Orphan: First Kill (15)

Leena Klammer escapes from the Saarne Institute in Estonia and poses as Esther Albright, a missing-presumed-kidnapped American girl with similar facial features. The US embassy in Moscow reunites Esther with her tearful mother Tricia. They travel by private jet to Darien, Connecticut to meet Esther's delighted artist father and older brother. In the guise of Esther, Leena acclimatises quickly to the trappings of wealth but every family has dark secrets.

LondonNet Film Review

Orphan: First Kill (15) Film Review from LondonNet

Murder is child’s play in director William Brent Bell’s prequel to the 2009 psychological horror Orphan about a thirtysomething psychiatric patient with a rare gland condition that stunts growth, allowing her to pass as a young girl and infiltrate unsuspecting families. The cuckoo in the nest is happy as a lark and crazy as a loon in Orphan: First Kill, which chronicles the antagonist’s first forays outside of secure confinement and pits the wily predator against a surprisingly worthy adversary…

Screenwriter David Coggeshall pulls the rug from under his villain (and us) with a satisfying swish at around the hour mark and savours the acrid tang of white supremacy and class privilege as his plot whirls in a tantalising new direction. Unfortunately, he’s tightly handcuffed to back story disclosed in the first film and can’t deliver on the sadistic promise, reverting to slasher conventions to sever dysfunctional family ties in the most primitive ways possible. Isabelle Furhman reprises her creepy embodiment of the duplicitous title role, staring soullessly into the camera as her master manipulator hoodwinks adults, who treat her like an innocent child. Make no mistake, she will peck your eyes out given half a chance.

In 2007, 31-year-old Leena Klammer (Fuhrman) is a deeply disturbed patient under the care of Dr Novotny (David Lawrence Brown) at the Saarne Institute in Estonia, where staff see through her child-like facade and recognise the psychopath in their midst. Leena exploits the weakness of one smitten security guard to escape the facility and reinvent herself as Esther Albright, a missing-presumed-kidnapped American girl with similar facial features. A member of staff at the US embassy in Moscow reunites Esther with her tearful mother Tricia (Julia Stiles): “Be prepared for change. Four years is a long time in the development of a child!”

The imperious matriarch of one of America’s wealthiest clans spirits Esther home by private jet to Darien, Connecticut into the embrace of the girl’s delighted artist father (Rossif Sutherland) and older brother (Matthew Finlan). In the guise of Esther, Leena acclimatises quickly to the trappings of wealth and attends sessions with child therapist Dr Segar (Samantha Walkes). However, inconsistencies in her recollections and the nagging suspicions of Detective Donnan (Hiro Kanagawa) threaten to expose Leena’s diabolical deception.

Orphan: First Kill is a solidly entertaining but predictable yarn that merrily ignores any stain removal concerns of the costume department to spatter Fuhrman with freshly spilt blood at every grisly juncture. Stiles embraces her matriarch of entitlement, who wields dynastic power with steely intent. She visibly savours the script’s juiciest moments of verbal warfare. A well-placed barb or clinical threat cut deeper than any blade gleaming conveniently in a kitchen drawer.

– Kim Hu