Orphan/YMMV

General Tropes

• Crowning Moment of Awesome: "I'm not your FUCKING MOMMY!"
  • And don't forget the scene where Kate, after Esther gets away with suffocating Danny, walks up to a rather nonchalant Esther in the middle of a busy hospital and SMACKS HER IN THE FACE.
    • Agreed, "What did you do to him you bitch?" *bitch slap* should be an internet meme.
    • Really, it's Esther's CMOA, since Kate is immediately restrained by orderlies afterwards and her hysterical attack turns everyone, even her own husband, against her. Esther's pulling all the strings.
• Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: Admit it, nearly all of Esther's initial interactions with her new family come across as really sweet. Can be one hell of a Tear Jerker when you consider the family's happiness and obliviousness to what's coming.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Heh, a dysfunctional couple named John and Kate.
• Jerkass Woobie: Danny.
• Nightmare Fuel: Not since Damien Thorn have we had a child whose stare alone genuinely sent shivers down your spine, much less her actions... Just try looking into her eyes in the poster on the main page for more than 3 seconds... no sleep for you tonight.
  • The Dream Nightmare Sequence at the beginning of the movie...
  • Esther's paintings.
• Paranoia Fuel
• Squick: When Esther tries to seduce John in a cocktail dress.
  • Esther breaking her own arm, especially as the bone very visibly pops out. The fact that it's the only scene where she shows any real weakness or pain somehow makes it worse.
  • The entirety of Kate's Nightmare Sequence.
• The Woobie: Both Kate and Max definitely qualify.

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Tropes that concern Esther (Or better said, Leena Klammer). Spoilers dead Ahead!!

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Psychotic, homewrecking Complete Monster, or abused, mentally broken girl who just wants to be genuinely loved for once?
• Complete Monster Her tragic past in the original script, which might have earned a measure of sympathy from the audience was removed by Executive Meddling.
• Fridge Brilliance: After hearing about the twist and looking closely at the picture of Esther realizing "Holy shit she does have age marks!"
  • There's a lot that will make you say "holy shit!" on a second viewing. Why does she prefer to wear Victorian dresses over blue jeans? To hide her more "adult" figure. Her avoidance of doctor and dentist appointments. "I've had a lot of time to practice, I guess." "She's very mature for her age." There are even subtler moments like when Kate is yelling for Esther to hurry up on her first day of school...perhaps she was taking so long because she was putting on all her makeup.
    • Here's a subtle one: Danny notices Esther cuts her food into little pieces before eating anything. It could just be her style of eating, but it makes a lot more sense when you find out that she's wearing false teeth and eating with them in would probably be very difficult without cutting things very small.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: An episode of Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist had Dr. Katz and his son humorously discuss horror movies where the killers were midgets. Titles (to the best of my memory) included "I'm Short, But You're Dead" and "Don't Step On My Toes, Or I'll Kill You!"
• Unfortunate Implications: The line "It must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your own." did not go down well with some adoption agencies, even though it's coming out of the mouth of the very manipulative Esther.