Orphan: First Kill

Parenthood, it can be wonderful, stressfull and even difficult sometimes. You have to make so many things work in ordinary day life. No matter if it is football practise, kindergarten, school meetings, you still have to work as well. And you can´t expect to have a weekend off with friends, at least when the children are very young. Even if a lot of people have their own children, not all couples can have children the natural way. That does not stop couples from having a child completely, since there are other options. Such as taking care of an orphan, and if it works well it will feel like you still have your own child. As long as you follow some important rules, it should work out just fine. But what if the orphan you take care of, carry secrets that you had no knowledge of ? How would you handle that, if you find out that the child is actually not a young child but an adult? That is exactly what happened in the 2009 psychological horror film known as Orphan. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra ( who directed the surprisingly good horror remake of House Of Wax from 2005 ), Orphan is actually a quite clever pshycological horror film, where a couple known as Kathrine Coleman ( Vera Farmiga ) and John Coleman ( Peter Saarsgard ) make a decision to adopt a 9-year-old Russian girl, Esther (  Isabelle Fuhrman ), from St. Mariana´s Home for Girls, a local orphanage. They already have one son named , 12-year-old Daniel Coleman ( Jimmy Bennett ), but they want to make their family bigger, after Katherine lost a child at stillborth. At first Esther seems to be a wonderful child, perhaps a bit different than other kids, but still talented. But as time goes by, they will soon find out that Esther is not a child, and is in fact an adult with a hormonal disorder called hypopituitarism wich means that she can´t grow normally and caused proportional dwarfism. Orphan proved that you can make an effective psychological horror film with a different kind of twist. And i have to say that actress Isabelle Fuhrman did a really powerful performance, considering how young she was at this time in 2009. Orphan is definetely worth checking out, no matter if you choose to pick up the film on DVD, Blu Ray or just watch it on Netflix. I never would have imagined that we would have a prequel made of Orphan, but here we are 13 years later and a prequel have been released. Actress Isabelle Fuhrman is back as Esther, but this film is supposed to tell a story of her past, before she met the Coleman family.Considering how good the original film is, did this prequel turn out to be better than the original film or is this one of the worst horror movies of this year so far?

On January 26, 2007, Estonian psychiatric patient Leena Klammer ( Isabelle Fuhrman ), escapes from the Saarne Institute, killing both a guard and art therapist Anna Troyev ( Gwendolyn Collins ), as she uses the home of Anna to do a complete makover, and look for missing children online to make herself a new identity. She finds a missing girl online called Esther Albright who went missing back in 2003, so Leena decides to steal her identity. In Darien, Connecticut, the parents of the missing girl Esther known as Allen Albright ( Rossif Sutherland ) and Tricia Albright ( Julia Styles ), are informed that their daughter Esther have been found. Tricia travels to the American embassy in Moscow to see her daughter again, after so many years. Esther travels to America with Tricia to live with the couple. As time goes by, the Albright couple will soon find out, Esther is not really who she seems to be.

I have no problem if you make a prequel to a good film, as long as you make it a worthy prequel. And here we are in 2022 with a prequel to Orphan, and it is a film that we did not need. There are several issues i have with Orphan: First Kill, so let´s begin going through my biggest issues with this film. First of all the character known as Esther looks older in this film than what she did in Orphan. If this film is supposed to take place before Orphan, they probably should have filmed this prequel back in 2009 or 2010. Actress Isabelle Fuhrman is now 25 years old, and she is supposed to look like she is 9 years old as Esther in this prequel. That does not work very well, and this has nothing to do with actress Isabelle Fuhrman´s look in any way, but she can´t give us the impression that she is 9 years old at the age of 25. You might say that it is her character´s hormonal disorder that makes her still look young, but that does not look right if you think about the timeline from this film to the original film. If she really does not age at all, she should have looked exactly the same as she did back in 2009. The plot of this film is supposed to let us know more about Esther´s background, and we do find out a few details. But if they really wanted us to be interested in her past, they should have tried a lot harder. Even if this film have some bloody violent scenes, we don´t get a lot of fun moments where you would want to see Esther go completely nuts. That might actually have helped making this prequel fun since the film´s plot feels a bit weak. So is there anything positive to say about this film? Actress Isabelle Fuhrman tries to do what she can with her character, and she´s not bad as Esther. She knows how to play this character in a way that you feel engaged. Even if the performance is not as strong as the original film, i still appreciate that she tried to portrait Esther again. She clearly seems to enjoy playing this character, especially when she becomes very violent. I only wish they would have done this film in a different way and it might have worked better. Perhaps it would have been better to make a sequel instead of a prequal, and certain details would have made a lot more sense. Director William Brent Bell have a past of great horror films such as Wer, and the 2016 film The Boy. Unfortunately he does not find the right tone for a prequel of Orphan to make it work. It is almost as if he relies too much on the brutal kills and leave the important details behind. Orphan: First Kill is not a horrible film, it just lacks of so many important details that you will ask yourself:- This was their best idea for a prequel? If you are a fan of the original film, i am sure you at least want to check this film out. Don´t expect too much though, or you might be disappointed.

Rating: DD