‘The orphan: first murder’: The unnecessary origins of the homicidal girl

Children starring in horror films have been a constant in the genre for decades. Whether it’s the victims, as in ‘Hereditary’, ‘Poltergeist’ or ‘It’, or the same causes of chaos and horror, like ‘Let me in’, ‘The Exorcist’ or ‘The Orphan’ itself. The latter, a recent benchmark within this sub-genre that we could call the terrifying enfant terrible version, was released in cinemas around the world in 2009. More than a decade later, we are presented with its sequel: “The Orphan. : First Murder “. The team that had this sequel is completely different from the one found behind the original film, which feels like a mission statement regarding the distancing.

In front of ‘La huérfana’ was Jaume Collet-Serra, who at that time was already starting to establish himself in the American industry, as ‘Infierno azul’ or ‘Jungle Cruise’ later showed (the Catalan director will once again direct Dwayne Johnson in ‘Black Adam’). For the sequel it was William Brent Bell, who already has experience in the genre after ‘Devil Inside’ and ‘The Boy’, to direct. As for the cast, although the first installment featured Vera Farmiga as one of the familiar faces of terror (as the saga of “The Warren File” will later confirm), in this prequel the main cast includes Julia Stiles, Rossif Sutherland, Mathew Finlan and of course Isabelle Fuhrman again as Esther.

Deepen the origins

From how Collet-Serra’s film ended, it was clear that if there was to be a sequel, it had to be in the form of a prequel and not a sequel. ‘The Orphan: First Murder’, as her name suggests, goes back to Esther’s roots, focusing on the first family she ends up falling into and, consequently, her first criminal act of bloodshed. However, and although the film succeeds in its goal of psychologically framing Esther’s character, falls into certain themes and commonplaces of the kind that do not allow him to be a truly suggestive proposal.

The film has a lot of references to the original film that will delight fans but, after half of the footage, it just shows that beyond that it has little to offer. The parallels built between the two films allow for a dialogue between the two films, where ‘The orphan: First murder ‘decides to turn in his third act towards a madness more in the style of the recent’ Scream ‘ for the clumsy and bloodthirsty, more than for the conventional and expected in a proposal of this style. With his relationship to the first installment (and the way he winks) his best asset, “The Orphan: First Murder” intelligently links the beginning and end with its predecessor, encompassing the entire Esther story in a kind of cohesive universe cinematic mini-film. However, the film falters when she tries to introduce a new family with her formal tragedy: the loss of her daughter.

poor characters

The members of the new family welcoming Esther (the first one, actually) don’t matter too much to you at any point as both the title of the film and the future of the killer girl don’t bode well for them. The audience senses that sooner or later they could fall into Esther’s hands, but the estrangement they feel from the characters comes from a rather poor treatment from the script.. Both parents Allen (Sutherland) and Tricia Albright (Stiles) and their son Gunnar (Finlon) lack a powerful personality that connects to the viewer, to the point of making somewhat stupid or inconsistent decisions that aren’t surprising due to the senseless plot. yes.

However, the one who manages to shine, as happened in the first film, is Isabelle Fuhrman. Although in “La huérfana” the actress was only 12 years old, in this one she is already 25 and, despite the fact that the actress’s appearance already denotes a cherub and childlike appearance, the makeup, wardrobe and hairstyle of the Esther’s character manages to be, within the technical part, the most successful. For the rest, it also highlights the cold and hazy setting that is so reminiscent of the original film, even if Brent Bell doesn’t have the fabulous interpretation of Collet-Serra. The built-up tension runs along roads that have already been traveled many times, with long-awaited fears and a wasted nerve in the service of music.

All in all, “The Orphan: The First Murder” is based as a prequel to a modern classic of the horror genre, with connections and tributes that complete a good story, but it does not achieve its goal. It doesn’t feel like a movie in its own right, but rather a little addendum to the 2009 film, a little prologue. who deepens (with little success) the psychology of Esther’s character and who achieves good moments of tension despite her weak script and her anticharismatic protagonists.

Note: 6

The best: Isabelle Fuhrman as Esther and the hit setting.

Worse: It’s never scary.