Orphan: First Kill Review

2009's "Orphan," which is unseen by me, featured such a famous plot twist that even I knew what it was. That's the mark of an effective piece of cinema, but it only takes turning a profit to make a sequel. Or in this case, a prequel, but now I'm just getting bogged down in particulars. What matters is that "Orphan: First Kill," which I watched from the safety of my comfy couch, I was reminded of one of 2021's most unpredictable films "Malignant," which took advantage of audience's assumptions and pulled the rug out from under them only to vacuum itself. Didn't expect that sentence? I didn't expect to write it either, but same goes for the revelation here.

I'm not saying "Orphan: First Kill" is a slice of masterpiece theater, but it's always such a nice surprise to, well, be surprised. A lot of its effectiveness comes from the unanticipated, so we'll be circumventing spoilers in this review. What if you want to know but don't want to watch it? Then why are you here? Just press that poor "play" button on your remote- what else do you have to do? Trust me, the world is just as gross as this.

Director William Brent Bell doesn't linger on some of the more unsavory elements so common in horror movies; aside from a few gruesome bits, the gore is rather tame by what feels like design. You sit from in front of your TV thinking "oh she's gonna die," only for her not to meet a miserable end, but, oh wow look at me, I can't in good faith say what happens to her. "Who" she is is up to the reader to guess after they've watched it, which is about as good an endorsement as anyone can hope for.

The narrative shouldn't be much of a shock to fans of the original, with Ester, played by Isabelle Fuhrman reprising the role, with another would-be "forever home." Not just any mind you, rich couple Tricia and Allen, Julia Stiles and Rossif Sutherland respectively, who's daughter has apparently gone missing some few years ago. Her name was, you guessed it, Ester, and you can probably see where this is going. Only it doesn't just take the easy road to cheap bloodshed and obvious tension, and the less you know about the plot going in, the better.

I imagine in today's world of film, actors sign on to a project hoping for a franchise, steady work and a meaty paycheck, but that's not exactly what happens with prequels, unless they make a prequel-prequel, but at that point any credibility would certainly be derailed. Yet the acting is solid across the board, with the father-daughter interactions feeling so believable that it's not hard to imagine that with only few script rewrites, this could be the summer's "feel good comedy-drama."

It's worth noting how I do not approve of the exploitation of something like adoption here, which is a sick thing to turn into slick entertainment for the sake of box office dollars and streamer subscriptions. Then again, I also do not condone murder, and well, what else do you expect from the genre?