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Orphan
Metascore
42 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 25 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 25
  3. Negative: 7 out of 25
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  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    88
    You want a good horror film about a child from hell, you got one. Do not, under any circumstances, take children to see it. Take my word on this.
  2. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Tirdad Derakhshani
    75
    Orphan, with a perverse plot twist at the end, will keep you on tenterhooks from its nightmarish opening scene to its chilling last frame.
  3. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    75
    A two-hour nervous breakdown.
  4. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Reviewed by: Kevin C. Johnson
    75
    During a summer with the usual transforming robots and young wizards, this chilly flick is a bit of a break, and there are worse options than letting this Orphan in the door.
  5. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    70
    Furhman plays pure evil with such supreme calmness that only her eyes shine with madness. Indeed, all of the child actors are superb, especially the expressive Engineer.
  6. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    63
    It's a cut above most spooky-kid movies, with a twist that sets it apart.
  7. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    63
    The best part of Orphan is the outstandingly lunatic plot twist that kicks in just as you're checking your watch and hoping they'll wrap things up. This development - I'd love to tell you, but you wouldn't believe me - boosts the movie into overdrive for a final 20 minutes of happy, disreputable mayhem.
  8. NPR
    Reviewed by: Nathan Lee
    60
    The movie is, as these things go, enjoyably trashy.
  9. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Jessica Baxter
    60
    For the most part, Esther is an entertaining and solid addition to the Evil Child canon. There may be something wrong with Esther, but there's nothing terribly wrong with Orphan.
  10. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    50
    Assuming your psycho-pigtailed-killer memories extend back as far as "The Bad Seed," Maxwell Anderson's play filmed by director Mervyn LeRoy in 1956, Orphan may remind you of the icon made famous by Patty McCormack.
  11. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Jennie Punter
    50
    Orphan descends into a formulaic bloodbath that barely registers a pulse.
  12. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    50
    Bottom line: This Orphan is an atmospheric and occasionally vicious little git and an above-average entry into the "cuddly hellspawn" genre, overlong at two-plus hours, but nowhere near as excruciatingly overdone as others of its ilk (Devil Times Five, I'm talking to you).
  13. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: M. E. Russell
    50
    The movie pads the good stuff out with a bunch of mediocre mainstream-thriller junk. It takes too long to get started, it pulls some key punches, its dialogue is deeply uninteresting, it relies way too heavily on endless jump-scares and its finale is pure slasher-flick formula.
  14. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Glenn Whipp
    50
    Clocking in at more than two hours, the movie teeters between psychological horror and violent blood-letting and, as such, probably won't completely satisfy fans in either camp.
  15. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Joe Neumaier
    40
    Orphan doesn't add much to the genre except, disturbingly, a fetishistic bent that's creepy in the wrong way.
  16. Empire
    Reviewed by: Kim Newman
    40
    Predictable and been-there, seen-that, but entertaining nevertheless at times.
  17. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    40
    There's something creepy, and not pleasurably so, about watching children pantomime so much malice and fear.
  18. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    40
    Teasingly enjoyable rubbish through the first hour, Orphan becomes genuine trash during its protracted second half.
  19. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    38
    The film mangles its twist and fails to deliver an interesting coup de grace or a sharp line of dialogue.
  20. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    38
    Orphan is being marketed as a horror movie, but that's misdirection. It's more of a standard thriller in the "evil amongst us" mode, about a group of people who inadvertently admit a psychopath into their midst.
  21. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    33
    Orphan isn't scary -- it's garish and plodding.
  22. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Keith Phipps
    33
    If director Jaume Collet-Serra (House Of Wax) set out to make a parody of horror-film clichés, he succeeded brilliantly.
  23. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Chuck Wilson
    30
    Silly, overlong, and bloody as hell, Orphan is likely to turn a sweet profit, money that Leo (DiCaprio), the renowned do-gooder, should spend with shame.
  24. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    0
    Depraved, worthless piece of filth.
  25. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Cliff Doerksen
    0
    Screenwriters David Johnson and Alex Mace deliver one of the stupidest "twist endings" in the history of storytelling.
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User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.0 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 89 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 34
  3. Negative: 5 out of 34
  1. 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.… Full Review »
  2. BrandonBonasera
    5
    Orphan is a decent, but it fails to live up to expectations and is overlong, but the end is good though.
  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.… Full Review »
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