Orphan

From what we've seen in horror movies in the last decade (Orphan, The Omen, The Children, Wicked Little Things), children are evil. Anyone considering having/adopting children should think twice, and then head over to the nearest Petsmart. But, Orphan has a neat twist or two that sets it out from the standard evil child movie.

Isabelle Fuhrman was the perfect choice as Esther in this movie. She conveys a real sense if innocence in the earlier scenes, and totally knows how to bring on her bad little bitch side later on in the movie. She'll smile in your face and kill the shit out of you within the same second. There's an ominous prescence that surrounds Esther even when she isn't plotting someone's death.

Props go out to the movie on actually being able to convey horror without having to resort to blood and gore every two seconds. Though one or two scenes is quite brutal (pray for that nun), the movie rarely uses blood to get the point across. It more so relies on the terrifying situation of knowing someone's up to no good, but not knowing why or how they are committing the crimes.

Orphan isn't perfect though. I wish the movie was a bit shorter (124 minutes isn't exactly that Tanner friendly) and some of the scenes towards the end with Esther in her father are just...really fucking weird. Besides those minor nitpicks, Orphan is a solid entry into the "Just another reason why children suck" franchise.

3/4