A few reviews back I whinged about the predictability of the slasher genre...especially if the writers and directors are too lazy or talentless to inject something new into the mix. It's the same with the supernatural thriller...a horror sub-genre that's got a bit too predictable in recent years. For some reason it's a movie type that asian cinema does very well...it's just that when the style is translated into American movies, either in direct remakes (The Eye or Dark Water) or new stories (Mirrors, A Haunting In Conniticut) they're way too obvious as you can see the narrative cogs grinding away.
Such is the case with Orphan, a decently made, acted, and directed horror thriller which follows the same old pattern:-
1/ A wholesome American family.
2/ The family, or family member, has undergone, or is undergoing a traumatic experience (loss of a child, alcholism).
3/ A change in circumstances impacts the family (they adopt a young girl).
4/ Initially the change goes well, then strange things start to happen, which only the lead character will notice.
5/ The difference in opinion, regarding the strange occurances, will cause a rift in the family and call in to question the lead character's mental health.
6/ The lead character will investigate thier suspicions...first by microfiche (pre-1990's) or computer and then by travelling to see an 'expert' in their problem (a nun at the Orphanage/a Doctor at a mental insitution).
7/ Armed with their new knowledge, the hero will return to the family to battle the evil. If the 'expert' returns with them, they may likely not survive, unless a sequel looks promising.
8/ The family will again resist the lead character's attemps to convince them of the evil threat. However, once the hero has been delayed/incapacitated and the 'evil' finally fully revealed to them, they fight back too.
9/ Once the evil has been apparately vanquished, the evil will make a 'surprise' reappearance where the hero will have to make a near-sacraficial, and morally questionable, attempt to kill the evil once and for all.
That is Orphan. And many many others. The twist is cool, the tone mature, the direction solid and the cast capable. But a little extra something is required to make it stand apart from the crowd. The plain cheese and tomato pizza of supernatural-thrillers...if you will.
1 comment:
Yep. Your review is bang on. It was ok. A perfectly decent and well made movie. Just nothing at all to get excited about or to linger in the memory. The twist is kinda cool but I more or less worked it out fairly early on. You just need to decide if it's a supernatural horror film of not. Once you get what type of horror movie it is you can figure out the rest.
The tone is serious and grim and played fairly well by the capable cast. The little girl who plays Esther is good and reasonably memorable. The later scenes inparticular with her foster dad are a just a mite disturbing.
But the problem is that this is Hollywood movie studio horror by numbers. You've seen this film a hundred times before. You know every single plot point and dramatic turn. There are no surprises at all in how it plays. And the tone is so serious and the directorial style so standardised that there is not even any goofy or bizarre fun to be had.
Ok but forgettable...like almost all Hollywood so-called horror. This year thank Satan for the awesome spookablast ghost train ride of Drag Me To Hell and the truly horrible and vile Halloween 2. Proper horror.
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