Day 342: Orphan

Orphan

Little Orphan AAAAHHHHnnie

Children are either annoying, stupid, or evil. Well, according to horror movies anyway. Rarely do you find a normal, well-adjusted kid in a scary movie. They're usually captured due to their stupidity or lag behind, forcing older characters to put themselves in dangerous situations. Most of the time, I end up cheering for the villain just to shut the kids up. When they're not being annoying or stupid, they're pure evil. Sometimes it's a supernatural evil, be it through possession or perhaps the spawn of Satan. Other times, they're just nasty little shitheads that like hurting things. We've all had one of these kids in our class growing up. I remember having two boys named Ryan in my class and I would always refer to them as “Good Ryan” and “Bad Ryan”. It's this believability in the “killer child” genre that makes it so effective and so scary.

Orphan is a 2009 horror movie starring Vera Farmiga (Source Code, Up In the Air) as Kate Coleman and Peter Sarsgaard (Garden State, Jarhead) as her husband John. Their third child is stillborn which causes strain on Kate and John's marriage. Despite having a young son Daniel and a hearing-impaired younger daughter named Maxine (Aryana Engineer, Resident Evil: Retribution), Kate and John feel the need to fill the void of their deceased child by adopting. They visit an orphanage where John immediately takes to a smart and talented 9-year old Russian girl named Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman, The Hunger Games, After Earth). Sister Abigail (CCH Pounder, Warehouse 13, The Shield) tells Kate and John about Esther, including that her previous family was killed in a mysterious fire. Max immediately takes to Esther while Daniel remains standoffish. As Esther becomes more adjusted to living with the family, Kate begins to notice strange things about Esther, such as her advanced knowledge of things far beyond her age. At school, Esther is bullied by another girl and freaks out when the girl tries to remove the ribbon that she always wears around her neck. One day on the playground, Esther shoves the girl off a slide, breaking her ankle in the process. Esther claims it was an accident and while John believes her, Kate does not. Sister Abigail calls Kate and warns her that bad things tend to happen when Esther is around. When Sister Abigail pays them a visit, Esther shoves Max in front of her car, causing her to crash. She then brutally beats Sister Abigail to death with a hammer and forces Max to help her hide the body. Kate's suspicion grows, but John still does not believe that there is anything to worry about. Daniel learns of Sister Abigail's death and Esther confronts him in his tree house. She sets the tree house on fire and Daniel has to jump out, seriously injuring himself. Kate eventually discovers that Esther came from a place called the Saarne Institute, which is in Estonia, not Russia. It is revealed that the Saarne Institute is not an orphanage but a mental institution. Who is Esther really and will Kate be able to stop her before it is too late?

She's going to stick her hand in warm water, isn't she? Monster!

Having a murderous child as your main villain is not the easiest thing to pull off. The biggest issue is believability. If you have a kid run around with a butcher knife and overpowering adults, it's just too unbelievable, even in the world of horror. Bloody Birthday is a good example of what not to do in a horror movie. Then you have the good, believable killer child movies like The Bad Seed, The Good Son, and to a lesser extent, The Brood. Orphan falls somewhere in the middle of good and bad killer kid movies. In the first half of the film, Esther's murders are varied and are done in such a way that the audience believes they could actually happen. They are played off like accidents and despite knowing that Esther is doing these things on purpose, we still want to believe her. The second half of the movie is where things tend to drift, from the unconventional to the hard to believe. Without spoiling anything, I enjoyed the twist revealing who Esther really is. It was unexpected, but still made sense for the most part. This is around the time, though, that the character becomes more like Jason Vorhees, culminating in a knock-down, drag-out fight. The scene where Esther tries to seduce John is purposely uncomfortable, and while it makes some sense in terms of the story, you can practically hear everyone in the movie squirm in their seats.

In order for these movies to work, the parents are required to be ignorant. In varying degrees, that's OK. Parents aren't always around to see what happens or are quick to defend their child. In Orphan, John is so unaware of what is going on I'm surprised he doesn't occasionally walk into walls. His willful ignorance is too much to bare at times. Perhaps part of my dislike with the character is Peter Sarsgaard's performance. He has a very soft, blase way about him that just never sits right with me. Vera Farmiga is decent enough in her role as the skeptical mother. The real stare is Isabelle Fuhrman as she is able to capture both a false sweetness in the beginning and a cold, methodical hatred towards the middle and end. The violence in the movie is actually pretty good with some nice blood and gore. The viciousness to which Esther commits her crimes is startling and effective. The movie has the standard scares and an occasionally creepiness. The run time of two hours is a bit too much to bear. To put things in perspective, Orphan is 123 minutes and The Shining is 146 minutes. 

