Leena (Isabelle Fuhrman) is the most dangerous patient at an Estonian asylum and when she manages to engineer a brilliant escape she passes herself off as a missing American child to find her way into a new home. 

Orphan: First Kill is the prequel to the 2009 horror film Orphan and from this point on I am going to be discussing spoilers to the 2009 film as they are openly part of the plot to this prequel. So if you have not watched Orphan and fancy a crazy horror film with some really good performances (Vera Farmiga and Peter Saarsgard star alongside Fuhrman) watch that before returning here. 

Leena who will pass herself off as Esther is not actually a young girl. She is a thirty-one year old woman with a medical condition that stopped her growth at the age of ten. Whilst this crazy idea was the big plot reveal in the original film this prequel can no longer repeat the same trick. But do not worry about that because Orphan: First Kill has two particularly brilliant story moments that keep this film very entertaining. Firstly it does a brilliant job of bait and switch with who we think might be our sympathetic protagonist and secondly it makes the matriarch of the family that Leena/Esther moves into far stronger than you would expect. 

The majority of the fun and enjoyment to be had in this film then is just how ludicrously far they can push the story. And frankly I think they nail it. Clearly I can not talk about the specifics as that would ruin your fun but if you go into this capable of suspending your disbelief and stop yourself from worrying about the finer details I think you will have a lot of fun. 

Performance wise Furhman is brilliant. At the time of filming the original she was just ten years old. For this film she was twenty-four so the director has used various means such as forced perspectives, body doubles and camera tricks to make her appear younger than she is. Whilst Julia Stiles who plays Esther’s mother is also on top form as the stronger than you would expect mother to a lost child. 

I have to say that I have enjoyed both Orphan films now and in the main that feels like it is because of how much they embrace the outlandish nature of their plots.