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Wanna bring down my slumber party? Bring it on, Bitch!

Storyline

A married couple who recently lost their baby decides to adopt a nine-year-old girl who is not nearly as innocent as she first appears.  *Insert evil foreboding laugh here* Those with weak guts, who need to nibble on laxatives or have tossed out all their stuffed Elmos because they know deep inside that at any minute the red shit is going to spring to life in the middle of the night and rip out their larynx, need to take this warning – DON’T EVEN TRY TO WATCH THIS PICTURE – not even on Blu-Ray on a Saturday afternoon.

If you’re into thrillers/horrors, this is your movie; real nail bitter! This one will put you on the edge of your seat right from the beginning. Hats off to John Ottman who composed the music score – added more thrills and excitement than ever imagined.  I always keep an ear out when immersing myself in a screening, but the scoring and effects in Orphan made such a difference  – you really have to enjoy this picture in a theater to experience all the sound effects (unless your neighbors don’t care if you crack their grandmother’s World War II china). Director Jaume Collet-Serra pulled off one hell of a job (paid his Hollywhore dues by directing House of Wax).  This story keeps you suspended in disbelief until the very end; you won’t be disappointed.

The Cast & Crew

Ronnie Yeskel, Casting Director, nailed this one. Each performer was boldly cast and never detracted from the impact of the work.  I would like to give another big hats off to the make-up department for giving us stunning looks and unforgettable appearances. The art department deserves mentioning as well – wow. The smallest details in this film were not overlooked.  (Vera Farmiga) as Kate Coleman gave a magnificent performance, with John Coleman (Peter Sarsgaard) putting everything out there as well. Loved, loved, loved the children’s performances.  (Issabelle Fuhrman) as Esther, the Orphan, (Jimmy Bennett III) as Daniel Coleman and (Aryana Engineer) as Max Coleman who really made the audience believe she was deaf – bravo!

Good, Bad and Indifferent

There are some areas which makes you wanna say, “are we really going there,” with the story, but digging deeper, I’m not sure how it could have been changed without ruining the overall effect of the movie. This low-budget flick will earn top-dollar once it goes world wide. I’m going to put myself out there and say the first weekend will bring in between $20 – 35 Million. After the film many people were saying, “I’m going see that again.” I haven’t heard that in a long time. This movie was gritty in every sense, it was cold, mysterious, and mind-blowing! From a production stand point, you just couldn’t top what was done here; outstanding execution with editing too – good job by Editor Tim Alverson.

Bottom Line

This is a great thriller. Orphan brought back many memories of the old-school thinking about thrillers, “ . . . what’s going to happen next?”   See this one in theaters, again, unless you have a home theater that you can crank up, your Zenith just won’t cut it.  Sorry . . .

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 at 11:10 pm and is filed under 4, ck, Film Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.