"Orphan: First Kill" a campy, bonkers hoot of a prequel with a new ace in the hole

Orphan: First Kill (2022)

As it turns out, there was always something wrong with Esther. Surely you didn’t forget about Esther, played with startling confidence by then-tween Isabelle Fuhrman, in 2009’s Jaume Collet-Serra-directed "Orphan." Beyond Fuhrman being entirely up to the task of playing (stop now if you haven’t seen this 13-year-old film) an insane 33-year-old woman with proportional dwarfism who passed herself off as an angelic 9-year-old girl to be adopted, the film itself was a daring, deliciously nutty, and uncommonly well-acted mid-Dark Castle Entertainment genre treat. In some ways, it even felt like the "Bad Seed" movie Brian De Palma never got around to making.

That’s right — "Orphan" presented a reveal no one could possibly see coming (not unlike the humdinger in "Sleepaway Camp"), and yet it also held up well to scrutiny. Now, we have an Esther-come-lately prequel set two years before Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard were charmed to pieces and adopted Esther into their family. With the secret already out, "Orphan: First Kill" couldn’t possibly carry the same fucked-up novelty as its predecessor, right? Directed by William Brent Bell ("The Boy" and "Brahms: Boy II"), this origin story of sorts is also missing Collet-Serra’s sinister, macabre-dripping panache. Considering one might have predicted not much for "Orphan: First Kill," it surprisingly has a different card to play. Read the full review at Horror Obsessive.

Grade: B -

Paramount Pictures is releasing “Orphan: First Kill” (99 min.) in theaters, on digital and streaming on Paramount+ on August 19, 2022.