Orphan First Kill movie review: Crazy sequel to cult horror classic isn’t crazy enough

This isn’t to say that the movie surrounding the shock reveal (which arrives midway through its brisk 90-minute runtime) is any good. First Kill is a loosely written horror-thriller that is more camp than its self-serious predecessor, but is simultaneously not camp enough for the sort of lunacy that it wants us to participate in.

Isabelle Fuhrman returns as the child from hell Esther, who has the appearance of a little Victorian girl, but is actually a 31-year-old Estonian murderess with a rare hormonal disorder. After escaping from a psychiatric facility in the film’s bloody opening minutes, she orchestrates passage to America by pretending to be a long-missing child. Esther ingratiates herself into her old ‘family’, but her strange behaviour raises many eyebrows, including those belonging to the detective who investigated her disappearance.

Fuhrman was around 10 years old when she filmed the first Orphan, which remains director Jaume Collet-Serra’s finest film, despite the significant progress that he has since made in his career. For her to play a child her own age was one thing, but her physical performance in the film’s post-twist section, as an adult trapped in a girl’s body, was unsettlingly phenomenal. In First Kill, the now 25-year-old Fuhrman is closer in age to the psychopathic adult ‘Esther’. The challenge for her, this time around, was to play an eight-year-old convincingly. It’s a performance within a performance, almost like — stay with me here — Benedict Cumberbatch in The Power of the Dog. But it will likely not be recognised beyond horror movie circles, because — and Emily Blunt and Thomas Jane would know this better than anybody else — that’s what happens to great dramatic performances in genre films. A special mention, regardless, is owed to Julia Stiles. She goes toe-to-toe with Fuhrman, but revealing more about her character would be inappropriate.

But admittedly, Orphan: First Kill is nothing to write home about. The CGI is spotty, although the Shah Rukh Khan-in-Zero-style practical effects are quite good. The film does, however, have the distinct whiff of something that was retroactively crafted around its central twist instead of something that builds towards it.

The plot itself might seem ridiculous, but it’s actually a fairly faithful reimagining of a real-life story that was previously documented (minus the murder-y stuff) in the film The Imposter. It was about a French grifter posing as a long-lost American teen, who after being reunited with his ‘family’ was, for some reason, allowed to stick around despite bearing no resemblance to the missing person.

William Brent Bell is the director this time around, and in all honesty, his filmography wouldn’t inspire much confidence in anybody still sitting on the fence about watching this film. Far too often, he flirts with true camp only to shyly pivot towards something more conventional at the last moment. This is precisely the sort of decisiveness that director James Wan displayed in Malignant, successfully pushing it into delirious territory in its third act. But unlike that film, First Kill isn’t an acquired taste, and will be more palatable to average horror audiences. It’s paced like a bullet, has twists to spare, and makes sure to deliver inventive kill sequences at regular intervals. Bell and writer David Coggeshall even attempt to offer a feeble critique of old-money white privilege for a hot minute, and then promptly forget about it.

That being said, Orphan: First Kill should please fans of the original, despite being virtually inaccessible to newcomers.

Orphan: First Kill
Director – William Brent Bell
Cast – Isabelle Fuhrman, Julia Stiles, Rossif Sutherland
Rating – 3/5