Jaume Collet-Serra’s horror/thriller Orphan certainly treads familiar territory. Imperfect parents Kate (Vera Farmiga) and John (Peter Sarsgaard) head off to the local orphanage to adopt a brother or sister for their two children. With Kate’s recent still birth and bouts of alcoholism and infidelity playing heavily in the backstory the pair settle, as much as you don’t want them too, on the obviously odd, charming and artistic Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman), a freaky eyed 12 year old Russian girl who insists on wearing vintage dresses.

Mistake number one.

Max, the couple’s hearing impaired youngest daughter takes to Esther immediately. She bizarrely picks up sign language in a matter of days. Oldest boy and Guitar Hero addict Daniel isn’t too impressed however and before long Esther’s cutsie little girl routine begins to slip. Soon enough it’s visits to the shirk and mind games with mummy and daddy galore and when young Esther gets the feeling Kate may be having second thoughts about her adoption things quickly escalate into tree house burning and nun killing.

Orphan wears it’s influences on its sleeve; The Omen, The Good Son and, in the end, Don’t Look Now all live here in equal measure. Collet-Sera goes for character over scares, an admirable thing to do in this era of horror film making but more often than not it doesn’t pay off especially when he over humanizes Kate and john with a couple too many flaws.

The 13 year old Fuhrman is quite a find however and her performance in the film is a definite highlight. Though you can’t help wonder how much more of an impact this talented young actress may have had given a chunkier script and character, villain or not, she certainly has quite an intense way about her. The performances from Farmiga  (The Departed) and Sarsgaard (An Education) are far better than norm for this caliber of shocker film but the steady build of tension throughout the bulk is destroyed in the last half an hour with few loose threads tied up all too quickly, a completely ludicrous twist and an ending flatter than Texas.

The DVD bares a few deleted scenes which were perhaps better left on the cutting room floor including an (even flatter) alternate ending, some interviews and a solid short featurette about the horror genre’s history and obsession with dastardly children and the making of Orphan.

Orphan is a fair horror/thriller which ticks all the obvious boxes but sadly, holds nothing new for fans of the genre.