Orphan: First Kill - The scoop and digest

William Brent Bell prequels Jaume Collet-Serra's 2009 hit.

Isabelle Fuhrman - Leena/Esther

Julia Stiles - Tricia

Rossif Sutherland - Allen

Hiro Kanagawa - Detective Donnan

Matthew Finlan - Gunnar

Summary

Estonia, 2007.

After seducing and murdering a creepy security guard, Leena uses his key card to escape the Saarne Instituute.

Yeah, that's how 'institute' is spelled here, even though Estonian translation is 'instituut'.

To be fair, it's the same in original.

Anyway.

Using a laptop, she searches the missing persons register in America and decides to impersonate a 10-year-old girl named 'Esther'.

So that's how she got her name.

In Darien, Connecticut, the Albrights are informed of daughter's whereabouts and bring her home from Moscow.

Esther's odd behaviour raises eyebrows, but family are harbouring dark secrets of their own.

The Glory of Love

Considering this was from the same guy who masterminded The Boy franchise, I had more fun than expected.

Until the second half...

More soon.

As with many origin stories, scenes copy original, but there is some good gore.

Although she's literally outgrown role, Fuhrman is excellent.

She was 23 at time of shooting between November-December 2020 (25 now), so a combination of cosmetics, body doubles, deaging face and camera angles cleverly retains youth.

"Do you want some candy?"

Fellow patient Betsy can't resist Esther's sweet bribe, triggering a vicious attack.

Predator 2 ref is odd, but whatever.

Knowing that Donnan is on to her, Esther proceeds to kill him.

Before she can apply killer blow, Tricia suddenly appears and unloads gun.

Here's the stupid twist.

Gunnar murdered the real Esther when an argument got out of hand and Tricia protected him, with Allen blissfully unaware.

From hereon in, mummy transforms into a hateful bitch and subsequent behaviour makes no fucking sense.

Seriously, this ruined shit for me.

Another really DUMB thing that happens is a cop pulling Esther over and not finding a little girl behind the wheel the slightest bit odd.

Could pint-sized psycho even reach the pedals?

Maybe.

Before fiery climax, Esther and Tricia's scrap rips off Fatal Attraction and The Hand that Rocks the Cradle.

Ironically, original shares similarities with the former and features a greenhouse, as did the latter.

Bonus round coming soon.