the horror genre.
  • gwnightscream - 5 September 2022
    Good, Suspenseful Flick
    This 2009 horror-thriller stars Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard and Isabelle Fuhrman. Farmiga (Bates Motel, The Conjuring) plays Kate, a woman who has recently suffered a miscarriage with her husband, John (Sarsgaard). They have 2 other children, but decide to adopt a smart, artistic, young girl, Esther (Fuhrman) whom Kate soon discovers is not all she appears to be. I just seen the prequel before watching this. It's a good, suspenseful flick a bit similar to "The Good Son" and Farmiga & Fuhrman are both great in it, especially Fuhrman. If you like horror or thrillers, definitely check this out at least once.