Rather than resurrecting and perhaps “growing up” a bit with the ersatz child killer from Warner Bros.’ Orphan from 2009, Paramount’s Orphan: First Kill from director William Brent Bell is jumping back in time to tell the story of how Esther began her life of deception. Orphan: First Kill’s premise more than makes it feel like the movie will echo many of its predecessor’s beats, but the movie’s first trailer suggests that Esther truly wasn’t fooling anyone when she first got into murdering people.
Katie Mauerova (Julia Stiles) and her husband Richard (Rossif Sutherland) are overjoyed when they hear that their missing daughter Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) has been found years after disappearing without a trace. Because it’s been years since anyone’s seen Esther, Katie and Richard assume that some of her odd behavior can be chalked up to the trauma she’s experienced.
The couple can understand why their daughter might lash out occasionally, but they’re thrown by the murderous glint in her eye and the fact that she occasionally has the affect of a grown woman. It seems everyone who truly comes to know Esther catches on sooner than later than she’s not actually a kid and that Orphan: First Kill’s really meant to be a showcase of Fuhrman’s uncanny ability to reprise this role 13 years after the first Orphan’s release.
Orphan: First Kill also stars Hiro Kanagawa, Kennedy Irwin, and Samantha Walkes. The movie hits theaters and Paramount Plus on August 19th.