M.C. Hammerkiller

Orphan is a decent horror movie that doesn't know when to quit. The first half is fairly entertaining thanks to the great performance by Isabelle Fuhrman and the unexpectedly brutal violence. The second half tends to drift into unbelievable territory which hurts the overall viewing experience. I found every adult in the movie to be fairly ignorant of the world around them creating some ridiculous moments. I wasn't a fan of Peter Sarsgaard's bored performance and was hoping he'd die quickly. The movie's run time is far too long and should have cut out at least twenty minutes. The surprise towards the end is good and the movie does a good job of not revealing it too quickly. While it's not the best killer child movie, Orphan has it's moments and is worth a watch just to see Isabelle Fuhrman own the entire movie.

6.5/10

Day 202: The Orphanage (El Orfanato)

The Orphanage (El Orfanato)

Get that orphanage some color, fast!

Orphanages don't really exist anymore at least not in the traditional sense. When we hear orphanage, we think of a Dickensian-era building, filled with dirty children just hoping to be adopted by a wealthy family. Nowadays, there are group homes, foster parents, and other ways of adopting children. Movies and television, though, still like to portray orphanages in the a more traditional way. This works in favor of horror movies because it has been ingrained in our minds that orphanages are scary places. It's also a good excuse to have scary children.

The Orphanage (also known as El Orfanato) is a Spanish horror movie starring Belen Rueda as Laura. Produced by Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth), the movie was written by Sergio G. Sanchez and directed by J.A. Bayona. Laura moves into the orphanage she grew up in along with her husband Carlos and adopted son Simon in hopes of helping out special needs children. While walking along the beach with his mother, Simon runs off into a cave and is seen speaking to someone who isn't there. He claims he is speaking to a boy named Tomas, but his mother dismisses this as just an imaginary friend. A social worker named Beninga Escobeda (Montserrat Carulla) arrives at the orphanage along with Simon's adoption file which says that Simon is HIV-positive. Angered at her intrusion, Laura kicks her out of the house. That night, Laura hears a sound outside, and finds Beninga in her shed, carrying a shovel. She escapes before Laura can stop her. The next day, Simon takes his mother on a scavenger hunt, supposedly done by his invisible friends. At the end of the game, he finds his adoption file and reveals to Laura that he knows he is adopted and and is going to die. During a children's party at the orphanage, Laura and Simon argue, causing Simon to hide. While searching for him, Laura is trapped in the bathroom by a boy in a mask with “Tomas” written on his clothes. She is freed by Carlos, but they are unable to find Simon. Six months go by with no clues as to Simon's whereabouts. Laura suddenly sees Beninga crossing the street. As she gets out to confront her, Beninga is hit and killed by a truck. It is revealed that Beninga used to work at the orphanage and has a deformed son named Tomas that she kept hidden beneath a sack mask. He was accidentally killed by the children when they stole his mask. Laura hears strange banging sounds in the house and other strange occurrences and contacts a medium to have a séance. The medium sees sick children in the house, but does not see Simon. Laura begins searching the orphanage, finding clues, leading to her shed where she discovers the bodies of the children who used to live at the orphanage. Laura recreates the original orphanage and hopes to contact the ghosts of the children so they can help her find Simon. Will it work or has Laura gone insane?

Gah! Kill it with fire!

The Orphanage was definitely not the movie I thought I was going to watch. I expected a movie somewhere along the lines of The Others or A Haunting In Connecticut. I thought this was going to be a scary ghost story where the orphanage was haunted by the souls of tortured children looking for revenge. That's not how the movie played out, but it was for the best. More emphasis is put on storytelling, character development, and solid acting than your typical ghost movie and it's hard to complain about something like that. The movie forgoes the usual scares and tricks which make it a better movie, but does make it less of a horror movie. There are scenes of general eeriness and the movie does leave the audience feeling uneasy, but it's due more towards the content of the story than any special effect or sound swell. This uneasiness reaches it's zenith with the movies incredibly depressing, but sort of happy ending. I liked it, but it was quite a bummer. There are plans to adapt this movie for an American audience and I don't expect that version to contain the same ending.

The movie is strong thanks to the great acting. Belen Rueda brings genuine emotion to her role as Laura causing the audience the share sympathy with her. The supporting cast compliments her well, but she is the true star. J.A. Bayona does a fine job directing with some good shots and an overall horror-style atmosphere that lead to some tense moments. The movie relies more on old-school atmospheric scares, which is a nice change of pace, but there should have been more. The story is good, but it had a few plot points that kind of bothered me. Unfortunately, I can't go into them or else I'd ruin the movie, but there were a few basic things that, in real life, would probably end the mystery a lot faster. Despite being a foreign movie, I never felt lost in any cultural differences, but did not feel catered to as an American viewer. That's far better than a foreign movie trying to be an American horror movie.

Knock, knock, knockin' on Heaven's door

The Orphanage is a good movie built around a good cast and film making. The story is decent, but did have a few flaws that stuck with me after the credits rolled. The movie lacked scares making it feel less like a traditional horror movie, but the focus is always more on the story than terrifying the audience. The sets look great and the scenery fits in well with the overall feel of the movie. You won't be terrified by The Orphanage, but you will be entertained.

7/10