ORPHAN

Last year, I put Esther as my 14th favorite movie villain. Well now it's time to review the movie she came from, which is...

Before I saw the movie, me and my friend saw the poster for this movie and she got scared, while I thought she was as cute as Wednesday Addams. When I saw the trailer, I thought the film was about an evil Orphan with telekinesis powers, which I thought was going to be a lame film. Finally when I watched the movie with another friend of mine, I was speechless. The film’s about a family that decides to adopt an Orphan from their local Orphanage, after the death of a stillborn baby. The Orphan they adopt is a little Russian girl named Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman). Once the family takes her in, they notice that there might be something wrong about her. Is she just troubled or is there a dark secret she's hiding?

First of all the opening to the film is very intense and disturbing. It starts out with the death of the Mother’s baby and the scene is so graphic looking along with the realistic acting that I found the scene to be very hard to watch. After that, we spend a little time with the family before they adopt Esther. So before I talk about the villain, let's talk a little about the family. First off we have the mother Kate (Vera Farmiga) who cries about the loss of her baby and is trying to stay away from alcohol after a tragic event that happened at a pond near her house. Then we have the father John (Peter Sarsgaard) who’s a man who loves his kids and spends most the time making love to Kate. The son Daniell (Jimmy Bennett) is a tough young kid who hangs with his friends and plays at his tree house and play with his paintball guns. Finally, there's the young daughter Max (Aryana Engineer) who's deaf but is sweet and lovable, and hopes to one day have an older sister. All the actors do a wonderful job portraying their characters and make them really likable. I also really love the scenes when they talk about the dead baby, it's just really sad and I think the best moment that mentions the baby is when Kate reads Max a story (In sign language) that symbolizes to what happened to the baby.

Now for the villain Esther. Well when you first meet her she acts very different to what you'll see later on in the film. She looks cute, she's very mature for her age, and paints pictures that tell stories while singing "The Glory Of Love". Her behavior is so innocent that you won't suspect her being the villain. Even the scenes where she looks creepy and switches back to her innocent self still puts you under her spell.

Throughout the film, you'll notice something very weird and creepy about her. The weird things about her is she never takes off the ribbons off her neck and wrists; she already knows how to play piano even though her new Mother has only taught her a few times' dresses up differently; and knows the meaning of the F word. Her best creepy scenes as we're trying to understand her motivation is when she's sneaking around the house; killing a wounded bird; turning on and off a neon light in her room; and she even catches the audience off guard whenever she makes a sudden appearance which mostly happens in the dark. All those scenes really just make you wonder and wonder about her, and what she's planing.

The chaos and violence all starts when she injures a bully. After that you have murders, blackmail, framing, threats, and seducing. All of these scenes just keep making Esther more psychotic and creepy as the film goes on. I never seen a little girl play a role so scary since Regain in "The Exorcist" (Though I'm sure there are others that I didn't see yet). Her looks and facial expressions is creepy; her Russian accent is eerie; and her behavior is really unsettling. There's also a really great plot twist I have never ever seen coming. This twist doesn't just show her true demons but also has a great climax at the pond. When the film ends you see scary images on the credits and than you hear the song "The Glory Of Love" sung by Jimmy Durante which may sound happy and upbeat but makes the credits very unsettling and hard to enjoy the beauty of the song without thinking of Esther. Kind of like how the villain in "A Clockwork Orange" sings "Singin' In The Rain" in the film and the credits play Gene Kelly's happy tune which feels unsettling to listen too after watching the film.

The film has to be one of the scariest films I ever seen. It's a horror, a thriller, a mystery, has likable characters, and a really scary villain. The film just scares you away from adopting a child which made the film a little controversial especially a line Esther says about loving an adopted child. It's just one of the best horror films I have ever seen in recent years and it has gave me a ton of nightmares and I'm sure it will give you the same shares as I did.

RATING 5/5