This second film arrives a bit of a surprise as it is 13 years since the original Orphan. That was a fairly standard horror story elevated by a superior cast headed by Peter Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga along with the formidable talents of Jaume Collet-Serra in the director’s chair.
In this prequel, we see how Esther got from Estonia to America and posed as a missing daughter of a wealthy couple, Allen and Tricia Albright, played by Rossif Sutherland (son of Donald) and Julia Stiles. Only Isabelle Fuhrman, who plays Esther, the titular evil dwarfism sufferer, returns from the original cast.
Last time, therefore, we had a 13 year old actress playing a 30 odd year old woman pretending to be 9. That sort of worked. This time, we have a 23 year old actress playing a 30 odd year old woman pretending to be 9 or younger, and that doesn’t really work despite a lot of digital jiggery pokery.
In its favour is a completely unexpected twist midway through the movie that takes it in an unexpected direction. Also Stiles clearly relishes a part that turns out to be much more juicy than it originally seems. Despite its one obvious problem, this is better than I would have expected.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10