1. BillP.

   9

   Great great flick....scariest and thrilliest movie NOT involving monsters or aliens......scariest thing I've seen since first The Hills Have Eyes......the twist at the end makes the whole movie worth while and then you want to go abck and see again to pick up on the clues. Saarsgard kinda drole but his wife Kate puts up an amazing role and 11 year actress Isabelle is amazing as Esther.....I totally dug it and the shooting was amazing and I thought wife's role amazing drinking problem and all.… Expand

   • Helpful? 1 of 2 users said Yes.
2. DoctorT.

   8

   As a film critic myself, I get annoyed when people say "Oh film critics don't give horror movies a chance" Then I look at this page and despair. Orphan is a terrific entry to the scary-child genre of horror. Featuring a well-modulated build to a delightfully absurd denouement, the picture is a tad overlong, but never anything less than a hoot. It is worth seeing -- if for nothing else -- for a superb juvenile performance by Isabelle Fuhrman. I fear my colleagues need to undergo some genre re-education.… Expand

   • Helpful? 2 of 2 users said Yes.
3. Sol

   6

   I guess, this film belongs in the middle - it's not a masterpiece, it's not some useless piece of trash... around it lovers and haters alike, each praising or attacking it for all of its stereotypes... Generally, I liked it, there are sudden twists that made me sit intense all along during the projection. I'll never understand others from the audience usually enjoying snacks when sitting and watching films like 'Orphan'. Isabelle is brilliant but too exposed in her character role, and yes, like many say - you immediately dislike her... not necessarily because of her stereotypical child-like princess charms, but simply because people like this (whether kids or adults) when insisting on being adored and 'your best friends' have a disturbing side to their persona... Amazing how obviously wrong something about Esther is, while naive loving couple oversees the girl's overarticulatedness as something of a virtue. I like the idea of exposing how sinister a manipulator a child can be - confronting adults in their ever-present sense of affection no matter how extreme child's actions might get. There is an explanation for everything - however, psychopathic beaviour is too perverse a game mother nature provided for the human race.… Expand

   • Helpful? 1 of 1 users said Yes.
4. axelkoch

   3

   I would've never thought that this movie would degenerate so much. Most of its second half is just immensely stupid and unbearably preposterous. While the beginning is suspenseful and seems to build up a good horror movie with a snowballing amount of frightening scenes, it just totally falls apart at the end. I could have lived with some of the absurd stuff happening in Orphan before, but at some point it was just enough. It decayed in illogical, dumbly disturbing action that wasn't enjoyable in any possible way. This is pretty disappointing regarding the way the movie started and continued during the first hour: it kept you interested about Esther, the screenplay introduced us better to the other parts of the family as well, the scenes that were supposed to scare you scared me. Everything like it should be in a good psychological horror. But when the grotesque truth about Esther is finally revealed, I was sitting there like “This is why I usually don't like horror movies.” It was a very unpleasant experience, not only because the extremely disturbing things the orphan girl is doing in this movie, but also because it leaves you sitting there, pondering about why you've ever took this movie seriously. Okay, Isabelle Fuhrmann did a surprising job as Esther although I didn't enjoy her that much since the screenplay wasn't really good and Vera Fermiga was a good lead, mostly. However, this ending just makes you angry because it totally destroys a movie that could've been good, but ends up being an imbecile disaster. Seriously, this ending was one of the worst I've seen in movie history.… Expand

   • Helpful? 0 of 0 users said Yes.

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