The Much Anticipated Prequel to the 2009 Horror Film Orphan
Read Time:3 Minute, 1 Second
MOVIE REVIEW
Orphan: First Kill
– 
Genre: Crime, Drama, Horror
Year Released: 2022
Runtime: 1h 39m
Director(s): William Brent Bell
Writer(s): David Coggeshall (screenplay by,) David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick (story by,) Alex Mace (story by)
Cast: Isabelle Fuhrman, Julia Stiles, Rossif Sutherland, Hiro Kanagawa, Matthew Finlan, Samantha Walkes
Where To Watch: Streaming on Paramount+ this Friday, 8/19
I have to ask a favor of anyone who will watch this film. Please, please make sure you’ve seen the original. If you haven’t, go check it out first, I promise you won’t regret it. Also, if you haven’t seen the original, I beg you, do not google anything about it!
I’m confident enough in my love for film, specifically the horror genre, that I can admit I haven’t seen every horror movie out there (even though that would be cool.) The reality is that it’s an impossibility, I mean, I watch a lot of them, but the number of horror films that come out yearly is massive. Long story short, I had never watched 2009s ORPHAN, and when I got access to its “prequel/sequel,” I knew I needed to remedy that.
I knew little about the original film and even less about this one. All I knew was that this was a prequel to the original movie, which raised many questions for me. While I didn’t know anything about the story of the two films, I knew that star Isabelle Fuhrman plays the same character in both films. I found this odd because she’s 25 years old now, meaning she was only 13 in the original movie. Yet she’s playing the same character in the prequel to the film. This piqued my interest, so I decided I needed to screen this and ORPHAN so that I could understand and appreciate the whole story. I debated for a while on which film I should watch first; thankfully, I made the right decision and watched the original first.
ORPHAN: FIRST KILL takes a story that shouldn’t be able to work and makes it work wonderfully. Including a twist that was almost on par with the original films. The camera work, practical effects, and what I’m assuming is some CGI worked wonderfully together to create this story. Even though I questioned how it would all work, there were almost no instances where I was taken out of the film.
Fuhrman is incredible, this character belongs to her, and I would love to see her return to the role again in the future. I mean, after all, if this worked, then anything is possible! Julia Stiles was a pleasant surprise for me, I didn’t expect her to take on a role like this, yet she handled it wonderfully.
Again, if you haven’t seen ORPHAN, please check it out first and do not research anything about the film. Spoilers are abundant, and I can’t complain since the film is 13 years old. It made for a brilliant surprise, and watching them back to back was incredible.
#OrphanFirstKill #Paramount Plus
@ParamountMovies @ParamountPlus
For more reviews and my YouTube channel, please visit linktr.ee/Overlyhonestmoviereviews
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Find my social media accounts on most platforms simply by searching Overly Honest Movie Reviews.
I’m always happy to hear from my readers; please say hi or send me any questions about all things movies.
Happy
0 %
Sad
100 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0
For as long as it took for the sequel it was a little predictable for me and lackluster…
I had pretty low expectations going into this but it was pretty good