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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Such a frustrating disappointment

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This movie actually was the first to use the "Friday the 13th" title and the makers of the Jason version had to reach a settlement in order to use that name in their movies. The fact that those movies are remembered and this one isn't ought to tell you which one was better. The story itself deals with an orphan who's gone to live with his aunt after the death of his parents. There's contention between the two. The young man feels that something inside him is making him kill. She doesn't let him be a teenager. And then at the end there's toast. It actually plays a part in the whole movie. I can see what the filmmakers were trying for but it just wasn't good enough. The quality of the camerawork was good and it's obvious they were going for psychological horror. But in the end, it just wasn't good or interesting enough.

After tragic death of his parents-the woman accidentally shots her husband and then herself-ten year old David is left in the care of Aunt Marta.His neurotic and soul-denying guardian lives a large estate mansion.She is a cruel woman.All the things David loved are gone:his hen,his dog and his relationships with African friend Akin and a servant woman Mary.David hates his Aunt and tries to destroy her.His sanity slowly deteriorates and he becomes a psychotic killer...Very sad and unusual horror film which offers plenty of psychological chills.The acting is uneven and there are only two murder scenes,so "The Orphan" is still neglected by horror fans.According to Stephen Thrower's "Nightmare USA" John Ballard's final cut was 110 minutes-the current version is missing around thirty minutes from the original cut.Fans of Bergman's "Persona" or "Fanny and Alexander" should give "The Orphan" a chance.8 orphans out of 10.

This is one of those films that kind of fall into the unfortunate "no man's land" between art and exploitation. I can't really claim that I found it either wildly entertaining or artistically brilliant, but it is more interesting than some of the other reviews make it sound. There aren't. for instance, too many other American horror movies based on a short story by a renowned British-Indian author or that feature a title song by 70's folk singer Janis "Seventeen" Ian (the alternate choice I guess was Leonard Cohen which REALLY would have been interesting). There are only three, not especially bloody, murders, which makes the "Friday the 13th" retitling kind of unfortunate (even though this came out a year or so before the slasher series). It is bound to disappoint somewhat as a horror movie, let alone if you're expecting a "Friday the 13th" style gorefest.This is a movie about a young boy whose frequently absent father, an African explorer, has been killed in an unfortunate accident which also indirectly claimed his mother. His stern, disapproving aunt comes to take care of him and tries to bend him to her will. She chases away an African associate of his father's who is staying at the house (and is apparently the lonely boy's only friend), she intentionally kills his pet chicken, and accidentally kills his dog. The boy also has a complicated and (at least on his end) somewhat sexual relationship with the family maid, but their relationship curdles after he hides in a closet and listens to her having sex with her boyfriend. He eventually goes crazy and ends up reverting into a kind of "Lord of the Flies" mode, worshipping a stuffed gorilla called "Charlie" as a kind of pagan god and waging war against his well-intentioned but wrongheaded aunt. Needless to say, things do not end well.This movie was apparently made over a ten year period(!) and it shows in some of the uneven direction and seemingly random plot twists. Some of the acting, especially that of the main child actor, is pretty weak. Still it is one of these movies that is interesting simply because it so far out of the generally accepted cinematic universe that it would never get made today. It's not very good perhaps, but it still might be worth checking out, especially if you like offbeat 70's films like I do.

THE ORPHAN is a professionally wielded film with a few decent performances(the youngster in the title role most notably), and it certainly doesn't merit a critical belting in response to its basic efficiencies. What I personally found off-putting was its bland self-possession...this is actually less a horror film than a vague, drawn-out mystery with a lot of red herring "coming of age" infusion. It has something to do with a pubescent boy being put in the hands of his difficile, prohibitive aunt following the demise of his parents, and the gradual expedition of his potentially lethal hostilities. The proceedings are dusted with moments of fever-dreamy surrealism, and take place in a time around the Great Depression(stylistic details to that effect are surprisingly impressive). I wanted to like this film, and I did appreciate its inveigling directorial uniqueness, but it's so dull it couldn't saw through sand...there's a scant minutiae of bloodletting and scares, and frankly, it's not nearly as cleverly devised as it thinks it is. There's not much about THE ORPHAN which would classify as "marketable"...it's basically just a purposefully packaged and atmospheric dearth of what most people want in a horror film.4.5/10