I recently, finally, was able to watch the movie Orphan: First Kill and it made such an impression on me that I wanted to talk about it/give a little review. This will contain spoilers, for both this movie and the original Orphan, so if you haven't seen either of these movies and are planning to someday, I wouldn't recommend reading this, as it's better to go into these movies fairly blind.
I saw the original Orphan movie almost immediately when it first came out. I love creepy kids, and while I have no plans to ever actually bear a child, if for any reason I ever end up with one, I pray they're a spooky kid. But anyway, while I don't come back to Orphan in the same way that I come back to certain other movies (primarily the ones that are set on/have something more to do with Halloween), though I have rewatched it several times, it has stayed with me since that very first viewing.
If you don't know, the Orphan movies are about a seemingly normal, albeit slightly old-fashioned, little girl named Esther. In the first movie, Esther is adopted by the Coleman family and soon starts exhibiting all sorts of disturbing, concerning behaviors, up to and including murder. Now, I've seen many stories, both real and fictional, where a life of abuse and/or neglect leads to a child having serious issues, so it was very easy to just assume that's what was happening here.
However, it turns out that 'Esther' is actually a thirty-three-year-old woman named Leena Klammer, who has a rare form of dwarfism that gives her the appearance of a child around ten years of age. Leena is extremely mentally ill, and is actually, ultimately, an escapee from a mental health facility in Estonia, who cons families by passing herself off as a child and robbing them, and usually trying to seduce her adoptive "fathers".
One of the taglines of the original movie was You'll never guess her secret, and, I have to hand it to the people who created this story, I most definitely never would have guessed that! I found it to be pretty brilliant, and, as I said, it stayed with me.
I was surprised, but happy, when a sequel was eventually announced. I was curious as to how it could possibly be done, over a decade later, with Isabelle Fuhrman, who plays Esther/Leena, now an actual grown woman, but the production team really made it work, shooting from special angles and having the adult characters wear special shoes to make them appear much taller than her, etc.
First Kill is actually meant to be a prequel to the original Orphan, showing us how the persona of "Esther" initially came to be. It introduces us to Leena while she was still in the mental hospital, working out an escape plan. Here we get a better sense of just how frustrating Leena's condition is for her, as much as she leans into it for her own benefit.
Leena does, of course, manage to escape, leaving a body count in her wake, as she does, and once she's safely away from the hospital, she searches missing girls of a certain age group online, to try and find one that she could possibly pass as. Lo and behold, she stumbles across a little girl nearly identical to herself called Esther Albright, who has been missing for four years. She plants herself in a park late at night, runs into a police officer, identifies herself as Esther, and is soon whisked away to be reunited with her "family."
Father Allen Albright is thrilled to have his little girl back, while mom Tricia seems exceedingly wary of "Esther".
And we soon find out she has every reason to be, as this movie manages to pull off another shocking, never-would-have-seen-it coming twist:
The real Esther is dead.
Esther Albright was actually murdered, possibly by accident, possibly not, by her older brother Gunnar, four years ago. To protect Gunnar from going to jail, Tricia helped him cover it up. Allen was never informed of this and the entire family carried on as if Esther had been kidnapped.
And this is where things get really convoluted, morally, because, while John and Kate Coleman were flawed in many ways, they were still very much human and easy to root for. Their children, Danny and Max, were also entirely innocent and it was honestly heartbreaking to see Esther's manipulation of them, particularly Max, a five year old little girl who was visibly so excited to have a sister. However, in First Kill, Tricia and Gunnar are honestly horrible people. They're the literal definition of privilege and affluence, and it's never made clear if the real Esther's death was actually an accident, but it certainly doesn't sound like it. And the fact that Gunnar has gotten away with it for so long certainly hasn't done him any favors in the ego department. The kid truly believes he's untouchable.
Tricia is not much better, covering up the crime, speaking in such a cold and nonchalant way about the death of her young daughter, lying about it to everyone including her husband, and then essentially teaming up with Leena because she likes what Esther's return has done to said husband. It's extremely messed up, to say the least.
Leena is enchanted with Allen, and, gross as it sounds, the two do have some chemistry and seem to understand one another. This movie is strange because the main villain, who we've seen at her absolute worst both in the previous movie and the beginning of this one, is honestly a more likable character than the mother of the family. While there's certainly no condoning her actions, Leena at least has the excuse of mental illness and trauma, and is also very obviously frustrated by her physical condition. It's sad, in a way, that a lot of her issues most likely stem from the fact that no one will ever be able to truly perceive her as an adult. Judging by her actions in the previous movie, and in the beginning of this one with a guard who appears to be a pedophile, it seems that the only way Leena believes she can be loved as a woman, is if she can first make herself be loved as a child. While disturbing, her actions make sense...whereas Tricia is just a conniving rich bitch who's been lying to her husband about their daughter's death for the past four years.
Leena and Tricia definitely have a very interesting dynamic, and it's very fun to watch, as there are times you're truly not sure which one is more unhinged.
While I don't know for sure that I was technically rooting for Leena in this one, I certainly couldn't wait to see Tricia get what was coming to her. I only wish that Allen could have known the truth before he died, as he was truly the only person innocent in this whole mess. It's unfair, in a way. But still, it was absolutely brilliant plot twist and made for a very intense movie, that I think I may have enjoyed more than the first. Prequels have a tendency to fall flat sometimes, as you get the sense that you already know how it's going to play out, but that was so not the case with Orphan: First Kill. I'm truly glad that this movie was made.
I am curious if we'll be seeing more of Esther/Leena in the future (with the alternate ending of the first movie it definitely could be possible), but if this is it, I'm satisfied.
Stay spooky, my friends.
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