Due to stellar performances from Fuhrman and Stiles, and the absurdity of the premise, Orphan: First Kill proves to be engaging enough for audiences.
It seems Hollywood can’t leave well enough alone. In the never-ending saga of prequels, sequels, reboots, and remakes, the generally well-liked psychological horror Orphan received its never-awaited prequel. The now 25-year-old Isabelle Fuhrman reprises the role of Leena in Orphan: First Kill, the murderous woman who masqueraded as a 9-year-old to con and murder, with the help of Kennedy Irwin as her body double.
As established in the 2009 feature directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, Leena was a 33-year-old woman who utilized her rare hormonal disorder to con wealthy families into adopting her. During the events of Orphan, she terrorized the Coleman family and attempted to seduce her adoptive father. She kills him after he rejects her and finally catches on to what his wife has been telling him — their adoptive daughter Esther is not who she claims to be. Orphan: First Kill tells the origin story that no one really wanted or expected to have since audiences know all they needed to about Leena, thanks to some exposition in Orphan. The sequel suggests, however, that perhaps audiences don't know everything after all. In this story, Leena is at the Estonian asylum she will inevitably escape. She is deep into her murderess era and is intent on not stopping anytime soon. She makes her way to the U.S. after convincing authorities that she is the missing daughter of a wealthy American family, Esther Albright. She is welcomed by her mother Tricia Albright (Julia Stiles), father Allen Albright (Rossif Sutherland), and older brother Gunnar Albright (Matthew Finlan). Thinking she has the Albrights fooled, she finds herself in a situation where the tables are turned, and all is not alright with the family.
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Orphan: First Kill is a bit of a misnomer as it doesn’t truly depict her Leena's first kill. Within the first ten minutes, it's revealed that Leena has been institutionalized after an episode involving her ingratiating herself into a family and killing them. The scars on her neck and wrists are from struggling against her restraints, something Orphan had already divulged. From the beginning, Orphan: First Kill fails to establish the origin of Leena’s murderous reign and focuses on an incident roughly two years before her adoption by the Coleman family. It seems Alex Mace, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, who came up with the story, and David Coggeshall, who wrote the screenplay, anticipated this problem and threw in a narrative twist the audience don't see coming.
Seeing Isabelle Fuhrman reprise the role of Leena is jarring. In a humorous turn towards irony, Fuhrman playing an adult woman pretending to be a young child is exactly as it looks. The attempts to hide Fuhrman’s growth since playing Leena/Esther at age 12 are clever enough, but maintaining the charade proves difficult after the 20-minute mark. However, the narrative twist allows Fuhrman’s apparent aging to benefit the story. Without giving away too much, it becomes okay to see Fuhrman as an adult partway through the film as Leena/Esther doesn’t have the mask on for long periods. This gives Fuhrman room to portray new dimensions to Leena and validate why revisiting the character is worthwhile. Fuhrman is a force to be reckoned with. Her talent is seemingly effortless, and watching her embody Leena is mesmerizing. The only thing hindering her is the odd choice to have her wear contact lenses to intensify the creepiness already present in her performance. As was the case the first time around, Fuhrman is the main attraction.
The film is fun; in fact, it is at times unintentionally hilarious. While there is a significant effort in masking Fuhrman’s actual height with practical effects and a body double, William Brent Bell's directing neglects the central tenants to make an intense psychological thriller/horror. Instead, the film leans more toward comedic horror, especially since audiences are no longer in the dark about Leena/Esther’s secret. There is also the aspect of Tricia not being the typical mark for Leena/Esther and better suited to countering her precious daughter’s dark tendencies. The unevenness in the directing style and the writing propels Orphan: First Kill into a gray area between horror and camp. Either way, it is endlessly entertaining from beginning to end, when it concludes with a not-so-subtle nod towards Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.
Orphan: First Kill is a kooky romp, way too relaxed to be considered a psychological horror. It is hard to discern whether this prequel story proves its existence is necessary, as its unevenness works against all the good birthed from the narrative twist. However, due to stellar performances from Fuhrman and Stiles, and the absurdity of the premise, Orphan: First Kill proves to be engaging enough for audiences to tune in.
Orphan: First Kill began streaming on Paramount+ Friday, August 19. The film is 99 minutes long and is rated R for bloody violence, language and brief sexual content.
Ferdosa (she/her) is a lifelong student of cinema. She dreams of being a film festival programmer and is working her way towards that goal by consuming a concerning number of films every week.