Orphan

Orphan (2009), which is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, is a American psychological thriller horror film.

Characters:

• Everyday family and people
• Monster: human: the psychotic orphan: Esther
• Victims: 
• father: Johnny
• the son: Daniel: reckless
• Sister Abigail (Respectable member in society)
• Survival:
• mother: Kate (a lone woman eventually)
• daughter: Max (an almost completely deaf girl)

Plot:

• Results in  wave of violence leaves many dead
• Esther first killed Sister Abigail and then the son and finally the father
• She wanted to kill the mother and the daughter but failed
• She hurt other classmates who has teased her before
• Survivors begin to fight back
• When Esther wanted to use a stone to kill Daniel, Max came out to stop her
• Kate found out Esther's genuine background and wanted to send her back to the orphanage
• Kate tried to call Johnny to leave with their children to avoid being killed
• When Esther was trying to kill Max, Kate protected Max and wanted Esther to be arrested
• When Esther was pulling Kate's legs into the water, Kate has killed her
• Dissent in the group as a result of tiredness/ fear puts the group at greater risk
• Johnny didn't believe Kate that Esther is abnormal
• Johnny and the psychiatrist thought that Kate misunderstood Esther
• Kate was in the hospital but Johnny still insisted on taking care of Esther without taking Kate's advice
• àEsther had the chances to kill Daniel and Johnny
• Those who have come into contact with the monster may try to warn the larger community
• Sister Abigail told Kate and Johnny some terrible facts about Esther's past in order to remind them being careful but then she was killed by Esther immediately
• They may go to the authorities but are met with disbelief
• Kate brought Esther to see psychiatrist Dr Browning so as to figure out Esther's problem but failed
• Dramatic showdown: climax with varying results
• Esther put on her make-up and wore Kate's dress, revealing her adult identity to Johnny while Kate was told the truth of Esther and going back to the home to save her family

Mise-en-scene:

• Beginning setting
• dream: like heaven, mysterious
• bloody floor and baby
• Costume of Esther
• Before: (like a child)
• exaggerated dresses
• always wear those ribbons on her wrists and her neck all the time (foreshadowing)
• like little princess
• After: (like an adult)
• wore adjusted Kate's dress and put on her make-up
• Setting
• Location
• a barren isolated big house: no one can help them
• a little tree house ( to kill Daniel and hide the corpse)
• Time
• winter: snowy
• usually at night
• thunderstorm
• the day when Johnny was killed
• snowy day
• at night
• dark house without electricity

• Props (to kill or threaten people)
• hammer
• gun
• cutter
• stone
• knife
• Props (to irritate Kate)
• alive flowers for Jessica, who died in Kate's tummy 

Cinematography:

• Beginning: dream
• soft and high key lighting
• colour: cool light (relaxing)
• selective focus: focus on the couple
• bird's eye, dolly and pan
• Lighting colour
• always cool: white blue, grey: cold
• Lighting
• artificial
• thunderstorm is the source to light up Esther’s face when she standing behind max
• source: fish tank, turned on and off by Esther, blue light on her faceà cool and scary
• mixing sources
• mixing by natural and torch: more realistic and torch can help focusing, soft intensity
• Camera distance
• MCU/ CU
• Esther's and Johnny's hands connected: new family member and the story began
• swing swaying
• how Esther used the gun: familiar to use it
• words on the search screen: Kate thought Esther was Borderline Personality Disorder, antisocial personality disorder, character disturbed children, children who kill
• Esther’s shoes, machine showing the heart beat, her face: tell us she wanted to kill Daniel, her happy face felt like victory
• knife: shadowy manifestation: wanted to kill Johnny if thing went wrong
•  the knife hurting Kate
• XLS
• look from Max’s eyes: Esther standing on the slide: powerful, scary, everything is controlled by Esther
• showing Max was going to pick up the gun while Esther was trying to kill Kate
• the back of Kate and Max: the end of this tragedy and Max and Kate were going to have their new life
• XCU
• the crack was made: to show that the ice floor was going to crack
• Camera angle
• low angle
• look from Max’s eyes: Esther standing on the slide: powerful, scary, everything is controlled by Esther
• Esther was threatening Daniel: powerful
• high angle
• Daniel was threatened by Esther: reckless, scared, fearful
• eye-level
• use it to represent the one who was walking e.g. Esther, Max
• Camera movement
• handheld: shaky: nervous, scary
• pretend someone looking down from the rooftop
• Esther was walking on the corridor: edgy
• quick moving towards Kate: realistic, scary
• Frame: Esther got out from the little frame (the orphanage): new story of her began
• Position: Max and Esther playing outside the window and out-focused but always in the frame: main characters as grandma and mum were also talking about them

 Editing:

• Simultaneous events: help creating the tension, let audience wait for the moment when two events meet up and what will happen next
• Johnny and Kate were arguing when Esther was painting and smiling
• the psychiatrist Dr. Browning was describing something good about Esther when she was acting madly and angrily in the toilet
• Esther was cutting the dress when Johnny was drinking wine and smoking
• Kate was told the truth about Esther when Esther was crying and removing her make-up and feeling angry about Johnny hurting her
• Kuleshov effect
• turning the pages of scrapbook while Esther was smiling
• Esther was looking at the fish tank which had some scary drawing on it and she looked scary
• Eyeline match
• always used as someone turned around/ looking for someone
• e.g.: the girl was looking around including the swaying swing, child coming out from the slide etc.
• create tension because she didn't know where Esther was
• Action match
• Esther pushed the girl down the slide
• Esther was using the hammer to strike and kill the Sister Abigail
• Esther was killing Johnny by knife many times
• Kate stood back when she heard the shot
• Esther was using knife to hurt Kate
• Re-establishing shot
• when the house was without electricity

Use of sound:

• Diegetic sound
• Esther was singing inside a room: attracted Johnny to find her, which connect them
• some boys were suddenly laughing with echo when the girl was finding Esther: give audience a scare
• Esther was suddenly growling from the back of the girl
• Non-diegetic sound
• violin: always high pitch suddenly
• always have some deep bass music e.g. cello, double bass
• mysterious, control the audience's feeling, terrify the audience, create a nervous atmosphere 

 Others:

• Use a dream and story to give a background
• Use the same scene but different result: Johnny appeared in the mirror: scared
• Manifestation
• Esther used a stone to kill the bird, which started to show Esther's character and afterwards killed people
• If Esther's ribbons were touched, she would scream out: Esther wanted to hide something behind the ribbons