Orphan is not a typical film choice for The Midnight Selections. It is definitely more formulaic than most of the films on this list. ButOrphan manages to do a rather remarkable thing. It paints within the lines of two seemly separate genres, exposing the similarities of both and creating a unique cinematic experience that has left a lingering impression on those who enjoy watching horror films.

The film’s premise is simple. A family adopts Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman), a nine-year-old girl, but quickly learn that bad things happen when she is around. As a killer-kid movie, Orphan checks off all the necessary genre boxes. Esther is hard to catch in the act. Some kids are suspicious of her. Some adults refuse to believe her guilt. And a lot of people get really hurt or die.

But what is unique about Orphan is how well it also simultaneously doubles as a psychological-family-intruder thriller, similar to films in the 80s and 90s like Fatal Attraction or The Hand that Rocks the Cradle- which makes sense when you consider just how similarities the two genres really have- which is something I had never done until Orphan made it so obvious. Though just a child, Esther is also an intruder. She presses on the cracks that make up the Coleman family unit and gains power in the family by stealing it from her adopted mother Kate. It is the classic family-intruder move.

For a horror film, Orphan, looks top-notch. (Fun Fact: Leonardo DiCaprio gets a producing credit on this one.) The cinematography is good, acting is great, and the script contains some fun, interesting twists. Director Jaume Collet-Serra also deserves a lot of credit for taking some of the film’s more ridiculous plot points and making them seem more enduring than annoying.  Its hard not to smile a little thinking back at Esther’s Estonian accent, Kate’s husband’s (Peter Sarsgaard) unbelievable despite-all-evidence skepticism, or at that bizarre horror on the playground equipment scene. But Collet-Serra has masterful control of the film’s pace and tone. Tension is ratcheted up so masterfully, and the film takes itself seriously enough, that it helps put straight face on a story that could had easily descended into silliness.  

Horror fans will recognize Vera Farmiga, who plays Kate, as Lorraine Warren in The Conjuring franchise. Farmiga does a solid job making us empathize with her troubled protagonist that desperately wants to move forward after a period of depression and alcohol-abuse following the stillbirth of her third child. However, this is a killer-kid movie, so obviously as Kate’s foil, Esther really needs to be the star of this show. A film like this can only work if child villain, played by Isabelle Fuhrman, can sell us on the idea that, despite her age and innocent freckled face, she is someone threatening. It’s a challenging role (and to have to do it all with that accent!), but clearly this is one of those times a film casted the right person at the right time. Isabelle Fuhrman owns Esther. She plays sweet believable. She plays mean believably. She is believable when she just goes all psycho. It is an impressive accomplishment for a girl who was only twelve at the time of filming. Without Fuhrman’s performance, there is no way that this movie would had ended being up so well regarded so many years later.

And Orphan does a good job providing us with a motivation for Esther’s actions, though you will have to wait until the film’s final act for the full reveal. Esther, unlike some child murderers, has very human, though misguided, reasons behind her actions and this makes her even more compelling as a horror villain. (A prequel film has even been made, with Fuhrman- in her twenties- reprising the role.) The film’s turn certainly challenges the norms of taste and acceptability, and I do not fault those who say it pushes boundaries a little to far. They have a valid point. Considering that this was a Warner Brothers film and that it was intended for a mainstream audience, even I was a surprised as to where this film was willing to go. But hindsight, Orphan’s success partially comes from its willingness to work under a predictable formula for over 100 minutes before ending the film with an abrupt challenge to our expectations.

To be honest, I never expected to like Orphan when I saw it. But I like to scour lists of the best films in the horror genre and Orphan came up as a title enough times that I finally found it hard to ignore. This is not typical of the films I tend to endorse. But how often do you see a two-genre hybrid with a lot of original flourishes and a cast and crew that was willing to go the extra mile to get it right? There is no doubt that the people who made Orphan believed in this project, and their payoff is that there exists a modern horror story about a murderous orphan girl that continues to find an audience more than a decade after its release.