Review: Orphan: First Kill

Orphan was one of the more gleefully demented horror films to make it to the big screen earlier this century, piling on a string of out-there-but-almost-logical twists that left audiences staggering out asking each other "what did we just watch?" It's the kind of experience that's almost impossible to replicate - but Orphan: First Kill has a few tricks of its own up its deceptively child-sized sleeve.

With the first film's twist well and truly out of the bag - that the seemingly pre-pubsecent and definitely deadly demon child Leena (Isabelle Fuhrman) is in fact a non-supernatural thirty year-old con artist with a side hustle in murder - this prequel begins with Leena seemingly safely locked away in an Eastern European asylum where everyone is as jumpy as hell and rightly so.

Before long she's escaped in ruthless fashion, and promptly decides it's time to flee the country. Her scheme is simple: adopt the identity of a missing US child and start a new life. Having never seen French doco The Imposter (or for that matter, last year's Titane), the parents of missing Esther, Allan Albright (Rossif Sutherland) and wife Tricia (Julia Styles) fall for her ruse and bring her back home to their mansion and a life of luxury.

It's soon clear that while Allan - who clearly fell apart after his daughter vanished - is uncritically happy to have her back and inspiring his artworks once more, Tricia is a little more skeptical and their louche douchebag son Gunnar (Matthew Finlan) seems almost annoyed to have his little sister hanging around. Esther is going to have to pull out all the stops to keep her scam going.

While at first this seems to be a solid but unsurprising retread of the original that's content to hit many of the same beats - especially Esther developing feelings for a man who sees her as a child - events rapidly spiral down a new and almost as deranged path. Sometimes a pint-sized serial killer just can't catch a break.

A solid supporting cast go a long way towards selling this, with Styles especially impressive as a mother firmly committed to keeping her family together. A pacy script doesn't hurt either, juggling suspense (just how long can Esther get away with it?) and slasher scenes for a roller coaster of thrills, kills, and the occasional rat corpse discovered in a smoothie.

But it's Fuhrman - plus a range of child body doubles and a load of other seamless camera trickery - who makes this so much fun. She's totally convincing in the role, presenting Esther as both an instant horror icon and a semi-believable human being forced into a life of crime and murder by a condition nobody around her seems in the slightest bit interested in helping her with.

Then again, most of them end up dead by her hand so it kind of evens out.

- Anthony Morris