“Orphan: First Kill” is directed by William Brent Bell and written by David Coggeshall, with David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Alex Mace penning the story. The movie is a prequel to “Orphan” as it starts off in 2007 while the original took place in 2009. And it’s centered around the story that Kate Coleman (Vera Farmiga) briefly learned about, in which Esther/Leena (Isabelle Fuhrman) got herself adopted into an American family and then killed all of them. The family in question were the Albrights, i.e., Tricia Albright (Julia Stiles), Allen Albright (Rossif Sutherland), and Gunnar Albright (Matthew Finlan). Esther was the name of their daughter who went missing a few years ago. Leena stole her identity and tried to pass off as that girl since her hypopituitarism didn’t allow her to look older than 10–12 years.
Spoilers Ahead
How Does Leena Become Esther Albright?
“Orphan: First Kill” opens in Estonia, where Anna Troyev, an art therapy instructor, is visiting the Saarne Instituute to learn about the patients there. It also happens to be the day that Leena goes missing from her room, causing the entire hospital to go into lockdown. This inadvertently brings Anna in front of Leena. After avoiding a near-death circumstance, Anna learns all about Leena’s past (she has killed a family) and how dangerous she actually is. One of the guards, though, likes Leena, and she uses that to her advantage to get out of there. On her way out, she sees Anna and gestures at her to not tell the guards or Dr. Novotny (David Lawrence Brown). But little does she know that that’s not the last time she’s going to see Leena.
When Anna returns home, she finds that Leena is already there, who bludgeons her to death. Then, she goes to Anna’s computer and zeroes in on a girl that looks the most like her. That missing girl is Esther Albright. She dons her infamous look and sits in a park until a police officer finds her and reports her as the missing Esther to the authorities. The setting shifts to Connecticut, where the Albrights learn that Esther has been found. Tricia goes to the embassy to pick her up and bring her back to her home. She seems to have some reservations about Esther’s identity. But that’s overpowered by Allen’s profound feelings of loss and love for his daughter. She learns to paint with the help of the blacklight from Allen, thereby completing her transformation.
See More: ‘Orphan: First Kill’ Review – A Prequel To A Modern Classic That Is So Bad That It Is Enjoyable
What Is Tricia And Gunnar Albright’s Big Secret?
Detective Donnan (Hiro Kanagawa) is the person who has been actively looking for Esther all this time and is clearly not fully convinced that Leena is actually Esther. So, he visits the Albright household and takes the vinyl from the record player for fingerprints. Esther goes after him. Tricia unearths Esther’s diary and sees how she has scratched out her face in a photo of her and Allen. Esther quietly makes her way into Donnan’s house and stabs him to death. She asks him how he came to the conclusion that she’s not Esther when nobody else is privy to that information. Donnan says that Tricia knows, at which point Tricia enters the scene and guns down an already dying Donnan. When Esther tries to stick to her act, Tricia calls her out on her hogwash.
They proceed to sit by the fire, and Esther essentially tells her that she’s actually Leena, a grown-up woman who is accused of multiple killings. Tricia wonders why Leena didn’t commit robbery and run away. She assumes that she has bigger plans, like killing them all and taking over their property, because she’s technically the youngest of the Albrights now. Leena actually pleads with Tricia to let her go and promises her that she’ll never see her again. Tricia says that they cannot afford Esther to disappear twice, especially when it has made her family whole again. And then comes the kicker. Esther, the original one, didn’t actually disappear. She died at the hands of Gunnar, who, according to Tricia, always played rough with Esther. So, to save Gunnar from legal action, Tricia covered for him. Allen isn’t aware of this. That’s why when Leena appeared as Esther, Tricia and Gunnar immediately caught on to Leena’s con.
‘Orphan: First Kill’ Ending Explained: How Did Esther Kill The Albrights?
As soon as Leena becomes aware of what Tricia and Gunnar truly are and vice versa, a deadly cat-and-mouse game begins. Which basically means that Tricia and Gunnar torment the hell out of Leena while Leena does the same to the two of them. When Allen decides to go to a conference, Leena sees that as an opportunity to escape. But Tricia holds her back. After bidding goodbye to Allen at the train station (where Leena makes a hail mary attempt to push Tricia and Gunnar onto the tracks), Leena makes a run for it in Tricia’s car. However, she’s eventually captured by the police for speeding. Tricia brings her back home and decides to kill her. Leena puts up a fight but is pushed down the stairs by Gunnar (it’s hinted that that’s how Gunnar killed the real Esther).
Leena survives the fall. So, Gunnar goes after her. Tricia gets a call from Allen, who says he’s coming back home after getting a call from the police about Leena’s detention. Tricia tells him to get a cab to buy herself some more time. Leena corners Gunnar into a room, shoots him with his crossbow, and stabs him to death with his fencing sword (quite poetic). This obviously enrages Tricia, and she gets into a very gruesome fight with Leena. Their tussle starts the fire in the kitchen, which begins to engulf the whole house. Leena tries to escape through the roof. But Tricia catches on. While fighting up there, both of them slip and fall. As they dangle from the edge, Allen arrives. Tricia tries to warn Allen about Leena, but Allen chooses to save Leena first, thereby causing Tricia to fall to her death.
When Leena reveals her true form, hoping that Allen is going to accept her for who she is, he expresses disgust. So, Leena pushes him off the roof and kills him. In the concluding minutes of the film, we see Leena re-assuming her identity as Esther, while Dr. Sager hopes that she finds a family that will give her the love she deserves.
“Orphan: First Kill” is a 2022 Drama Thriller film directed by William Brent Bell.
