“The Criminally Insane”. An American term that has long associated the horror genre with terrific clichés, especially given how cinematics tend to associate it with ancient, terrifying “institutes.” At least in US cinema, where this subgenre has a long tradition. In contrast to the German horror film, which has hardly produced anything in this area. Well, in other areas the German horror film has hardly produced anything, but maybe that’s another topic.
The theme here is said to be “Orphan: First Kill,” a new work by horror specialist William Brent Bell. The 51-year-old director from Kentucky makes nothing but horror B-pictures that have had notable successes (“Stay Alive”, “Devil Inside” and “The Boy”, for example).
The deceiver becomes the deceived herself, and the horror film becomes a thriller
Bell begins “Orphan: First Kill” in an asylum inhabited by some of the typical genre criminals. That they are more dangerous than their prison counterparts becomes clear when you see how much blood they can spill cleaning alone. Otherwise, the place perfectly contributes to being worried. A fortress with thick walls, heavy doors, iron bars. The staff panic as soon as the alarm bell rings through the corridors. The onset of fear grabs the viewer immediately, in contrast to the art therapist, who is about to get to know an unusually young inmate there.
You might already know the strange girl from the movie “Orphan”, a rather violent horror film from 2009. Here, in the prequel “Orphan: First Kill”, the later submitted story, she will act under the name Esther, and is more entertaining if you don’t know them yet. Because she repeats a number of evil deeds from the first “Orphan” part. It starts with the therapist, who doesn’t enjoy life much after the first meeting. She becomes Esther’s involuntary help, first with her escape to freedom, then with her next project. Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman), it has to be said, looks like she’s still a child, maybe nine or ten years old, but is a grown woman whose growth stopped too early.
She makes up for that with shaming sophistication: she sells herself as a kid. This time she places herself in a nest of very wealthy parents by assuming the identity of their daughter, who has been missing for years. Director Bell is clever enough to push the film into another genre. He turns the horror into a psychological thriller whose tricks and detours you follow breathlessly. Sweet Esther is readily believed by the authorities, the psychologist, and the happy family. Everyone is happy to have the child back – even if Esther keeps making dangerous mistakes in her unfamiliar everyday life. But Bell gives her coolness and smarts, maybe that’s why you side with her, out of admiration.
All of this is exciting, it just isn’t new. Sentimentality towards children, the family as a haven of pure love, these are standard themes in American cinema. Bell’s next move is all the better. He takes away the reliability of the family ideal, he adds another bluff to the plot, because Esther has surprising competition. So Bell joins a nasty scam story with a second one, which will become much more nasty and which, of course, cannot be revealed at this point. Dirty duels take place at high speed, which evokes all sorts of malicious joy, the filmmakers’ wealth of ideas is great and usually has bloody consequences.
Orphan: First Kill, USA 2022. Director: William Brent Bell. Book: David Coggeshall. Camera: Karim Hussain. Editing: Josh Ethier. Starring Isabelle Fuhrman, Julia Stiles, Rossif Sutherland, Hiro Kanagawa, David Lawrence Brown. Studio Canal, 99 minutes. Theatrical release: September 8, 2022.