Orphan

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

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.

Philadelphia Inquirer Tirdad Derakhshani

Orphan, with a perverse plot twist at the end, will keep you on tenterhooks from its nightmarish opening scene to its chilling last frame.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A two-hour nervous breakdown.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Kevin C. Johnson

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.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

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.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

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.

USA Today Claudia Puig

It's a cut above most spooky-kid movies, with a twist that sets it apart.

Film Threat Jessica Baxter

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.

NPR Nathan Lee

The movie is, as these things go, enjoyably trashy.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

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.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

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).

Los Angeles Times Glenn Whipp

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.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jennie Punter

Orphan descends into a formulaic bloodbath that barely registers a pulse.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

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.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Teasingly enjoyable rubbish through the first hour, Orphan becomes genuine trash during its protracted second half.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

There’s something creepy, and not pleasurably so, about watching children pantomime so much malice and fear.

Empire Kim Newman

Predictable and been-there, seen-that, but entertaining nevertheless at times.

New York Daily News Joe Neumaier

Orphan doesn't add much to the genre except, disturbingly, a fetishistic bent that's creepy in the wrong way.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

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.

New York Post Kyle Smith

The film mangles its twist and fails to deliver an interesting coup de grace or a sharp line of dialogue.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Orphan isn't scary -- it's garish and plodding.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

If director Jaume Collet-Serra (House Of Wax) set out to make a parody of horror-film clichés, he succeeded brilliantly.

Village Voice Chuck Wilson

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.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Depraved, worthless piece of filth.

Chicago Reader Cliff Doerksen

Screenwriters David Johnson and Alex Mace deliver one of the stupidest "twist endings" in the history of storytelling.