Orphan: First Kill - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray(Paramount Scares Vol. 2 Edition)

It’s tough to know when enough is enough for some films. It’s especially difficult when there isn’t really a franchise to begin with and randomly an unneeded prequel goes into production. Such is the case for Orphan: First Kill. Now, I really enjoyed 2009’s Orphan starring our modern mistress of horror Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, with Isabelle Fuhrman as our titular destructive diminutive damsel. I remember thinking Jaume Collet-Serra managed a fine fright flick with some fun twists and creative kills. I keep saying “I Remember” because I realized as I sat down to this prequel, I hadn’t seen the original film since theaters some fifteen years ago! 

After a quick revisit of the first film, I dove into this viewing of Orphan: First Kill without much expectation. Especially since I knew well in advance this film was going to base its premise on the very real and extremely sad true case of Natalia Grace (who has already been the subject of several streaming "documentary" series and even made an appearance on Dr. Phil). Thankfully this film doesn’t even try to stick to the true story and slips into a sort of Grand Guignol macabre Horror Comedy. But that silly horror groove takes a bit to get going.

Our film opens with Leena (Isabelle Fuhrman) living in an Estonian institution for the criminally insane. After orchestrating her escape, she assumes the identity of Esther, a lost child who was reportedly kidnapped and stolen off to Russia. As Esther, Leena aims to integrate herself into the Albright family with her supposed mother Tricia (Julia Stiles), father Allen (Rossif Sutherland), and brother Gunnar (Matthew Finlan). Aside from some gaffs, her con seems to be playing well, but the Albright family isn’t the picture-perfect American family they appear. 

All credit to the filmmakers for trying to make Orphan: First Kill work. Isabelle Fuhrman returns and with the help of some pint-sized body doubles, she ably recaptures the creepiness of her original performance. Set at a relatively brisk pace, director William Brent Bell and writer David Coggeshall set up an elaborate escalation of bloody deaths. Thanks to the supporting cast, Fuhrman’s return over a decade later works - depending on how you look at it. 

In my eyes, this film is actually more of a Horror/Comedy than a straight Horror flick or Thriller. From the first film we know what Esther/Leena is capable of, so now it’s about letting the little terror get down to business. She wastes no time dispatching various human obstacles with a fun opening sequence. But once the setup is out of the way, I have to say things get a little flat. There’s an odd blandness to the proceedings where you question if the stilted line delivery and pace is intentional or a side effect of a prequel arriving too many years too late. However, once the film reveals itself and the blood really starts flowing, it turns into this ghastly adventure where you cheer for bloody death and gleefully chuckle with every kill. 

Truthfully, we didn’t need a prequel to Orphan. The film was a nicely contained piece of 2000s era horror. It might not have been the most memorable film, I certainly forgot about it for long enough, but it was good and still holds up. Orphan: First Kill is the kind of needless work that’s certainly entertaining, but it also answers questions that no one asked. 

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 

After its debut on Paramount+ and subsequent Blu-ray release, Orphan: First Kill adopts its first 4K UHD and Blu-ray set as part of the Paramount Scares Vol. 2 four-film collection. The 4K is pressed on a BD-66 disc with a BD-50 disc shoring up the 1080p version. The two discs rest in a standard black case with a custom box set exclusive slipcover. The 4K disc loads to a static image main menu with standard navigation options. 

Orphan: First Kill finds a home on 4K UHD disc with a pleasing Dolby Vision transfer. Shot digitally, the film uses a lot of dream-like diffusion and lighting schemes, but I found details to be quite robust and clear. Checking some key scenes against the Paramount+ stream, I found the differences to be quite notable. Facial features, clothing textures, and all of the efforts made to recreate the mid-2000s come through nicely. Fine details in set design and wallpaper also see some more range than the streaming and the Blu-ray. The film also uses a lot of shadows and dark spaces so black levels get some extra attention with that Dolby Vision grade. But the film isn’t always very colorful favoring the drab dark browns and grays of winter. Daylight scenes generally look the best in that regard, but dark dreary interiors. Whites are nice and crisp, there’s some intentional blooming but it’s not distracting and more for aesthetics. While colors are muted, skin tones are generally healthy and reds certainly get a lot of highlight time! It might not be the prettiest film ever, but it works for this flick.

For the audio side of things, Orphan: First Kill makes the most of a solid DTS-HD MA 5.1 track. In truth, there’s nothing wrong with this mix per se, it’s moody, atmospheric, and effective at what it does. With that, there are a few key sequences like the opening escape or the big climax where a more robust 7.1 option or Atmos or DTS:X would have been even more impactful. For some stretches, a larger object-based format might not seem necessary, but various locations and some big action moments could have used that extra height spread to good effect. But as is, this track gets the job done and then some. Dialog is clear without issue, so no trouble there, even with some of the thick accents. Music cues and key sound effects are well prioritized giving the surround channels plenty of work. Kicking my receiver over to DTS Neural:X certainly helped open things up and lend a little more impact to some of the more jarring audio effects. All around a clean mix.

Bonus features? There aren’t any! Not really all that shocking since the film was basically dumped onto streaming without much of a theatrical run here in the States. It did significantly better overseas. Considering all of the hoopla surrounding the Natalia Grace case, I’m surprised Paramount didn’t produce their own doc and slap it on this disc. 

Orphan: First Kill wasn’t a film fans were exactly calling out for. But we got it anyway. If anything it’s more of a surprise we didn’t get arbitrary sequels to the original 2009 chiller. Fifteen years was certainly plenty of time to franchise Esther and her carnage. Hell she could have even done a team up picture with Chucky! At anyrate, this prequel answers the questions no one asked, but also proves to be an entertaining flick with some pretty damn creative gnarly kills. On 4K UHD, the Dolby Vision transfer is a nice step up from the streaming run, but given the film’s visual stylings, this disc only gets you so far. The audio could have been a bit more aggressive but as a 5.1 track it suitably gets the job done. The lack of bonus features isn’t surprising, but some kind of franchise retrospective or commentary would have been nice. Ultimately, I’m calling this one Worth A Look