(https://i.imgur.com/7lCHjQV.png)
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: 10/1/2024
Rating: R
Film Grade: C
The Story: Anna is the new art therapist hired by the Saarne Institute, home to psychiatric patients that are too much of a threat to the general public. As she tours the building with Dr. Novotny, she’s warned that Leena is not in her room. He quickly explains to Anna that she is their most dangerous patient. The 31-year-old has an extremely rare condition that has locked in her appearance as just 10 years of age, but she has the mind of an adult psychopath.
Anna is told to wait in a room until they locate the missing Lena, not knowing that they have unwittingly put her in the very room where Lena waits.
My Take: This is a prequel to 2009’s original Orphan, a movie that I really liked and was pulled into, where the revelation came as quite an unexpected shock. While you don’t need any knowledge of that entry, this one will fill in some of the gaps between her institutionalization and eventual adoption that may or may not work for you. Co-writers of the original, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Alex Mace, return for this one, they’re joined by David Coggeshall, which helps provide some continuity and fresh takes.
The biggest challenge is that Isabelle Fuhrman was just 10 years old when she first played Leena, but now she’s a fully grown adult. This presents a number of filming obstacles for the film crew, and they chose to go the practical effects route rather than using digital means. The result is decidedly mixed. It’s plainly obvious and distracting when body doubles are used almost any time she’s shot from behind, so the audience needs to get past that immediately to be drawn into the film. Less obviously, the proportions look off occasionally when she’s standing next to adult cast members. Those are a little easier to ignore, but still noticeable.
Moving on to the plot, some points are conveniently overlooked that would have halted the movie in its tracks. The movie does inject its own surprising twist that seems illogical at first but makes more sense as it’s explained. Let’s just say it’s not any harder to swallow than suspending one’s disbelief in Leena’s physical appearance. And it does fit within what looks to be the start of a franchise.
Director William Brent Bell (The Boy) has Fuhrman play the character in essentially the same way as the first film. To that he adds a focus to Julia Stiles’ character, Tricia Albright, would-be mother to Leena, now known as Esther. The two have an interesting relationship that is central to the story as it develops through the film. Rossif Sutherland plays the hapless father, Allen and Matthew Finlan is the cocky, jerk of a brother, Gunner. Hiro Kanagawa is the detective who finds something not quite right about “young” Esther. Could an adult finally discover her secret?
Thematically, there isn’t much depth here, as one might expect. There are a few odd lines chastising the rich elements of society, which come off feeling rather clunky and alienating the audience from the family. Those aren’t exactly the reasons why audiences go to see these movies, and they aren’t cutting or insightful enough to add anything beyond what would be expected.
Visuals: There is an overall hazy look through almost the entire film. I actually had to pause it several times to make sure I didn’t have something setup incorrectly in either my projector or 4K player (they were both fine). At the start of the film, I thought it was being used to indicate a flashback sequence, but it continued throughout the film. Sometimes there were legitimate reasons, snow, fog, smoke, and such, but other times there were no reasons for it at all. Perhaps it was being used as a cheat to help obscure the age difference between real-life Fuhrman and the fictional Esther? The contrast between what we see and what we would expect is quite evident in a few spots, such as overhead city shots, and especially during the bright, beautiful, shiny, neon-colored end credits.
The result is that it makes it really hard to judge the overall picture quality objectively. For me, it didn’t work and was a distraction, but others may find it appealing, in a dreamy way. Based on its consistency, I’m sure it was a conscious decision by the filmmakers.
Another example is in the conclusion of the movie, which does appear to use a significant amount of digital effects, but in a completely unconvincing way. The movie would have been better served to limit that part of the story to something less grand, but just as emotionally impactful and engaging while being more manageable.
Comparing the 4K disc to the standard Blu-ray makes it hard to justify the upgrade when considering the source material.
Audio: The 5.1 DTS-HD MA is of the simple variety. The movie is dialog heavy, which is clean and easy to understand, with the exception of a couple of accents, which isn’t the fault of the recordings. Brett Detar turns in a serviceable score that adds the right tone to the movie but doesn’t give us anything groundbreaking or particularly noteworthy.
Special Features: None on either the 4K or Blu-ray.
Final Verdict: Fans of the original movie may find something to like here. While not as interesting or as engaging as that installment, there is a different twist to this story that keeps it from being too similar to the original. The film struggles with the challenges of putting an adult in the role of a child, and never manages to do it consistently or convincingly, so be prepared to look past that aspect if you want to get fully into the story.
With more details in this film, while still being about 24 minutes shorter, the movie does move very quickly, easily keeping the audience’s interest the full time. The tradeoff is that there isn’t much emotional depth to it.
It was successful enough that there appears to be another entry coming up. Given that this does add to Leena’s story, it is worth checking out if you like the character or first film.
Fun Fact: While the premise of the story seems absurd, there are a number of real-life examples that both inspired the original movie and that have happened since then to make the basic concept entirely plausible.
This review is just one part of the Paramount Scares Vol.2 box set.
The review for the physical set itself can be found here: Paramount Scares Vol. 2 Collector Set (https://discuss.avscience.com/index.php?topic=4309.0)
And here are the links to the other three movies:
Friday the 13th Part II (1981, 4K UHD Blu-ray) Review (https://discuss.avscience.com/index.php?topic=4310.0)
Breakdown (1997, 4K UHD Blu-ray) Review (https://discuss.avscience.com/index.php?topic=4311.0)
World War Z (2013, 4K UHD Blu-ray) Review (https://discuss.avscience.com/index.php?topic=4312.0)
https://youtu.be/_uX6of3vBu0
My Review System:
JVC DLA-RS3100 4K Ultra High-Definition Front Projector
Elite Screens Sable Frame B2 117” Width with Infinitely Variable Height
Monolith by Monoprice HTP-1 16 Channel Processor with Dirac Live
Monolith by Monoprice 7x200 Watts Amp
Monolith by Monoprice 3x200 Watts + 6x100 Watts Amp
JBL Studio 590 for Left, Center, Right, Wides, and Rears
JBL Studio 580 for Side Surrounds
JBL Studio SCS 8 for Tops
JTR Captivator 1400 Subwoofer X 4
Panasonic DP-UB420 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player
NVIDIA Shield Android TV - 4K
Xbox One X
HTPC Running madVR (work in progress)
Remote: URC MX-780
Mini DSP 2X4 HD controlling all subwoofers
APC S15 Power Conditioner with Battery Backup