Orphan : First kill
Year of release : 2022
Run time : 1h39min
Genre : Thriller / Horror
Cast : Isabelle Fuhrman, Julia Stiles
This movie is a prequel to the 2009 psychological thriller masterpiece movie Orphan,starring Isabelle Fuhrman,who was just 10 at the time!
The movie starts in 2007,when Leena fails to escape the asylum she's in. We hear she's a very dangerous patient.
Leena suffers from a rare disease,which makes her look like a 10 year old kid,although she's a grown 30 year old woman. This is a blessing and a curse to her,as she can pretend to be a child,so harmless in the eyes of people,and a curse,because she's attracted to men,and they see her as a kid,hence,are not into her.
Leena is a talented artist,she can draw and paint. She uses another patient's affliction to cause disruption, giving her candy treats.
Leena uses a guard's attraction for her,to get out of the asylum,by k!lling him and getting his key card. She hides in the trunk of the new psychiatrist,and k!lls her once home. She goes through her computer looking for pictures of missing children,and decides to impersonate Esther Albright.
Esther's father loved her very much,and her disappearance broke him. The mother and her brother seem more than fine.
At first Leena as Esther makes a few mistakes,and she even almost leaves, but she stays for the father.
After she stabs the detective who kept on snooping around,taking her fingerprints off a record, Esther's mother shows up,and shoots him dead. That's when she reveals to her she knows she's not Esther because Esther is dead. So,she teachers her what Esther knew,to fit the part.
In this movie we see how she learnt to paint the way she did in Orphan,in that unique style,the hidden layer,which without the light or in a certain light,the painting portrayed a completely different picture.
Personally,I would have liked to have seen the dynamic between her and her "brother" who was rough with Esther,and with her mother. But, I did like the twist.
I loved the Albright house, and I hope it wasn't burnt for real.
The prequel is not better as some said,it doesn't even compare to the original! The escape from the asylum scene was ridiculous,I doubt one can just leave like that!
SPOILERS
The last part of the movie,in which she's slowly walking through the flames,taking her time is also ridiculous!At that kind of fire,those flames surrounding her from everywhere would have burnt her and the smoke chocked her,but she was prancing around as if on the catwalk!
This movie was another villain origin story,in which they created characters which are more evil than the evil one,to make them seem better,or not as bad,to somehow understand why they are the way they are,as if that makes it Ok.
And by the way,we still don't know why Leena was the way she was,that part was never addressed. Instead of going back into her past,to see what triggered her to become crazy( if she had a triggering moment),we see more of the same thing,except different,this time,the family is evil.
Oh,and as always,they don't even bother checking what they put in the original,as the family's name in the original movie was Sullivan,not Albright!( This is common as they did this with movies like The Craft Legacy too!)
Rating : Worth a watch !