William Brent Bell directs Isabelle Fuhrman, Julia Stiles and Hiro Kanagawa in this prequel to the adopted child serial killer shocker.

A horror icon is confirmed. Better than the original for meeting Hitchock’s basic theory of suspense. Alf famously said that a scene where a group play cards and a bomb suddenly goes off is shock. A scene where we know there is a bomb set to explode in a room where a group is playing card is suspense. The first film is rigged for a fantastic surprise. But this prequel assumes you know the cat is out of the bag already and gleefully let’s you identify with the villain, sharing her drive to not be caught out or be just plain captured. There’s an invigorating switcheroo at the midway point too and Fuhrman is excellent. Maybe this could have done with just a couple more executions, but again O:FK is all about toying with your expectations. Something Brent Bell does a pretty nifty job of.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Orphan (2009)

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We also do a podcast together called The Worst Movies We Own. It is available on Spotify or here https://letterboxd.com/bobbycarroll/list/the-worst-movies-we-own-podcast-ranking-and