Though 2009’s Orphan didn’t turn into a big hit, it came with a low enough budget that it made a profit. Normally that would ensure a sequel, as horror films churn out additional chapters with little provocation.

However, it took more than a decade for a second tale to arrive. 2022 finally brought Orphan: First Kill, a prequel to the 2009 film.

Note that a discussion of First Kill will inevitably bring spoilers for the first movie. In the unlikely chance this causes you concerns, skip ahead to the technical merits of the Blu-ray!

Set in Estonia circa 2007, 31-year-old Leena Klammer (Isabelle Fuhrman) resides in a psychiatric facility. However, the psychopath orchestrates her escape from this location via violent methods.

Despite her age, Leena resembles a child, and she pretends to be “Esther”, the missing daughter of a wealthy family headed by Tricia (Julia Stiles) and Allen Allbright (Rossif Sutherland). As dark events become to occur, Tricia suspects “Esther” and this leads toward a potential confrontation.

When she shot the first Orphan, Fuhrman was a 10-year-old playing a 33-year-old playing a nine-year-old. For Kill, Fuhrman was a 23-year-old playing a 31-year-old playing a nine-year-old.

That sounds ambitious, and it probably would’ve been easier to simply recast Leena/Esther with a child. I guess those involved figured Fuhrman was too much the “face” of the semi-franchise to start from scratch.

To my surprise, Kill avoids CG de-aging techniques to make Fuhrman look like a child. Instead, makeup, doubles and camera tricks allow the film to attempt the illusion of youth.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t work – at all. While Fuhrman indeed looks younger than 23, in no way does she resemble a nine-year-old.

This seems more obvious when you compare images of Fuhrman in the first film to those from Kill, but even without that contrast, she can’t pull off the needed impression of youth. In addition, the tricks the filmmakers use via the doubles become nearly comical and never remotely fool the viewer.

If we can’t buy Leena/Esther as a child, then the entire movie collapses. The plot revolves around Leena’s ability to convince people of her youth, so when it seems so abundantly obvious that the film doesn’t present a nine-year-old, everything else falters.

Not that I suspect Kill would offer an especially engaging horror tale even without these issues. The first movie essentially existed as a “bad seed” movie with a major twist at the end, and Kill fails to find new ways to expand on its mediocrity.

With the 2009 flick, I got the impression the filmmakers felt they didn’t need to create an especially compelling tale because they figured the Big Reveal at the conclusion would do all the heavy lifting. This becomes the case again with Kill, as the sequel delivers another “shocking twist” to maintain audience interest.

Of course, I’ll avoid that particular spoiler, but suffice it to say that the curveball fails to seem especially organic. As occurred with the first film, I get the impression the writers invented the wacky story beat and built a script around it without a lot of concern for logic or much else.

All this inexorably leads toward a confrontation between Leena/Esther and her new family, but this lacks suspense because of the movie’s existence as a prequel. We know Leena/Esther will persevere since we already saw the original film.

Kill’s third act does muster some perverse fun with the Twist I Won’t Reveal, but it doesn’t become enough to sustain the entire film. A prequel never made much sense for this particular property, and Kill doesn’t change my mind about that.

Orphan: First Kill appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. This didn’t become an especially appealing Dolby Vision image, though I suspect the “problems” stemmed from the source.

In particular, sharpness felt flat and dull, as the movie tended to appear somewhat soft. Occasional elements boasted solid accuracy, but those remained in the minority.

Kill became the gauziest image I’ve seen in I-don’t-know how long. Again, this meant a somewhat fuzzy presentation, but it almost definitely looked that way on purpose, probably as a stylistic choice intended to hide the lead actor’s age.

No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects materialized, and I saw no edge haloes. Source flaws remained absent.

Colors tended toward dull greens and ambers, with occasional splashes of red to accentuate violence. These also came across as bland, but again, that seemed like an intentional decision. HDR sporadically gave the hues a little oomph but the palette decisions limited impact.

Blacks were fairly dark and dense, while shadows showed reasonable delineation. Whites and contrast received some extra emphasis from HDR, but once more, the murky nature of the photography held back that side of the image.

Objectively, this became an unappealing presentation. However, it appeared to reproduce the source accurately so I felt it deserved a “B” even if it usually looked fairly ugly.

Don’t expect major theatrics from the film’s fairly subdued DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Kill, as it mostly focused on moody atmosphere. This meant a decent sense of environment and not much more.

That said, Kill didn’t require a slambang soundscape, as it offered more of a psychological thriller than anything else. Music used the speakers to create a useful impression.

General ambience added to the setting, with the occasional more aggressive violent element. None of this did a lot with the channels, though, so the end result felt low-key.

Audio quality worked fine, with speech that appeared natural and concise. Music seemed full and rich.

As mentioned, effects lacked a lot of presence, but those elements came across as accurate and well-rendered. This became a perfectly acceptable mix for a story of this sort.

How did the 4K UHD compare to the original Blu-ray? Both came with identical audio.

Taken from a native 4K source, the Dolby Vision UHD should have demonstrated obvious improvements over the Blu-ray – and on sporadic occasions, I did see better delineation here. But that didn’t happen often.

As such, the two versions largely ended up a draw. Because the 4K got sporadic opportunities to shine, I preferred it, but both presentations remained bland and unappealing.

This set includes a Blu-ray copy of the film. Neither it nor the 4K include any extras.

More than a decade after the original film hit screens, Orphan: First Kill provided a largely unsatisying prequel. While a few scenes fare reasonably well, the movie relies too much on its Big Twist and fails to find much else to involve the viewer. The 4K UHD comes with adequate picture and audio but it lacks any bonus materials at all. Maybe fans of the original flick will dig the prequel, but it seems forgettable to me.

Note that as of September 2024, this Orphan: First Kill 4K UHD can be purchased solely as part of a four-movie "Paramount Scares Volume 2” box. That package also includes 4K UHD releases for Friday the 13th Part 2, 1997’s Breakdown and 2013’s World War Z.

In addition, the package provides a special edition of Fangoria magazine along with iron-on patches for each film, a “Paramount Scares” logo sticker, a “Paramount Scares” glow-in-the-dark enamel pin and a special poster.

Of these four movies, only World War Z enjoys an existing individual 4K release, though it differs from this one, as it came from Shout! Factory in 2023. Friday, Breakdown and First Kill all make their 4K debuts in this set and they are only available as part of this box as of fall 2024.

To rate this film, visit the prior review of ORPHAN: FIRST KILL