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 GENEVIEVE PARLEY gets a closer look at creepy new horror/thriller ORPHAN, thanks to director JAUME COLLET-SERRA (House Of Wax) and producer JOEL SILVER (The Matrix).
Dante specified the innermost circle of Hell as a frozen lake of blood and guilt; and in many cultures other than our own, Hell is known to be a cold and gloomy place. So, it’s not all that unusual for Hell to freeze over. This is merely stating the obvious for the cast and crew of Orphan, the new thriller from Joel Silver’s Dark Castle Entertainment.
Just outside of the town proper of Port Hope, Toronto, a hilltop house has been dressed by the art department crew to convey both the warmth of a suburban family home, and, more subtly, the sense of a fortress made vulnerable by its isolation – an isolation made stark by the surrounding blanket of white snow.
This is the house of John and Kate Coleman (played Peter Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga) whose promising life together has begun to unravel. They have two young children, but tragically lost what would have been their third child, “which was very tough for Kate, and tough on the marriage,” Jaume Collet-Serra, the film’s director, notes. “As we find them, she’s very closed down emotionally. But they are still a family, with good moments and bad, like everyone. Despite all these problems, these characters have love for one another.”
In many ways, Kate and her husband hope to mend their future with the addition of a child, Esther (played with brooding menace by child actress Isabelle Fuhrman), and as this new character joins their family, their lives begin to rapidly unravel. The thriller aspect of the film stems from the theme of an enemy who is unknowingly welcomed into the protagonists’ home, the ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing.’ But Orphan takes the notion of an evil child to a new level. “We’ve all seen evil child movies – but this one is completely unique,” comments producer Joel Silver, “There’s something much more insidious going on with this picture. I think this is really a special film. It doesn’t feel like anything you’ve seen before.”
The script was so powerful and so believable that it attracted a strong roster of talent including The Departed’s Vera Farmiga as Kate. Collet-Serra explains, “When I met with the actors, I told them about my vision of the movie and how I wanted their relationships to feel real – that it wasn’t all about the horror; it was as much about the psychological aspect of the relationships, and they all jumped on board. We started with Vera Farmiga, who is a real actor’s actor.” Collet-Serra continues, “The whole movie revolves around the secret that is revealed at the end, and it’s very rare for me to read a script and be completely surprised by the ending; that’s basically what got me hooked.”
Silver adds, “It’s a very disturbing movie, which I think is what’s really great about it. It’s creepy, scary and weird – the kind of picture that affects you, raises your heart rate and your blood pressure. It really delivers what we want – it’s why we formed Dark Castle, in order to make movies like this one.”
ORPHAN opens in cinemas Thursday Aug 13, rated [MA] www.orphan-movie.warnerbros.com
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