Peter Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga: 'Orphan'
Is this horror-thriller about a couple who adopt a 9-year-old girl "chilling" or "cliché"?
Director Jaume Collet-Serra's "immaculately plotted and photographed chiller, Orphan," said Tirdad Derakhshani in The Philadelphia Inquirer, "will keep you on tenterhooks from its nightmarish opening scene to its chilling last frame." Starring Peter Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga as a husband and wife who adopt a 9-year-old Russian orphan with hopes she will help heal their troubled marriage, this "eerie" film gives "clever nods to earlier classics" like The Omen. (watch the trailer for Orphan)
"There's a veneer of class to Orphan," said Moira Macdonald in The Seattle Times, "though it's a B-movie by right." Orphan "stays faithful to every cliché of the genre," it's "overlong and overwrought," Farmiga and Sarsgaard "are fine actors slumming," and "it's hard for anyone other than the most devout horror fan to connect with this movie."
"Just because Orphan is relentlessly bad doesn't mean it's not entertaining," said Rob Vaux in Mania.com. Especially the film's last half-hour, which "is so chock-full of loony toons campiness that all but the most heartless filmgoer would be hard-pressed to suppress his giggles." If you're in the right mood, Orphan "makes for quite a ride"—but "don't expect anything approaching legitimate scares."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Japan's surname conundrum
Under the Radar Law requiring couples to share one surname hinders women in the workplace and lowers birth rate, campaigners claim
-
How successful would Elon Musk's third party be?
Today's Big Question Musk has vowed to start a third party after falling out with Trump
-
Music reviews: Bruce Springsteen and Benson Boone
Feature "Tracks II: The Lost Albums" and "American Heart"