Year of Release: 2022
Director: William Brent Bell
Starring: Isabelle Fuhrman, Julia Stiles, Rossif Sutherland, Hiro Kanagawa, Matthew Finlan, Samantha Walkes, David Lawrence Brown, Lauren Cochrane, Gwendolyn Collins, Jeff Strome
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 2
Watch it on Amazon Prime
Synopsis and Review
"Orphan" from Jaume Collet-Serra premiered in 2009 and while the reviews weren't particularly effusive, the film managed to have a solid box office showing, while at the same time launching the career of Isabelle Fuhrman. This prequel once again focuses on the character of Leena Klammer, who we first witness being held in a psychiatric facility in Russia. While she's 31 years old, she has a rate hormonal disorder that gives her the appearance of a 9 year old child. She manages to violently escape that institution, and furthermore hides in the car of an art therapist who was going to the institute. She looks up missing American girls, and discovers she bears a resemblance to Esther Albright who went missing in 2003. She poses as her and when she's located by the Russian police, she identifies herself as that girl. Esther's parents, which includes the father, Allen Albright a wealthy artist and his wife Tricia, spring to action, with Tricia coming to Russia to retrieve "Esther". Tricia starts suspecting that "Esther" is not who she claims to be, when she forgets important pieces of information on the family, and when she reveals talents she hadn't before (like painting). A detective who was helping the family locate the girl, also suspecting of the new Esther, retrieves an object from the Albright house, something she has touched, in order to see if the prints match. They obviously don't, but before he can do anything, "Esther" attacks him. However what she didn't anticipate was Tricia being there and witnessing it all.
"Orphan: First Kill" tosses aside much nuance in terms of progressively showcasing who Leena is, the same going for the family she finds herself with. The writers and the director, want to go straight for the sensationalistic aspect of the narrative, and showcase the monstrous and villainous aspect of Leena, who this time around, gets more than she bargained for when it comes to the family she ends up with. The whole metaphor of "not all monsters look like one", applies to more than one character here, sadly William Brent Bell removes any sense of progressive disclosure, or for that matter, suspense buildup or character development, going for a rather shlock type of approach. All the characters in this narrative adhere to rather clichéd archetypes, and sadly even when Julia Stiles amps up the tone of her performance, she still can't bring much impact (or life) to a film that is rather predictable and formulaic. In the end, this feels more like a "by the numbers" prequel, with the intent of scaring off some extra dollars from the audience (in reality there aren't many scares at all, if any), more so than the desire of telling a story of this particular character. It's ultimately a forgettable endeavor.
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