If you haven’t heard, the prequel to Orphan nobody thought would ever exist, Orphan: First Kill, is smashing every single expectation people had. Esther returns almost a decade after the events of the first film Orphan, in which a young Isabelle Fuhrman played the not-so-young antagonist, to once again manipulate the system, and this time, a bit more of her deadly past is exposed. Orphan: First Kill is now up for pre-order on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital formats after its simultaneous theatrical and global streaming release on Paramount+. Esther hopes to adopt your family as her own. The fact that William Brent Bell (The Devil Inside) is entering the prequel game with such an ambitious story, despite the film’s restricted theatrical release and subsequent day-one streaming availability, is noteworthy. Orphan (2009), directed by Black Adam’s Jaume Collet-Serra, was a praised contribution to modern horror with its novel premise and horrific twist, earning a rating from critics that was slightly above the 50% mark on Rotten Tomatoes for films in the horror category as a whole.
But here we are, with First Kill sitting at 72% on Rotten Tomatoes and viewers reeling from yet another unexpected surprise, despite the fact that the orphan schtick is 30 years old and seems tough to duplicate without becoming repetitive. There is a renaissance of sorts happening in tangible media, even as the future of cinema appears dubious in the age of streaming due to HBO’s culling of movies and series from their origins and filmmakers’ fights against direct-to-streaming releases.
New 4K Ultra HD releases of classic and contemporary films are cause for celebration, and not only among collectors. Now, you can add Paramount’s Orphan: First Kill to the growing list of brand-new 2022 movies that will be released on home video sometime that year. First Kill can be pre-ordered now for a total of $22.99 for the Blu-ray + digital copy and $17.99 for the DVD. When the announcement for Orphan: First Kill dropped in 2020, fans were shocked to see that, more than a decade later, Fuhrman would be repeating her role as the nine-year-old-looking Esther in a prequel to the first film.
Although some viewers may have written it off as entertainment, the film’s marketing campaign highlighted the lack of computer-generated imagery (CGI) used to de-age actor Jack Fuhrman and promised an unexpected plot twist. Written by returning screenwriters David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Alex Mace and adapted to the big screen by David Coggeshall (Scream: The TV Series), First Kill gives us more of Esther’s backstory. During her time in an Estonian mental facility, Leena (Esther’s birth name) earned a reputation as the hospital’s most difficult patient. She has a history of murder, is very dangerous, and has shown an aptitude for evading confinement, all of which are highlighted.
Leena kills a lot of people in the first 10 minutes, then assumes a new identity and travels to America, where she is welcomed in by a family who thinks she is their missing daughter Esther. When Leena discovers that her new family is not what she expected, she carefully laid plans begin to fall apart. You can pre-order Orphan: First Kill on Amazon right now, and you can get your hands on a copy on October 18—just in time for Halloween. Paramount+ now offers streaming access to “First Kill.”