While Orphan: First Kill does not yet have a release date, it has now been given a rating, with the horror prequel officially rated R. The movie has been bestowed with an R-rating for “Bloody violence, language, and brief sexual content,” gifting it the same rating as its 2009 predecessor, while the reasoning suggests that Orphan: First Kill could be even gorier.
Released in 2009, the first Orphan centers on a couple who, after the death of their unborn child, adopt a mysterious nine-year-old girl, Esther. As she demonstrates increasingly bizarre behavior, it is revealed during the movie’s twisting climax that Esther is in fact an adult woman with hypopituitarism, a rare hormonal disorder that stunted her physical growth and caused proportional dwarfism.
Orphan: First Kill will this time bring the focus onto Esther herself, who is now living under the name Leena Klammer. The horror begins when she orchestrates a brilliant escape from an Estonian psychiatric facility and travels to America by impersonating the missing daughter of a wealthy family. But Leena’s new life as ‘Esther’ comes with an unexpected wrinkle and pits her against a mother who will protect her family at any cost. Directed by William Brent Bell, from a screenplay by David Coggeshall, Orphan: First Kill stars Isabelle Fuhrman, Morgan Giraudet, Rossif Sutherland, Matthew Finlan, Hiro Kanagawa, and Julia Stiles.
Despite all the years that have since past, and the fact that Orphan: First Kill is a prequel, the role of Esther will once again be played by Isabelle Fuhrman. This has been made possible through a combination of make-up techniques and CGI, with the returning actress having revealed that the movie will use “forced perspective, camera angles, where we put the light” to transform the 24-year-old actress into a child-like monster for another violent adventure.
Isabelle Fuhrman’s return to this beloved horror character after all these years is sure to be a major selling point for the prequel, with her performance having already been met with glowing praise from co-star Julia Stiles. “What’s remarkable is that Isabelle Fuhrman, who played the little girl in the original Orphan, now reprises her role as the same girl, same age, even though Isabelle’s older now,” Stiles said. “But I just went and did ADR … and I was floored. Because they didn’t use CGI. The tricks that they did with the camera and different perspective tricks that they had, plus her costume and prosthetics and all that, she looks like a child. And her performance is stunning, because she embodies a child too in the way that she talks and the way she walks.”
Aside from Fuhrman’s stellar performance, the first Orphan is best remembered for its earth-shattering twist, something which the prequel will rival. “I think fans of the first one will enjoy this one as well because there is a huge twist that I can’t give away, but it’s got all that crazy psychologically terrorizing stuff that the first one had,” Stiles added.
Orphan: First Kill will be released by Paramount Pictures…we just don’t yet know when. This comes to us courtesy of Bloody Disgusting.