What is Orphan about?
After losing their baby, a married couple adopt 9-year old Esther, who may not be as innocent as she seems.
Does it have a happy ending? (spoiler-safe)
There is a twist, and that is all we are saying.
An adopted child's unsettling behavior slowly unravels a family, building to a chilling, measured dread.
Suspenseful and tense. A full-attention watch at a measured pace. Emotionally it is heavy.
Streaming on Max and The Roku Channel (free).
Orphan parents guide
It stays inside its R, with real scares and several jump scares.
- Scare
- Properly scary
- Frightening, not just tense.
- Jump scares
- Several
- More than a couple of sudden jolts.
- Gore
- Light gore
- Some blood or injury, briefly.
- Violence
- Strong violence
- Violence is frequent or intense.
- Sex and nudity
- Moderate
- Moderate means a sex scene or nudity on screen, even brief, or sexual violence that is described or implied but never shown.
- Language
- Moderate
- Some strong profanity, a few f-words.
How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.
Three questions
- Is Orphan scary?
- Yes, properly. Orphan is the real thing without being an endurance test.
- How gory is Orphan?
- Light gore and strong violence.
- What is Orphan rated, and is it OK for kids?
- It is an R, with real scares, several jump scares, and moderate sex and nudity. Keep it for adults.
Cast and crew
Directed byJaume Collet-Serra
StarringVera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman, CCH Pounder, Jimmy Bennett, Margo Martindale
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Orphan is on our Horror on Max, Thriller on Max, Horror on The Roku Channel, Thriller on The Roku Channel and Horror lists.
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Five more like Orphan
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Uses the TMDB API; not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Intensity, content, tone and pace tags are CouchRot's own.