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Aug 18, 2022 · No, ‘Orphan: First Kill’ is not based on a true story. The film is a fictional story written by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Alex Mace. Meanwhile, writer David Coggeshall penned the screenplay. It is a prequel to the 2009 movie ‘Orphan’ written by David Leslie Johnson while Alex Mace provided the story.
Alex Mace is known for Orphan: First Kill (2022), Red Riding Hood (2011) and Orphan (2009).
- Producer, Writer
- Alex Mace
May 6, 2024 · The Big Picture. The movie Orphan is based on a true story about Barbora Skrlova, who posed as a 12-year-old girl named Annika in the Czech Republic. Skrlova's...
- Lloyd Farley
- Vera Farmiga
- Jaume Collet-Serra
- Esther is back from the dead in this Orphan prequel.
- What We Said About Orphan
- What’s your Favorite Dark Castle Entertainment horror movie?
- Verdict
By Matt Donato
Posted: Aug 15, 2022 4:00 pm
Orphan: First Kill will be in theaters and on Paramount+ on Aug. 19, 2022.
William Brent Bell's Orphan: First Kill is a head-scratching prequel on paper that defies its conceptual odds. Writers David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and David Coggeshall crack a code in Alex Mace's story that somehow subverts expectations despite the plot's reveal in 2009's Orphan. An Estonian mental facility escapee, a con artist's crossing into America, her ruse as a missing girl now found — it's all backstory conveyed in Jaume Collet-Serra's bonkers thriller. Not only that, but the supposed orphan's chameleon trick has been revealed already in Esther's identity. How could Bell recreate all that suspense and obscurity when we already know what's happening? Cleverly and shockingly, the answer is simple: he doesn't.
Orphan: First Kill turns back the clock on Esther despite actress Isabelle Fuhrman aging over a decade, telling about the European jailbird's beginnings in Connecticut. By posing as Allen (Rossif Sutherland) and Tricia Albright's (Julia Stiles) lost daughter, the middle-aged patient suffering from a growth disability assumes her role as a beloved child. It's the same concept of Orphan, which lulls us into a sense of familiarity that's quite aggressively overturned maybe halfway into Orphan: First Kill. A picture-perfect family is manipulated by a criminal who passes as elementary school aged while we watch in disbelief — but Bell's production has more than one wicked trick up its sleeve. The American dream once again shatters, but in a prequel that dissociates as hard as fencing prodigy Gunnar (Matthew Finlan) pushes away his not-actual sister.
Fuhrman's ability to tap back into Esther's childlike mannerisms is on display as the 25-year-old actress has to play 8 years old again, reportedly with minimal digital effects regarding physical attributes. Bell's ability to manipulate Esther's figure using lighting, body doubles, and specific shooting angles keeps Esther deceptively juvenile when Fuhrman's not allowed to break her character's playground costume. A considerable obstacle of Orphan: First Kill is the believability of an already preposterous home invasion scenario, which Bell manages to execute through Hollywood magic. No fancy de-aging technology or deep fakes — Esther thrives thanks to both Fuhrman's portrayal of an American Girl dolly come to life and Bell's transformative filmmaking techniques. It's a welcome return, watching Esther confound and terrorize an affluent household as a knee-high tormentor who coyly smiles and plays puppetmaster with such sociopathic glee.
Christopher Monfette & Phil Pirrello gave 2009's Orphan a 5/10 for IGN, writing, "Director Jaume Collet-Serra manages to keep whatever originality there is buried behind overproduced horror movie cliches and a significant lack of dimensionality to the titular character." Read the full review here.
Bell embraces more of his Stay Alive and Wer styles here, which makes Orphan: First Kill more successful than his recent work on The Boy or Brahms: The Boy II. It's never bluntly horrific but still unnerving in twist-the-knife character developments. Orphan: First Kill feels like an unbridled relic from the ‘90s like James Wan's Malignant, both stab-happy brutal and effectively unhinged as revelations unfold. A war of ruthless wits and betrayal rumbles within the Albright's estate, hardly the opening chapter Orphan fans might predict. It would have been so easy to see precious little Esther tear another marriage apart from within — Orphan: First Kill ditches the easy route, and that's why it's able to feel like fresh franchise advancement while working backward into territories once presumed understood.
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Orphan: First Kill justifies its existence by defying expectations of what rules prequels must follow. Isabelle Fuhrman slithers back into the scarred skin of a psychopath grifter who provides insight into her bloodthirsty beginnings, and it's like mortal maturation is not a factor. William Brent Bell has the right pieces to a puzzle that takes a b...
- Matt Donato
Aug 17, 2022 · Get ready for Orphan: First Kill! Join the cast (Isabelle Fuhrman, Matthew Finlan and Julia Stiles), producer Alex Mace and director William Brent Bell to go...
- 3 min
- 28.1K
- Paramount Plus
Dec 15, 2023 · Speaking with Variety, Fuhrman reveals that she has already had conversations over a further adventure for Esther with producer Alex Mace, and states that she would love to return for more....
Jul 16, 2022 · Coggeshall's work is based on a story by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and the writer of the original film Alex Mace. It was confirmed in September 2021 that Paramount had snagged the...
