This is a poorly directed wannabe horror film that nevertheless contains more laughs than The Proposal, The Ugly Truth, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and Land of the Lost combined. Is that a compliment? Kind of.
Comment
07/24/09
Orphan (2009)
55
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:135
Fresh:74
Rotten:61
Average Rating:5.5/10
Consensus: While it has moments of dark humor and the requisite scares, Orphan fails to build on its interesting premise and degenerates into a formulaic, sleazy horror/thriller.
Theatrical Release:07-08-2009
Synopsis: The tragic loss of their unborn child has devastated Kate and John, taking a toll on both their marriage and Kate’s fragile psyche as she is plagued by nightmares and haunted by demons from her... [More]
Starring: Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman, CCH Pounder
Director: Jaume Collet-Sera
Reviews for Orphan
It would be nice to think that Orphan brought something new to the genre, but the only thing it adds is more running time.
07/24/09
[Orphan] never exploits the dramatic possibilities, despite the efforts of its excellent cast and gorgeous production values.
07/24/09
Actors have to eat like the rest of us, but you still have to wonder how Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard ended up wading through Orphan and not laughing.
07/24/09
Top CriticSo sloppy, so lowdown, so shameless and so entertaining, Orphan provides everything you might expect in a psycho-child thriller, but with such excess and exuberance that it still has the power to surprise.
07/24/09
To really get under your skin, a bad-seed horror movie needs a demon child whose dastardliness sneaks up on you. There's nothing too subtle, however, about Esther.
07/24/09
It just never quite comes together, either as a horror movie or as a goofy campfest.
07/24/09
This is galling, distasteful trash. I hope the children involved in making it are never permitted to watch it.
07/24/09
The acting is richer than the story ... but this is a film designed to live or die on its twist. Good luck with that.
07/24/09
Just because Orphan is relentlessly bad doesn't mean it's not entertaining.
07/23/09
...a persuasive addition to the subgenre of bad-seed-horror films like "The Omen" where a creepy little kid wreaks havoc and murder on the lives of ill-equipped adults.
07/23/09
Nerve-shredding creepy kid home invasion alert, and takeout foundling traumas galore. Along with magnanimous curtsies, excessive doting on dad, stalking parental kitchen sex and, well, a tendency to bludgeon living things.
07/23/09
I didn't mind wasting two hours watching the truly ferocious Furhman teach Max how to play Russian roulette and snickering when Kate thinks to Google "children who kill."
07/23/09
Sets up a series of increasingly queasy taboo points and then proceeds to rocket-cycle over them.
07/23/09
Overlong and overwrought, Orphan stays faithful to every cliché of the genre.
07/23/09
Surely writers David Leslie Johnson and Alex Mace deserve their own circle of hell for thinking up the story, which moves with breathtaking cynicism from disturbing to grotesque to perverse to ludicrous.
07/23/09
What could be an interesting horror film just turns ... horrible.
07/23/09
Director Jaume Collet-Serra (2005's "House of Wax") serves up a hoot of a trashploitation flick that both follows preset patterns and upends them.
07/23/09
One of the best entries in the cute-as-a-button-psycho-demon-child-from-hell subgenre.
07/23/09
An unnerving psychological thriller with the atmospheric elegance of classics like Rosemary's Baby, Don't Look Now and Dressed to Kill, masterful in its blends of style and substance, violence and mayhem.
07/23/09
Latest News for Orphan
August 03, 2009:
Watch RT This Week on Current TV
This week, The Rotten Tomatoes Show will be looking at the movies that opened over the weekend, with help from you (the Rotten Tomatoes community), the Current TV community, and... More...
July 23, 2009:
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July 23, 2009:
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As Harry Potter inches closer to graduating wizard school, the box office prince will face three new releases opening on Friday each targeting its own specific audience. Sony... More...
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