Botched ‘Orphan’ adopts shoddy scare tactics

Isabelle Fuhrman in "Orphan" Adopted daughter Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) turns out to be less innocent than anyone imagines in the thriller “Orphan.”

“Orphan” wastes no time in letting us know that we’re in the hands of filmmakers who lack the skills and imagination to mount a well-constructed horror tale.

Near the beginning, Kate Coleman (Vera Farmiga) stands in the bathroom with the mirrored medicine cabinet door open. When she closes the door, her husband John (Peter Sarsgaard) suddenly appears in the mirror while the soundtrack plays a jolting noise!

Why? Why try to scare us in a scene where there’s nothing scary going on?

Later, as John works at his desk, the camera races up behind him as if someone is attacking him and we’re taking the attacker’s point of view.

But when John turns around, oops! There’s nobody there!

Ha, ha! ­Those “Orphan” filmmakers sure fooled us, didn’t they? (Read more…)

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