Enjoyable blood-splattered nonsense
★★★
The 2009 film Orphan told the story of a 30-something Estonian woman exploiting her genetic defect to impersonate a 9-year-old girl and then being adopted into a loving but dysfunctional American family, who, obviously, she will try to seduce, murder or drive insane.
Orphan was hampered by a twohour runtime and by taking itself a bit too seriously, but in its best moments it was a demented staband bonk-fest that you either loved or took as proof that we’re all going to hell and the film industry is mostly to blame. Or maybe both.
What no-one saw coming – well, not me anyway – was that 13 years later, some bloody fool would attempt a prequel to explain how ‘‘Esther’’ finished up in that orphanage in the first place. And that they would cast original actor Isabelle Fuhrman, who is now 25, to reprise the role of the woman who can pass for a 10-year-old child.
And yet, as long as you don’t mind suspending your disbelief – or at least yelling ‘‘Shudda gone to Specsavers’’ at the screen, as the clearly not-a-kid Fuhrman chews up the screen as Esther – then Orphan: First Kill is pretty much exactly the completely insane good time you were hoping for.
There’s no Vera Farmiga or Peter Sarsgaard as the adoptive parents this time. But genuine star and very good actor Julia Stiles is on hand as the mother of the family Esther infiltrates who also delivers the twist that sets First Kill apart from the original film.
The writing seems to owe a lot to the incredible true story of the con artist Frederic Bourdin, whose exploits were laid out in the dismayingly good 2012 documentary The Imposter.
With Stiles and Fuhrman circling each other like a couple of wary predators chasing the same prey – and old hand Hiro Kanagawa (Godzilla) dialling in a lovely cameo as a clearly sacrificial detective who is chasing up the more obvious and hysterical inconsistencies in ‘‘Esther’s’’ story – Orphan: First Kill isn’t short of smart players who can make this flimsy contraption fly. In its best moments, First Kill is exactly the enjoyable load of blood-spattered nonsense you were hoping for.
Orphan: First Kill is now screening in select cinemas nationwide.