Collet-Serra may not have the best track record but he manages to accomplish a lot in “Orphan.” The camera work is often very disturbing and he manages to evoke the true definition of insanity through stunning imagery that always tries to surpass words that can best describe what we’re seeing. From character Esther’s basic psychopathic habits right down to her ability to conceive the darkest of imagery through her paint brush (as we see throughout the film), Collet-Serra leaves almost no stone unturned. Without wanting to ruin the twist, Collet-Serra gives us enough hints sprinkled around the general mystery to keep us guessing and anxious to discover what’s wrong with Esther. Is she the anti-Christ? Is she a demon? Is she the manifestation of the past? Is she Satan? Or is she merely a disturbed child?
We don’t know until the final scenes and when the big reveal is placed in front of us it’s surely something that’s never been done before. With the single twist in the climax, Collet-Serra makes the time well worth it. Isabelle Fuhrman gives a wonderful performance as the awfully charming but secretly devious child whose ulterior motives and plans for her adopted family leaves many opportunities for her budding talent to shine through. Esther seems almost like the perfect child at times and once she begins using her power of manipulation on her well meaning adoptive family, she’ll definitely live on as the villain you love to hate. Second in line is Vera Farmiga whose strong performance as the disturbed Kate leaves her questioning not only her own grasp on sanity but her husband’s as well. Once the charming Esther is adopted by a high class family who open their doors to her, she acts not just as a villain but as an invoking of issues this family has yet to come to grips with.
This breaking down of their wills leads to a break down of their seemingly solid foundation that Esther masterfully sabotages. “Orphan” is a strong simplistic thriller with aims at confounding us with twists and turns; surely enough, it works. Though, as interesting as Collet-Serra’s story is, there’s simply nothing here that you won’t find in other better evil children films in the library. From “The Good Son” to “The Omen” what schemes are devised and what inner sanctums of the psychopathic mind that are explored has already been accomplished a hundred times over. Sadly, “Orphan” is brought down by its inability to provide anything of true originality beyond the twist. Our resident demon child is disturbed, our resident evil child is devious and surely enough she manages to get her way by manipulating a family in to believing at least one of their own is going insane or is simply paranoid. This is a basic sliding scale that makes us wonder if the person in mind’s sanity is deteriorating before our eyes.
This lasts for a while as the film goes on and we learn how utterly far the resident psycho is willing to go to fulfill their hunger for chaos and pure destruction within the household of a well meaning family who took them in. With Collet-Serra’s pulling of the strings, much of what we see is self-serving, forced down our throats and basically proceeds without ever really acknowledging how old hat most of what occurs is. Truly with such an interesting premise we could afford something more groundbreaking but alas the violence and manipulation really just stumbles out the gate and never lets us guess what could be happening next. It’s a shame with the twist that we couldn’t have seen the writers go for more shock and disbelief instead of clipping scenes from past evil children films. Collet-Serra’s film is a mixture of old school sub-genre devices that we’ve seen before again and again while also managing to deliver on good performances and a twist ending that you really won’t see coming. I enjoyed it.