Orphan First Kill – Movie Review
Director: William Brent Bell
Writer: David Coggeshall (Screenplay)
Writer: David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, Alex Mace (Story)
Cast
- Isabelle Fuhrman (Escape Room 2)
- Julia Stiles (10 Things I Hate About You)
- Rossif Sutherland (Possessor)
- Hiro Kanagawa (Midway)
- Matthew Finlan
Plot: After orchestrating a brilliant escape from an Estonian psychiatric facility, Esther travels to America by impersonating the missing daughter of a wealthy family.
Runtime: 1 Hour 39 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Orphan First Kill starts as Leena orchestrates her escape from an Estonian psychiatric facility. She adopts the name Esther (Fuhrman) the missing child of the Albrights. Tricia (Stiles), Allen (Sutherland) and Gunnar (Finlan) take Esther back into their home.
As Esther adapts to her new life, she is showing the weaknesses in her knowledge, as they want to figure out what happened to the missing girl for the 4-years, she was missing. It doesn’t take long before Esther starts showing the darker side of her nature around the Albright family.
Verdict on Orphan First Kill
Characters
Leena is an escaped Estonian psychiatric patient who has adopted the personality of a mission American girl Esther. As Esther, she is seen as a little girl returning to her family after going missing years before, but nothing everything is the same about her. We as an audience know the truth this time about Esther, so we get to see how she adapted to her first family after her escape. She makes mistakes that can be thrown out as problems but do need to be addressed.
Tricia is the mother of the Albright family, she is delighted to have her daughter back, despite having doubts about Esther. She does everything to keep her family together.
Allen is the father that had never given up hope of finding Esther. He had given up on his artwork because of her loss and with her return, he has a fresh outlook on life.
Gunnar is Esther’s older brother who isn’t that connected to his sister returning. He is a typical teenager who thinks he is better than everyone else. Gunnar gets himself in trouble, despite his reputation around the area.
Performances
Isabelle Fuhrman returns to this role seamlessly, where she gets to be closer to her real age this time around. As we as the audience know the truth it makes it easy for her to show the more adult side to Esther, instead of playing the role of a young girl.
Julia Stiles is great in her role, in what is a character you never imagined seeing her in. Rossif Sutherland works well as the father who is delighted to have his daughter back. Matthew Finlan works well as the teenager who hates everyone around him, who believes he is entitled to so much more.
Story
The story follows Esther as she first escapes from the Psychiatric facility and adopts the identity of a missing girl from America. Esther enters the family, but things start taking a disturbing turn for Esther.
In what is a prequel to the excellent ‘Orphan’ where we were given one of the most shocking twists in horror history. We get to enter this story knowing the truth about Esther, as she adapts to life in America for the first time.
This might look like a cut-and-dry concept that goes in a completely different direction. That turns everything you are expecting on its head to give us a truly enjoyable story.
Themes
Orphan First Kill is a horror prequel bringing back one of the more popular villains from modern cinema. The pure horror elements around Esther do feel like they have been pulled back. Giving us a much more intense thrilling storyline. There are some excellent scaling effects to maintain Esther’s petit height.
Final Thoughts – Orphan First Kill is such a clever prequel that overcomes all the odds to be a standout prequel in the horror world.