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Production Details:
Alex Mace wrote the story of Orphan but the screenplay was writing by David Leslie Johnson. Dark Castle Entertainment and Appian Way Productions bought the rights to the film, which turned out to be a success although there was controversy towards the film. The famous Jaume Collet-Serra directed the film Orphan and other ones such as the shallows, curve, extinction and many other popular films. Vera Farmiga was cast for the Orphan because of her fortune in addition she’s featured in a lot of thriller films, for example, The Conjuring. Isabelle Fuhrman who plays Esther was chosen for the film because of her amazing audition although the character was mainly supposed to be blonde. Peter Sarsgaard who’s quite a popular actor that could attract the female audience plays John. The film made $78.3 million, which was three times the amount of the budget, which was $20 million. The film also took place in Canada, Montreal and other cities such as Toronto, St. Thomas and Port Hope.
Distribution Details:
The famous company, Warner Bros Pictures, was in charge of the distribution of the film Orphan. The Orphan was distributed worldwide to a variety of cinemas Furthermore the target audience is teenagers and young adults, also fans of thriller and the director.
Protagonist:
She’s isolated which reveals to the audience that she’s the main character also she is the problem. Even though there is high-key lighting shone on her face, there are still dark shadows cast on her face, which could mean that Esther cannot escape her dark past; it will only catch up to her. Esther wears a bow to look innocent and draw off the suspicion. Her eyes are black and sinister which increases our suspision, as it shows no sign of emotion in them. You can also see that her face is focused on in the poster.
Title:
The title looks as if a child has written it, in addition the white stands out and looks vibrant; first thing audience sees. The title corresponds to the image of the poster as its childlike.
Tagline:
It makes the audience wonder what her secret is and it keeps us intrigued.
The sentence that states “there’s something wrong with Esther” suggests that the film will be based on finding out what’s wrong with her. “Can you keep a secret?” the question is asked in a sinister tone towards the audience, also it foreshadows that there may be deaths in the film as its corresponded to the colour red.
Trailer analysis:
The trailer begins with the production companies Warner bros and Dark Castle which specialise in Thriller films. At the beginning of the scene we hear Kate telling Sister Abigail that she's ready to adopt after losing her third child. Esther introduces herself via the medium shot and you can tell she isn't like most other girls as she states herself that she's "different", also you can immediately tell that the way she dresses is quite peculiar for a child as she has a black collar around her neck. As she enters the classroom for her first day, she gets made fun of for the way she is dressed and at that very moment you can hear the class laughing in the distant slowly becoming echoed as the strange piercing sound intensifies. The clip is then followed of Esther in the bathroom throwing a tantrum and becoming aggressive as she knocks down the paper toilet holder with one kick. This is then followed by another clip of her; a close up of Esther screaming into the hand held camera which signifies that something isn't right or out of place. As the text appears on the screen: "There's something wrong with Esther" makes the audience more intrigued to keep watching as we want to know what her problem is. There's an extreme close up on the swing and the fact that that's the only thing you can hear tells us that something bad is about to happen. A variety of clips are shown of the park then we see a clip of Esther pushing the girl that made fun of her off the slide, which is unveiled through the low angle shot and a point of view shot as if we're in the victim's position, that highlights her power and evilness as she looks down on us. This automatically gives us the impression that shes menacing and she's up to no good, furthermore, we're more inclined to keep watching as the segment of the trailer then reveals: "You'll never guess her secret".
The music speeds up just as Kate is presented talking on the phone to a man from an institution that Esther so happens to have been to although they have no record of her being there. We now believe that Esther is psycho, as a part of the trailer we see Esther standing over Max watching her sleep with the lightning sound effect in sync with the light flash from the lightning, this suggests that she's most likely about to do something to Max. The clip follows with an echoed sound of Esther saying "I don't think mummy likes me very much" as shes looking at Max in pure hatred as she's sitting in the car alone. We then get a close up on Daniel's face screaming "mum!" while the shot focused on the car (that Max is in) being rolled down the steep, icy hill, meanwhile at this point it's fairly obvious to us now to know who caused this 'accident'.
In a close up and high angle shot, Esther is smiling looking up at Daniel screaming as she's caused a fire in his tree house and trapped him there, also, before this clip was revealed, Esther says: "it must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your own", additionally this displays that Esther is most likely out for revenge for her so called 'family'. We see shorter snippets of the film which adds to the tension as the drama unfolds and arises especially when we notice a section of Esther trying to seduce her 'father' which isn't an ordinary thing for a child to do. One of the very last clips from the film shown is of Esther pushing Max in front of a car, this is then cut off with a black fade and Esther singing: "that's the story of, that's the glory of life.."as the title then appears. The final segment is of Esther hiding underneath the covers and jumping up when her 'father' gets closer, this is purposefully done to scare us as we know that no one can really be safe around Esther at this point.
Exhibition Details:
On July 21st, 2009, Orphan was premiered in California, the next day it screened at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Canada. In North America on July 24th, 2009, the film was theatrically released furthermore Optimum Releasing in the United Kingdom then released it on August 7th.
On the website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 55% approval rating based on 148 reviews also the average rating is 5.5/10. There were mixed reviews and opinions on the Orphan, for example, Rotten Tomatoes site reads “Orphan fails to build on its interesting premise and degenerates into a formulaic, sleazy horror/thriller. Whereas Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote, “you want a good horror film about a child from hell, you got one”, he rated the film 3.5 stars out of 4. In conclusion although the film received mixed reviews, Fuhrman’s performance was positively received.
Although the film was a success it was not well received by adoption group. Because of the controversy this caused filmmakers to change a line in one of their trailers from, “it must be difficult to love an adopted child as much as your own” to, “I don’t think mommy like me very much”. Furthermore there is a pro-adoption service message on the DVD, advising viewers to consider adoption.
You can watch the Orphan on DVD and Blu-ray in addition it includes deleted scenes and on alternate ending. In the UK the film grossed a total of £2,145,091.
In conclusion the film was internationally successful that made a total of $78,769,428.