Orphan: The Sad State of the Modern Horror Film

Jaume Collet-Serra’s Orphan opens with an extremely disturbing (not scary, disturbing) scene: loving parents John and Kate Coleman (Peter Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga) arrive at the hospital for the birth of what would be their third child. However there are complications and the baby doesn’t make it. This scene could have been the beginning to a thoughtful, psychological thriller however in Orphan it is exploitative and unnecessarily graphic. Orphan follows precedent made by What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and The Good Son in the person-that-you’re-supposed-to-depend-on-torturing-you subdivision of the horror genre, however instead of working on building a frightening vision of dependency and obsession Orphan cops out behind cheap thrills and startling noises. Orphan, while an engaging film in its own right, falls short of the mark and is ultimately a pretty bad film.

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John and Kate, after losing their third child, decide that they want to extend the love that they would have given to that baby by adopting an older child who might not have the same chances as some of the younger children. They end up visiting an orphanage and meeting young Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) who, despite being different from the other children, charms the young couple and ends up as part of their family. However, after being brought into the happy household that John and Kate have made (along with their two other children) strange and violent things begin disrupting the lives of the Coleman family.

There are some good things about Orphan, first and foremost the cast. Sarsgaard and Farmiga have proven themselves dependable and accomplished actors, and they hold their own against a screenplay that doesn’t allow them much to work with; Sarsgaard especially seems to have infected his very minimal part with enough humanity that many of the only laughs in the movie are because of him. Isabelle Fuhrman as Esther makes a valiant effort considering her inexperience on the big screen and the added complication of her character having an accent. Fuhrman gives a decent performance, however (as is often the case in horror films) she is used almost more as a prop then a character, in many of her scenes she just has to stand behind/over/near another character and look creepy. CCH Pounder gives a typically reliable performance as Sister Abigail, the benevolent Nun that facilitates the arrangement between Esther and her new family. However, all but stealing the movie, and infecting even the most sparse scenes with some life and vitality is Aryana Engineer as Maxine, Sarsgaard and Farmiga’s youngest, natural-born child who is also deaf; most of her scenes rely on her being cute and signing her lines (Engineer’s mother is deaf), however (arguably because she doesn’t speak) she doesn’t become annoying the way that many child actors do.

Director of photography Jeff Cutter does a good job and works with an interesting color palette. He uses mostly black, white and shades of grey which give the film a very stark look. A couple of times throughout the movie (which is set in a cold Connecticut winter) it appeared almost as if the film was shot in black and white. The film is beautiful to look at, haunting and strangely elegant.

Character in horror films has been declining in recent years, Orphan furthers this trend. The characters seem as though they were not developed past an outline. For example Sarsgaard’s John and Farmiga’s Kate each have skeletons in their closet (a past infidelity and alcoholism, respectively) which is apparently sufficient cause for them to behave in a completely oblivious manner for much of the movie, their delusion (more one than the other) about Esther being dangerous goes way past the point of simple denial eventually arriving at someplace where it is just plain silly. The benevolent nun, the temperamental son trying to deal with the situation, the therapist that doesn't believe people, they're all here.

The screenplay, written by David Leslie Johnson from a story by Alex Mace, relies on the standard clichés of the horror genre. Every door (like, EVERY door) is a threat, a medicine cabinet mirror provides a shrill squeaking sound whenever it is opened or closed, at one point even a child’s laughter is used to startle the viewer. None of this is territory that has not already been explored. The final act feels rushed and the resolution is all but absent which goes back to the constant build of the film, even after the climax there is no relief, there is just credits. (The closing credits of the film, done in a way reminiscent of Se7en's opening credit sequence, is gorgeous to look at and was, frankly, one of the best things about the whole film.)

The biggest problem with Orphan is that the movie is too tense (this is in no way meant to be a compliment). It is a thoroughly unpleasant experience to witness Fuhrman, twelve years old, as a controlling and mentally deranged, albeit precocious little girl terrorizing people that have done a nice thing for her. Orphan is so tense that the film is a constant build (as opposed to a build-and-release execution employed by other, better horror films) and is, ultimately, not scary but just uncomfortable. The perverse-pleasure factor often associated with modern horror, “torture porn” films (Hostel, The Descent, the Saw series) is completely absent here. It is true that not all movies are meant to be a pleasant experience, there are movies that are designed to be challenging, or intellectual, or cerebral, any one of a number of things other than pleasant; however if a film is deliberately trying to be unpleasant (as Orphan seems to be) it better be doing it for a good reason, and there are very few good reasons to go see a movie designed to make you uncomfortable.

Orphan arrives in theaters on Friday.