Review: The Orphan (2009)

The Orphan (2009)

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra.
Written by David Johnson and Alex Mace.

Starring Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman, CCH Pounder, Jimmy Bennett and Aryana Engineer.

"Can you keep a secret?"

After the loss of their third child during childbirth, Kate (Farmiga) and John (Sarsgaard) Coleman later decide to share the love that child would have gotten with an adopted child instead. A search for that child leads them to Ester, a 9-year-old Russian girl who had recently lost her foster parents to a raging house fire. Once adopted and in the Coleman home, Ester takes instantly to Max (Engineer) who is deaf and mute; however, Ester and the Colman son, Daniel (Bennet), do not get along. As time passes, tension quickly mounts and suspicions rise. Ester begins to show signs she may not be completely what she seems. Ester's true self begins to emerge when her position in the Coleman home is threatened by the orphanage's Sister Abigail (Pounder). Ester manipulates the family into believing Kate is drinking again and is trying to blame Ester for all that is happening. Things turn on Ester when John does not give in to her seduction and a Russian mental institute returns Kate calls about Ester's past. Kate races to confront Ester to save her family.

The Orphan, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, is a surprisingly above-average, tense horror flick. The direction is focused and impressive, only using minor filming tricks to enhance certain key scenes as necessary and to great effect. A number of scenes stand out. In an early scene, Ester is picked on by a group of school kids to point where, totally frustrated, she screams out. The camera is allowed to shift back and forth, left to right which enhances the shock of her actions to children surrounding her. In another scene, Ester is clicking on and off a black light in her room revealing the hidden paintings she has on the drawing on her wall. Scenes that involve Kate realization that she losing control of her own life are shot with an emotional punch, be it whether it's when the car containing only Max begins to roll backwards down a busy street or when Kate looses her cool and strikes out at Ester in public.

The script is smart, completely drawing the audiance into the characters, their lives and their peril. From the parents, to Ester, to the kids, each gets their respect. No one is just there or is only for fodder. It's a bold choice to hold back the exploitation that a film like this could run with. The writers strike a nice balance between a tense thriller and a horrific monster show. They are able to steer clear of many of the cliches that could easily plague this kind of picture.

The acting is top-notch too, bringing each of these characters to life. It really is a woman's show. Vera Farmiga is haunted and tortured by both her past and the secrets she uncovers but no one believes. Isabell Fuhrman is both charming and terrifying as Ester. The movie depends on her performance and she delivers. Even young Aryana Engineer as Max commands the screen. These performances alone make the movie a success. The boys shine as well. Peter Sarsgaard as the father is completely convincing in his defending Ester against his own wife. And Jimmy Bennet as Daniel rounds out a very strong, professional cast.

There are a couple of things that may prevent full enjoyment of The Orphan. The body count and gore is very low; but, fortunately, it benefits the movie. The secret glow-in-the-dark paintings are taken a bit too far, it both stretches believability and risks taking the audience out of the moment and the movie. The final reveal of Ester's sinister secret can be too jarring for some viewers, it's a tough sell. Fortunately, when Collet-Serra presents the physical "transformation" of Ester during the finale, her mental transformation was already complete helping to sell the whole package.

Proving yet again that kids can be scary, The Orphan turned out to be an enjoyable little nugget. While not a feel-good movie in the slightest, I was very satisfied at the end and was left smiling.

7 out of 10

Review: The Descent: Part 2 (2009)

The Descent: Part 2 (2009)

Directed by Jon Harris
Written by J. Blakeson and James McCarthy
Starring Michael J. Reynolds, Shauna Macdonald, Jessika Williams, Douglas Hodge, Joshua Dallas, Anna Skellern, Krystal Cummings and Natalie Jackson Mendoza.

"Fear Runs Deeper"

Part 2 picks up directly after the conclusion of The Descent (2005), with Sara (Shauna Macdonald) Carter stumbling upon a passing pickup truck shortly after escaping the terror-filled caves where her friends all lost their lives. Taken to a nearby hospital and suffering from amnesia, the local authorities begin to question her on her missing friend's whereabouts. Suspecting she knows more than she's letting on or that she may remember once in familiar surrounding, Sheriff Vaines (Reynolds) and Deputy Rios (Cummings) escort her back to the caves. Accompanying them is an experienced rescue team: Dan (Hodge), Greg (Dallas) and Cath (Skellem). They soon encounter the horrors found in the Appalachian caves and are forced to fight for survival and a way out alive.

While in it's narrative, The Descent: Part 2 is a direct extension of the original feature directed by Neil Marshall, director Jon Harris' sequel is a different beast. Lacking most of the claustrophobic tension of it's source material, Part 2 is more about the brutality of the beasts in the cave. It is a monster movie and a survival picture. And a bloody gory one at that. Besides returning lead Sara and Deputy Rios, the other characters are introduced for the simple purpose of getting knocked off, one by one. In many ways, the structure is much like a monster movie or slasher film of the 80's, minus all the teen angst. Harris delivers the creatures early and escalates their threat considerably by the end, both in ferocity and in numbers. By the end, the cave dwellers are practically out in the open and in full view. Thankfully they hold up as disgusting and frightening visages even if they do loose much of their terror-factor along the way.

In only one scene, does Part 2 succeed in replicating the intense claustrophobia of the first, when Cath is stuck in very tight quarters after the initial cave in that traps the entire party. It benefits from being a brief scene else it probably would not have been able to maintain that feeling. Most other times, the set locations provide plenty of elbow room and lighting, and when the walls do tighten up, it feels too familiar to generate the proper effect. As if Harris knew recapturing this particular element would be unsuccessful, he upped the gore considerably. Sometimes it works, many times it's a bit too over-the-top. There's a lot a gushing blood from dweller bites, there's smashed heads, rotting corpses, tearing of limbs. In more than one occasion, unbelievable amounts of blood splatter, squirt or spurt onto the faces and into the mouths of the cast. In many ways, it's this conviction to gross-out that makes the film work as well as it does.

The actors hold their own against the creature effect quite well. Shauna Macdonald commands the screen and is totally believable in her surroundings. Krystal Cummings grounds the film to what little reality it needs to keep it from jumping off the rails into absolute parody. The rest aren't given enough to work with and they all give a solid supporting performances. The creatures are the stars, and they get a surprisingly large amount of screen time. They're everywhere and in almost every other scene once the movie hits the midway point. The gore effects are delightful with only a few of them failing. Sadly, two scenes where characters plummet into deep caverns are a complete mess and border on SyFy movie-of-the-week goofiness.

Jon Harris isn't Neil Marshall. Thankfully he knows this and never tries to be. His direction is sure handed and professional. Never quite achieving the tension and fierce terror he most likely desired, he does deliver a quick-paced, action-packed, thrill-ride. There's nothing wrong with that.

Once realizing what the movie is, it is easy to enjoy The Descent: Part 2 in all its goofy, gory glory. It's a damned good monster movie with plenty of memorable set pieces. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but if you like a solid, blood-filled creature feature, this could be the flick for you.

7.5 out of 10

The Shock Labyrinth 3D (2009)