Orphan: First Kill: Isabelle Fuhrman and William Brent Bell on How There Was Almost a New Esther

Orphan: First Kill was perhaps the biggest, and most pleasant surprise in the horror genre this year. The prequel to 2009’s Orphan, First Kill offers viewers a chance to see where Esther came from, and how she got to the United States. The original Orphan saw a family adopting a little girl from Russia, who tries to seduce her new father, kill her new mother and siblings - and it turns out (spoiler alert) that she is a 33-year-old woman with a rare hormonal disorder that makes her look like a child. The film was an instant classic in the horror community due to its simple aesthetic and well-planned twist. But after over a decade, when it was discovered that a second film was in the works, there were troubled rumblings in the horror community. Could a film that relied so heavily on a twist do it again, when everyone knew the twist? First Kill proved that it could do just that. Rather than just a retread, the prequel shows us “Esther’s“ origins as a 30-year-old woman named Leena
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