“Orphan” - creepily entertaining

Posted by Movie_Maven

July 29, 2009 |

Particularly after one of my recent posts regarding the lack of originality in Hollywood, it was nice seeing a resurgence of said originality in “Orphan.”

Despite the numerous complaints on imdb about how overworked the creepy-kid horror genre has become, I agree to a point; however, I (being one who rarely catches twists before they are revealed) was completely surprised at the spoiler - probably because I was so caught up in the terrific acting of Isabelle Fuhrman (Esther) and the utter adorableness of Aryana Engineer (Max).

Also, is it me or does anyone else wonder why has Peter Saarsgard been cast as a jerk in several of his (fairly) recent films (”Flightplan”, “Skeleton Key”, ‘Boys Don’t Cry”, for example)??

Sure, this movie utilizes virtually every horror cliche (hence the 123 minute run time…quite long for this genre) and there are ample jump scenes (I LOVE those!!) which is why I think so many people were disappointed; however, the originality of what is really wrong with Esther was, to me, great and I hope to see more of Fuhrman in the near future.