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Quote ... "It must be hard loving a child that is not your own..."
The Orphan
Directed by: Jaume Collet-Serra
Starring: Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman
This was easily one of the creepiest films I have seen this year. For very good reasons too. Nope, there are no ghosts, demonic manifestions or any form of supernatural element involved. It has something far more powerful than any of these... a little girl named Esther. Who is Esther? Nope, she is not Sadako from The Ring who will crawl out fro your TV. Neither is she the young Linda Blair from The Exorcist who will vomit slime all over you and turn her head 360 degrees round. She is a far bigger nightmare to handle than any girl terror on film history and is on parallel with even that evil little boy from The Omen.

Esther, played by relatively new comer, Isabelle Fuhrman (Hounddog), is a litle girl adopted by a couple, Kate and John (Vera and Peter) who has recently lost a baby (Kate miscarried). Trying to get over their pain and also in the midst of keeping a marriage that is going downhill, they decided that adopting a child might help to improve the situation.
At first sight, Esther is a sweet and pleasing child who adapts easily to the family, warming especially fast to the couple's 5 year old deaf daughter, Max. Everyone adores her, except for elder son, Daniel, who dislikes Esther at first sight. For a start, things appears to be going well but as a series of alarming events begin to unfold in the family after the girl's arrival, Kate grows suspicious of Esther, who, beyond her initially sweet facade, might not be as innocent as she seems. After making some startling discoveries, Kate is about to realize that Esthe's true intentions for staying with the family would be anything but honorable. However, her feeable attempts to convince her husband and everyone else that Esther could be a danger falls on deaf ears and by the time the truth gets out, things have already spiral disturbingly out of control ...

This is obviously no Disney movie despite the fact that it has kids in it. The element of suspense is very well played out and treaded throuhout the film as we were kept to the very edge of the seat, guessing and speculating the fate of it's seemingly hapless characters trapped in a situation headed for doom. Special credit has to be given for 12 year old Isabelle's acting as the psychologically deranged Esther who is also, at the same time, a tragic personlity in her own right, to some's opinion, that will leaves much to be pitied even way after her fated demise. Vera's powerful performance as Kate is also another highlight of the film worthy of a mention. She has brought out the sheer haplessness of her character so well at certain point of the film that you just feel like reaching out to comfort her by giving her a hug or a pat on the back and telling her that good will eventually triump over evil (or not?)
Seventh month might be coming and before you would want to catch that ghost movie you have been waiting for, see The Orphan first. Let it be the first scare to open your journey of scare feasts as more horror movies start hitting your cinemas this month ...